RTÉ Radio
RTÉ Radio 1 Documentary wins International Best Documentary Award
RTÉ Radio 1 announced today that, ‘Millionaire’, an episode of the weekly documentary series Flux has won the Best Documentary Award at the Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago.
‘Millionaire’, produced by Ronan Kelly, tells the story of Roger Dowds, a Dublin man who overcame his shyness to enter the television quiz show, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and ended up winning £250,000. Over the course of the documentary the difficult twists and turns in Dowd’s life are revealed, alongside the inner strength and wit that helped Dowd to survive.
Congratulating Ronan on the award Ana Leddy, Head of RTÉ Radio 1, said
“’Millionaire’ reflected how a skilful radio producer such as Ronan Kelly can take an apparently ordinary story and unravel it to give radio listeners a rare insight into the thoughts, feelings and motivations of a very shy quiz contestant.”
Presenting producer Ronan Kelly with his prize at the awards’ ceremony in Chicago last Friday the Chair of the Judging Panel said;
“I was riveted the entire 27 minutes of this story, and it didn’t occur to me until after it was over to wonder why. … It’s an unusual, entertaining, utterly compelling listening experience, and Roger Dowds is one of the most charismatic painfully shy people you’ll ever encounter.”
Ronan Kelly is a producer with RTÉ Radio 1. He studied Communications at NIHE Dublin (later DCU) and began his career as a commercial video producer. He was an intern for Channel 13 in New York and for CNN in Atlanta and then came back to Ireland to resume his career. Kelly worked as a reporter for RTÉ television for three years before finally finding his niche as a radio producer. He has worked with RTÉ for 16 years.
This year the Third Coast International Audio Festival Competition attracted 258 entries from 12 different countries. Twenty-four judges gathered in Chicago in August to select the winning programmes for the Best Documentary, Best New Artist and Radio Impact awards. Ronan received the award at an awards’ ceremony in Chicago last Friday.
Listen to ‘Millionaire’, Programme 9 in the Flux series: www.rte.ie/radio1/flux
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Date: 1 November 2006
For further information please contact: Sarah (Hegarty) Martin, RTÉ Radio Press Office, Tel: 01 208 2312, Email: sarah.martin@rte.ie