Coast to Coast coverage wins major radio award

Coast to Coast coverage wins major radio award

27 May 2015

Coverage of last year’s Coast to Coast won NZME the best sports story/event award at the recent New Zealand Radio Awards, beating coverage of the All Blacks end of year tour.

Christchurch sports journalist Brian Ashby was ‘delighted’ the NZME team of himself, Lesley Murdoch, James Sheehan, Gavin Searle, Adam Cooper, Russell Cryer and Tim Dyer beat off strong competition that also included NZME’s coverage of Warriors coach Matthew Elliott’s sacking.

“The Coast to Coast is technically extremely difficult and demanding to cover,” Ashby said. “The athletes take on difficult terrain and so do we, pushing our technical limits and capabilities to make the coverage happen. The 2014 event was broadcast on NZME’s dedicated sport platform Radio Sport, with reports on Newstalk ZB and across the iHeart Radio platform making the event coverage accessible to a worldwide audience for the first time.”

Ashby said it was an experienced and knowledgeable team and a combination of their efforts over a period of time, all focused on delivering the best coverage possible for the iconic event that really made the difference.

“The rewarding side for us is not just seeing the elite competitors, the Curries, Ussher’s, Gurneys and Simson’s all performing wonderfully, it’s the tremendous human interest stories, the weekend warriors battling against mortgages, time constraints with work and family commitments, that makes the event so relatable to so many people.”

Ashby stresses there’s something truly special about the Coast to Coast, saying there isn’t a sports event quite like it anywhere. “There’s so many varied elements as competitor’s start on one side of New Zealand and race to the other side. There’s no doubt it has a special place in New Zealand’s sporting heritage so to win an award with our coverage was very rewarding.”

Entries open for next year’s Coast to Coast on 1 June.

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