Moscow-based Finam FM radio claimed on Tuesday to be the city's top broadcaster by scooping up a prize at the world's most prestigious radio broadcasting competition in New York.
“We have won because we are the best. It is a challenge to every Moscow radio station,” Finam FM production director Maxim Nikolsky said at a news conference, taking a dig at the station's 50-plus rivals in Moscow.
Finam FM's show “Tochka Otschyeta” (“Starting Point”) was runner-up in the Best Drama Special category of the New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Awards, handed out in late September. First place went to "All Is Calm," produced by American Public Media.
“It was a great challenge to send a Russian-language show to an American festival,” said Oleg Medvedev, editor-in-chief of the radio station, which only received the award statuette by mail last week.
He said the show's creators had aimed for the gold and were disappointed with second place but added: “I realize now, however, that our silver at an American festival is worth more than gold.”
“Starting Point,” which started airing in December 2008, gives pithy accounts of the lives of celebrities and famous people worldwide. The episode that scored the win in New York told the story of a Soviet-era Olympic champion, high jumper Valery Brumel.
Finam FM, which competed with entrants from 30 countries, became the first Russian radio station to win in 54 years of the award's history, although Channel One has scored a number of awards in a sister festival for television shows in recent years.
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