New York Festivals Storytellers Gala Announces 2026 Radio Award Winners; CBC/Radio-Canada Named Broadcaster of the Year

2026 Grand Awards Honor Sea of Lies, Uncuffed Season 4, and Wolf Valley

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, May 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New York Festivals Radio Awards Storytellers Gala proudly announces the 2026 Radio Awards winners.

Engaging storytelling and audio innovation took center stage at the 2026 Storytellers Gala virtual event, celebrating the achievements of global creators in radio and podcasting.

Innovative audio storytelling from creators across six continents was evaluated by the New York Festivals 2026 Radio Awards Grand Jury. This year’s winners reflect the impressive range of the medium, spanning audiobooks, podcasts, drama, documentaries, breaking news, entertainment, and music, and showcasing work from global networks, production companies, and independent storytellers.

Broadcaster of the Year

For the second consecutive year, CBC/Radio-Canada has been named New York Festivals Radio Awards Broadcaster of the Year, recognized for consistently compelling and thought-provoking storytelling across its networks. Its exceptional audio work earned multiple top honors, including several Gold Towers and one of the competition’s prestigious 2026 Grand Awards.

CBC’s investigative podcast documentary series Understood was honored with a Gold Tower for its four-part series Understood: Who Broke the Internet. In the series, Cory Doctorow explores the concept of “enshittification,” tracing the internet’s decline from the optimism of 1990s tech utopianism to today’s more fragmented digital landscape.

Mainstreet PEI: Kindergarten to Grade 12 – Lessons in Life earned a Gold Tower for its long-term documentary series by CBC Radio One. Led by CBC reporter Sarah Keaveny Vos, the project began in 2013 and follows a group of students from their first day of kindergarten through their high school graduation in June 2025.

Additional Gold Tower winning work includes The Outlaw Ocean Podcast Season 2 (The Outlaw Ocean Project & CBC Podcasts). Silver Towers include The Current / Audio Doc Unit – Seven Months with Makayla, Pure Hell: How Cocaine Exploded in Fentanyl’s Shadow, Judd Apatow – Q with Tom Power and See You in Court. Radio-Canada took home Silver Tower for Céline Dion: l'amour à D'eux.

CBC also earned twelve Finalist Awards, and Radio-Canada earned six Finalist Awards, demonstrating the network’s ongoing excellence across multiple formats and themes.

"To be named Broadcaster of the Year once again by the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Awards is an immense honour and a great source of pride for everyone at CBC/Radio-Canada. As Canada’s national public broadcaster, we’re committed to sharing the authentic stories of communities from across the country on all of our platforms. The wide range of our honoured audio productions, in both English and French, is a testament to our ability to speak to diverse audiences and to address a wide variety of subjects - from Céline Dion's unifying music to complex and engaging stories like those explored in our podcasts Sea of Lies and The Outlaw Ocean. This distinction, along with all the individual award winners and finalists in different categories, also reflects the vitality and excellence of our audio and radio productions. Congratulations to all our teams whose exceptional talent is celebrated in this way." — Natacha Mercure, General Manager, Audio and Radio, Radio-Canada

2026 Grand Awards

Sea of Lies, CBC, What's the Story Sounds - Narrative/Documentary Podcast was awarded the Grand Tower. Sea of Lies tells the true story of Albert Walker, a Canadian con artist whose trail of destruction stretches from rural Canada to the far corners of coastal England. Hailed as “expertly produced and sound designed” by The New Yorker and “a masterclass in storytelling” by The Australian, the podcast unspools an almost unbelievable story of fraud, detective work, murder, and the human impact of deception. The series earned year-end recognition across the UK, including honors from The Times, Apple, Amazon Music, and Spotify.

Uncuffed Season 4, KALW Public Media - Social Issues Documentary was honored with the Grand Tower. Greg Eskridge was incarcerated for 30 years, most recently at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Uncuffed is a project by KALW Public Media in which incarcerated producers collaborate with professional journalists to create audio stories from start to finish. In January 2026, Greg Eskridge became co-program director of Uncuffed. The podcast traces his journey from a child who ran away from abuse and lived in a car to becoming a leader in one of the country’s preeminent prison journalism projects.

Wolf Valley, Almost Tangible - Entertainment: Drama Program was awarded the Grand Tower. Wolf Valley is a five-episode eco-thriller set in Norway, conceived and written by writer-director Charlotte Melén. This multi-layered series blends murder mystery, police procedural, and psychological drama, set against the dramatic Norwegian landscape and infused with Norse mythology.

2026 Lifetime Achievement Award

Distinguished news leader Stephen Capus, President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and former President of NBC News, was honored with the New York Festivals 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award. NYF recognizes prominent industry leaders whose accomplishments and contributions have advanced their field and made a lasting impact on the industry. Over the course of an accomplished 20-year career at NBC, including nearly eight years as President of NBC News, Capus oversaw global editorial operations and guided coverage of global events.

2026 National Press Club Award

Dear Rachelle (News Corp Australia/True Crime Australia) Investigative Journalism Podcast was awarded the 2026 National Press Club Award. This true crime multimedia series uncovered new evidence, prompted police action, and mobilized Australians to help solve the 2001 murder of 23-year-old Rachelle Childs. The National Press Club Award honors the highest-scoring news program across the Breaking News Story Coverage, Continuing News Story Coverage, Nonfiction Series, and News Podcast categories.

Entertainment

Entertainment entries in comedy, drama, miniseries, and sound art captivated listeners and earned top honors. Award-winning content includes double Gold-winner The Skewer in Comedy Program and Sound Art by Unusual Productions. Additional Gold Tower winners include Wolf Valley (Almost Tangible), Waiting for Waiting For Godot (Dora Productions), and VOX (Sveriges Radio).

Documentary

Documentary entries demonstrated excellence through compelling storytelling across a wide range of topics and genres. Gold-winning work includes Paul McCartney: Beatles And Beyond (Magnum Opus Broadcasting), Searching for a German Soldier Father – Riitta’s Story (Sveriges Radio Finska), Fantasy Park: Fifty Years On (Unusual Productions), Looking for No Man's Land (Caroline Steel & Florian Bohr), The Network (Futuro Media Group), Les Enfermé.es (Making Waves), Le loro prigioni – Their prisons (Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana), and Division Street Revisited (Mary & Melissa Productions).

Podcast

Podcast entries were in the spotlight earning Gold across a wide range of categories. Entries spanned Culture & The Arts, Documentary, Music, News, Serialized Podcasts, Sports, and Technology. ESPN’s Chasing Basketball Heaven (ESPN) earned double Gold Towers and a Silver. Additional Gold winners include Kate Moss presents “David Bowie: Changeling” (Zinc Media), Eras: Phil Collins (Cup & Nuzzle), Folk on Foot: Goblin Band in the City of London (Natalie Steed), Expanse: Nowhere Man (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney), What’s the Story Sounds), The Indo Daily (The Irish Independent), and The Poppy Day Bomb (The Times & Sunday Times).

Craft

Excellence in original music, sound, and editing was recognized with Gold Towers, with honors awarded to Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues (Blade Arthouse Media), The Skewer (Unusual Productions), The Pack (ORF Austrian Broadcasting Corporation), and Into the Sun (SRF Swiss Radio and Television).

Journalist Marc Fennell was awarded a Gold Tower in the On-Air Talent / Program Host category for the investigative documentary podcast Corked by Audible.

The New York Festivals Radio Awards legacy provides a showcase for world-class storytellers from around the globe. Since its inception in 1957, the competition has celebrated innovation and excellence in broadcast audio content across all genres and platforms, evolving with industry advancements and global trends.

All entries in the 2026 competition were screened online by NYF’s Radio Awards international Grand Jury of 200+ producers, directors, writers, and other creative media professionals from around the globe. Submissions were evaluated against a comprehensive set of criteria, including production values, creativity, content presentation, direction, writing, achievement of purpose, and audience suitability.

New York Festivals announced the NYF Radio Awards winning entries at the Storytellers Gala on May 21 at 6 p.m. EDT, in a virtual event featuring global highlights, winners’ acceptance speeches, and commentary from some of the industry’s most respected storytellers. Visit the 2026 Radio Awards Winners’ Showcase: https://radiohome.newyorkfestivals.com/.

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Gayle Seminara Mandel
New York Festivals
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