Schoolboy jaunt scoops top award for RTÉ Radio

THE year is 1985 and two bored, skittish boys, aged 10 and 13, decide to skip school and hop on a DART train for a ride that will take them thousands of miles past their stop.

Keith and Noel managed to sneak free rides on trains, boats and planes to get from Dublin to Holyhead, down to London and then on to New York.

You couldn’t make it up.

RTÉ radio producers Paul Russell and Ronan Kelly didn’t have to. More than a quarter of a century after the event, their documentary, Don’t Go Far, captured the drama of the trip and helped RTÉ Radio win the Broadcaster of the Year prize at the 2011 New York Festivals Radio Awards.

From 183 finalists covering 26 countries, the grand jury selected RTÉ Radio as its overall winner. This is the first time in the festivals’ 54-year history that an Irish radio station has won broadcaster of the year.

The Grand Award went to RTÉ Radio 1 for Don’t Go Far.

“It is a fantastic honour,” said Mr Russell. “I couldn’t believe it. This is the first thing I have ever won. I remember the story at the time it happened and it was extraordinary, particularly so because the boys’ escapade happened shortly after the Air India disaster.”

RTÉ Radio programmes won a further 16 awards, including six for RTÉ Radio 1’s Drama on One, an award for RTÉ Lyric FM and an award for RTÉ Gold, one of RTÉ Radio’s seven digital services.

“It is a real achievement,” said Clare Duignan, managing director of RTÉ Radio.

“Not only do these awards confirm RTÉ Radio’s excellence in public broadcasting, they place RTÉ Radio among the greatest of our public broadcasting peers internationally.

“And the number of crafts which have been so richly rewarded — editing, writing, sound, narration and direction — reminds us that great crafted radio can only come from that elusive alchemy between skill, artistry and vision.”