BU student wins Gold Charles Parker Prize for BIRSt radio piece

Mair, a current MA Radio Production student, has won this year’s Gold Charles Parker Prize for her short piece, Winterswimming.

The Charles Parker Prize was created in April 2004 by BU’s Centre for Broadcasting History Research group in memory of the world famous radio features producer who originally hailed from Bournemouth. It is an annual award open to students studying Radio at Further or Higher Education establishments throughout the UK.

The prize seeks to award features that display the most creative use of radio. It also seeks to commend work which captures an essence of Charles Parker’s own work, such as story-led documentaries that bring life to the stories and concerns of everyday people via creative radio production.

Mair’s feature focused on a group of winter swimmers who are part of the Hampstead Heath men’s swimming pond. It consisted of interviews where they discussed things such as what it is they get out of winter swimming and how it provides a good social setting.

Judges praised Winterswimming, calling it ‘a beautifully crafted feature, seamlessly edited and mixed which operated at many levels’ as well as stating that it was ‘head and shoulders above the competition’ and ‘good enough to broadcast’.

Mair’s award-winning feature can be heard on BIRSt’s website here.

• BIRSt
• Charles Parker Prize website
• BA (Hons) Radio
• MA Radio Production