Radiomakers, start your engines: Met Radio’s 24-Hour Radio Challenge is BACK!
Seasoned audio producers and total newbies alike are invited to join in the challenge. Flex your creative muscles, win fabulous prizes, and join in the fun!
Here’s how it works: at 10am EST on the morning of March 2nd, 2024, you’ll receive an email revealing the top-secret theme. From then, you’ll have 24 hours to brainstorm, write, report, record, and edit a three to six-minute-long radio piece based on the theme. It can be nonfiction or fiction, serious or funny, contain one voice or many – it’s all up to you!
Submissions will be judged by our wonderful panel of judges, with the winners airing on Met Radio and picking up some great prizes to boot. (Scroll down to learn more about both judges + prizes!)
You can sign up solo or as part of a team, and registration is open to anyone anywhere in the country. Teams are capped at four. If you’re based in Toronto, Met Radio will be making studio space and recording equipment available for participants to borrow. Hindenburg is generously offering all of our participants 6-month Hindenburg PRO licences (with 50 hours of free transcription).
Check out the final pieces!
Congratulations to this year’s winners, and all the fabulous teams that participated!
The Prizes
All prizes are one per team member
1st Place: Ailey Yamamoto
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Met Radio crew neck sweaters
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RODE MINI Studio Condenser USB Microphones from Long & McQuade
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Issue 01 of Good Tape Magazine
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12-month Hindenburg PRO licences (with 50 hours of free transcription)
2nd Place: Team Stop Drop and Roll (Delphine Winton, Micah Chu, and Sarra Gillani)
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Met Radio t-shirts
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Passes to Women From Space festival
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12-month Hindenburg PRO licences (with 50 hours of free transcription)
3rd Place: Team Mixologism (Shannah Williamson and Natasha Gulej)
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Met Radio mugs
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12-month Hindenburg PRO licences (with 50 hours of free transcription)
Our Judges
Arman Aghbali
Arman Aghbali is a former Met Radio board member and co-host of Built To Play. You can tune in Mondays at 1pm to rebroadcasts of the show. Arman has been at the CBC since 2015, first at Spark and Metro Morning, before moving to the CBC News’ Trending team. In 2018, he joined Tapestry, bringing a focus on identity and technology. He’s now a producer at The Current. In 2022 he became the Director of New Members and Precarious Workers for the Canadian Media Guild.
Chris Berube
Chris Berube is a senior producer at the podcast 99% Invisible. Recently, he edited the second season of Articles of Interest (Radiotopia). He’s also worked at Slate Magazine, the CBC and the 30 for 30 podcast at ESPN. Chris has lost at the Webby Awards six times, and with any luck, he will one day be the losingest person in Webby history.
Emily Chiarvesio
Emily ChiarvesioEmily studied Media, Information and Technoculture at Western University, and holds a diploma in Sound Design and Production from George Brown College. Developing roots in the campus-community radio sector since 2016, she has hosted several music programs at three stations, produced spoken word programs, podcasts, and interviewed musicians and creators about their work. Emily was the program director at CJAM FM in Windsor-Detroit where she provided and facilitated opportunities for underrepresented voices to create content for broadcast and streaming, and formerly sat on the National Campus-Community Radio Association Board of Directors. She has been a volunteer at Met Radio for the past three years, hosting Tea & Jams, and further promotes Canadian music as a juror for the Polaris Music Prize.
Radio Legends (Winners of the 2022 Radio Challenge!)
Aliyaan Amlani-Kurji, Helen Chen, Aryaan Kanji, and Sofia Shahbazzadeh are 3rd and 4th year RTA Media Production students at Toronto Metropolitan University who have a passion for all things audio, especially radio! Last school year their team, the Radio Legends, won first place in Met Radio’s 2022 24-Hour Radio Challenge, and they can’t wait to hear all the cool audio projects the new teams come up with this year!
Our Sponsors
Long and McQuade has been serving Canada’s musicians since 1956, when it opened its first location in Toronto. Since then, the company has grown to include over 100 locations from coast to coast, making it the country’s largest musical instruments retailer. Besides sales, it offers in-store financing; daily, weekly and monthly rentals; music lessons, and online shopping at long-mcquade.com. After over almost 70 years, the company is still 100% Canadian, and owned by the Long family. We appreciate their generous donation of RODE USB mics for our grand prize, and encourage you to check them out for all your audio gear rental needs!
Good Tape is a new print magazine that captures the conversations happening in the audio industry. Created by podcasters for podcasters, it features journalism and cultural criticism that answers the industry’s most pressing questions, while also asking more. All members of the winning team will receive a copy of Issue 01, or you can pick up your own here!
Women from Space is a festival that celebrates and amplifies the art of visionary women working in exploratory and experimental musical traditions during International Women’s Day Weekend in Toronto. This year’s festival is happening at 918 Bathurst from March 8th – 10th, and we’re grateful to them for donating festival passes for all of our second place winners!
Hindenburg is a professional-grade audio editing software that’s intuitive, reliable, and designed to meet the unique needs of audio storytellers. Hindenburg PRO has every tool and feature you need to record, transcribe, edit, and master professional spoken word recordings – and all radio challenge winners will receive a free 12-month subscription! Hindenburg is also kindly offering 6-month licenses to all challenge entrants.
