Announcing KCRW’s top 10 Radio Race finalists

If you’ve never stayed up for 24 hours straight to make radio, you’re missing out. KCRW’s 6th Annual 24-Hour Radio Race had 250 teams participate this year. We received submissions from all over the world, from North Carolina to Hawaii and Australia to Israel.

We unveiled this year’s theme — The New Normal — at 10 a.m. PST Saturday, August 25. And that was all our participants needed to make something great overnight. In the end, we got more than 150 completed submissions and today, we’re announcing the top ten finalists (in no particular order).

We encourage you to listen and check back with us next week when we announce the winners!

Our panel of audio industry judges — Vanessa Lowe, host of Nocturne, Jenna Weiss-Berman, co-founder of Pineapple Street Media, Sam Sanders, host of NPR’s It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, Kathy Tu, host of WNYC’s Nancy and Madeleine Brand, host of KCRW’s Press Play — are busy scoring these pieces.

We’ll be announcing the top three, plus the winners of our Bodies Award and our Social Butterfly Award September 12. In the meantime, have a listen and share your favorites on social media using the hashtag #RadioRace.

Thank you to our sponsors who helped make this year’s Radio Race happen: the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and our official AI Transcription partner Trint.

The top ten finalists will receive a one-year talent directory listing from AIR and a one-year membership from PRX. The top three finalists will receive a one-year membership from AIR. Plus, they’ll get cash prizes and their pieces will be broadcast on KCRW.

Still want more? You can listen to all 150 submissions via our Soundcloud playlist right here.

And go back and relive some of the best moments of the race here:

WE READY. #radiorace#TeamSIS 👯‍♀️💤📻 @brieripleypic.twitter.com/QbH6WQTKAS

— rachel stevens ⚡️ (@rlmstevens) August 25, 2018

#radiorace expectation vs. reality #rcrr2018pic.twitter.com/jqWT5znlLA

— Kate Howard (@JournoKateH) August 26, 2018

Team #VocalFries is on the move! @IPPkcrw#RadioRacepic.twitter.com/BYQgRFFf09

— Afi Yellow-Duke (@ayellowduchess) August 25, 2018

A new day in #London. For breakfast: A healthy dose of clarinet. #RadioRace#Music#SundayFundaypic.twitter.com/BexoQymrJF

— AudioAGoGo (@audioagogo) August 26, 2018

Resting editor face #RadioRacepic.twitter.com/mlqigt6ehT

— larj media (@larjmedia) August 26, 2018