University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Director of Radio Services Randall Davidson has been named to the Grand Jury of the New York International Radio Festival. In this role, he will evaluate radio productions from around the world and recommend the best for honors from the New York organization.
Davidson is one of only 81 members of the Grand Jury worldwide and one of only 12 in the U.S. The members are broadcast executives, producers, consultants and educators from 19 different countries. These professionals evaluate radio productions in 136 categories ranging from news to public affairs to cultural programs to radio formats.
Preliminary evaluations are currently underway and finalists from this round will be resubmitted to the Grand Jury members for final award consideration. The awards will be presented in New York on June 23, 2014.
During last year’s competition, UW Oshkosh’s WRST-FM took the bronze award in the student category for best documentary. The long-form segment on the plight of the homeless in Chicago was produced by RTF student Brian Urbanek for Davidson’s Advanced Radio Production class, and the work became the basis for a short documentary film. Urbanek currently works as a videographer for WDJT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee.
Davidson has been with the radio-TV-film program since 2008 as a lecturer and director of radio services. He joined UWO after 18 years as a news producer and news anchor at Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison.
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