Lancaster University’s television station, LA1:TV, was awarded the title of ‘Highly Commended’ in the ‘Best Factual’ category at the recent National Student Television Awards.
Their entry for this category was “a shortened edit of the second episode from ‘The LA1 Show’, focusing on the Lymphoma Awareness story that [they] ran at the beginning of the year” said station manager Will McDonagh who was “very happy and appreciative” of the award and feels that it is a “great way” to end his year as station manager, a position he will be stepping down from in Week 23.
The show focused on the story of cancer survivor Blair Ward and was produced by Will McDonagh and presented by Laura Johnson, Josh Dean and Abby Newbery.
Newbery pitched the story idea and met with students across campus to find out what they knew about the subject. She had this to say about the award: “it feels fantastic to know that something I helped work on not only won national recognition, but has also reached a much wider audience than I thought possible. Everyone at LA1:TV should feel proud, and a massive thanks to Blair Ward who was a pleasure to meet.”
The award for Highly Commended Station in the ‘Best Factual’ category was judged by Nick Shearman (BBC Commissioning Editor for Documentary & Factual) and James Laidler (Senior Producer BBC Breakfast) who commented on the “excellent presenting and interviews.”
LA1:TV took 14 members to the award ceremony to represent the 17 categories that they had entered, with the ceremony internet feed raising 7000 views on the night. McDonagh felt that the award ceremony was a great representation of “how much bigger student TV in general is becoming year on year.” He went on to say that his goal as station manager was to “represent LA1:TV successfully across campus,” which he feels they did, “but also to represent [LA1:TV] nationally, which [they] managed to do this weekend.”
He also expressed that, “overall it’s made a lot of the stress and hard work over the year worth it, and has made [him] incredibly proud of the LA1:TV team who have all developed so much this year – and hopefully next year they won’t come away empty handed and continue to get better and better!”
