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2024 RTDNAC Awards Entry Rules

RTDNAC is pleased to announce its 2024 awards competition, recognizing the best of TV, radio and website work in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The entry period opens Saturday, June 1. The entry deadline is 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 23 for professionals and 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16 for students.

Enter now for the Professional Division via this link

Enter now for the Student Division via this link

Payment for multiple entries at one time can be done via our payment platform

Note: News Director of the Year entries do not require payment and can be submitted via this link.

Click on a tab below for more information.

Rules

Contest Rules

  • The competition is open to all stations and individuals in the following divisions:
    • Radio: All stations in North Carolina and South Carolina.
    • TV I: Stations with 20 or more full-time employees operating in these markets: Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Raleigh-Durham, Greenville-Spartanburg, Asheville and Columbia. Public television also competes in this division. Stations in these markets with fewer than 20 full-time news staff have the option to compete in Division II.
    • TV II: All other stations. News departments in these markets with news staffs of 20 or more full-time employees have the option of competing in Division I.
    • Student: Colleges and universities in either North Carolina or South Carolina.
  • The entry period opens Saturday, June 1. The entry deadline is 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 23 for professionals and 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16 for students.
  • Entries received after the deadline will be disqualified.
  • The entry fee is $30 per entry for professionals and $15 per entry for students. Anyone entering the competition becomes a member of RTDNAC for one year, beginning Oct. 1.
  • For entries to be considered in the competition, online payments must be made by the deadline. Mailed payments must be postmarked by the deadline.
  • Refunds will not be issued for any reason.
  • Entries must have aired between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
  • Simulcast material must be entered under the medium of origination.
  • There is no dedicated category for stories covering COVID-19. Related entries should be entered in the category it best fits.
  • An entry may only be submitted in one category. Entries submitted in multiple categories will be disqualified.
  • A station may submit no more than two entries about the same news topic in a single category.  More than two entries about the same topic in a single category will be disqualified. (This does not apply to individual achievement awards.) 
  • There is no limit on the number of entries a station or school may submit in each category.
  • Unless otherwise noted, only one URL may be submitted per entry in the designated space on the online entry form. Valid URLs must be from either a station website or streaming social media site (e., YouTube, Vimeo or SoundCloud), and be set for public viewing. Entries with invalid URLs or URLs that cannot be viewed by judges will be disqualified.
  • Entries with links that might require media to be downloaded to a computer (e.g., Dropbox, MP3s, WMVs, etc.) will be disqualified.
  • For station awards, entries must be in the name of the station/cable/network. Up to five contributors’ names may be listed on station awards. Individual achievement awards should be in the name of the individual.
  • Unless otherwise noted, any supporting material for an award entry is limited to one page.
  • An entry’s total run-time should not exceed the time limit associated with each category. Entries that exceed the maximum run-time will be disqualified.
  • Unless otherwise noted, entries may not be edited for any other reason other than to remove commercial breaks.
  • Submitted entries – including the description and URL – may be changed only by the entrant until the deadline. No changes, including those to URLs, are allowed after the deadline.
  • Judges have the discretion not to declare a first- or second-place winner.
  • The identity of the judges is confidential.
  • All awards are subject to the approval of the RTDNAC Board of Directors.
  • Winners will be announced at the RTDNAC Convention and Awards Luncheon in the fall.
  • Winners not claiming their awards at the luncheon may request their awards be shipped to them at a cost of $10 per award. Awards not claimed after three months may be discarded.
  • The RTDNAC Awards Committee has the authority to interpret competition rules.

Submitting Payments

Online Credit Card Payments

Payments using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover or PayPal may be made online up until the deadline using the online payment form.

Checks or Money Orders

Checks or money orders, made payable to RTDNAC, along with one copy of each email confirmation (received upon submitting the entry) must be postmarked by the deadline and mailed to:

RTDNAC Awards Entry
Elon University
2850 Campus Box
Elon, NC 27244

NOTE: Entries associated with payments not received or postmarked by the deadline will not be accepted.