Paul Coghlan takes out his third $20,000 Southern Cross Austereo Radio Writers Award

October 14 2016, 7:55 am | BY Martin Trevaskis | 4 Comments

Paul Coghlan, has won this year’s $20,000 Southern Cross Austereo Radio Writers Award. SCA Sales Director Noel Quick made the announcement at the presentation at Rambla On Swan last night.

Newly appointed as J Walter Thompson Perth creative director, Coghlan won with a track he wrote for REIWA while he was at Meerkats, titled Agent Finder: Non-Agent 2. It was one of three ads in a campaign, all of which made the top ten.

LISTEN TO THE WINNING SPOT

The win makes Coghlan only the second three-time winner of the Radio Writers Award, after Steve Browning.

The winning spot was produced by Brad Habib from Soundbyte, which was also Production Studio of the Year having produced 15 of this year’s 18 finalists.

As part of the prize, REIWA also wins $20,000 of value-added airtime on Mix 94.5 and/or hit92.9.

Prior to the announcement, Meerkats co-founder Mike Edmonds gave a brilliant tribute to legendary radio writer/producer Street Remley, who passed away recently. Remley is widely regarded as the ‘Godfather’ of radio advertising in Australia and had a major influence on many of Perth’s senior writers through his workshops.

This year was the 22nd time the Radio Writers Award has been presented and it remains the richest cash creative prize in Australia. Meerkats and Marketforce led the way with 5 finalists each, followed by 303 MullenLowe with 4, J Walter Thompson with 3 and The Brand Agency with 1.

After the monthly rounds were judged by senior local creatives, this year’s finalists were judged by DDB Australia Chief Creative Officer Ben Welsh, BMF Creative Director Cam Blackley and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Senior Writer Richard Shaw.

The SCA Radio Writers Award continues to be one of the premier awards for the Perth advertising industry. Previous winners have been:

1994 Mike Edmonds

1995 No award*

1996 Mat Garbutt

1997 Steve Browning

1998 Steve Browning

1999 Ron Samuel

2000 Malcolm MacLean

2001 Tom Martin

2002 Patrick Lennox

2003 Mike Edmonds

2004 Adam Barker