Let’s Get Ready To Imaaaaaaage!
• The field has been set — Benztown announced that UK audio imaging pro Sam Wickens has been selected as the finalist in the 7th Annual Iron Imager Contest, the international radio imaging contest where audio production professionals compete for the prestigious title of World’s Best Imager. Wickens (right) hails from England, where he is the Audio Production Assistant for Capital FM in Hornchurch, Essex (Greater London), and he will be competing against your reigning 2017 Iron Imager Champion Brad Leask (left), Network Imaging Producer for NOVA Entertainment in Sydney, Australia.
Leask and Wickens will go head-to-head in a live competition on Thursday, May 3 during the Worldwide Radio Summit at the W Hollywood Hotel. Both guys will demonstrate their world-class imaging skills by producing an original imaging piece for a format unannounced until the day of the competition, using elements from one of Benztown’s 23 production libraries and voiceover talent roster, paired with a script from the Benztown team. The 2018 Iron Imager will be declared at 10:30am PT on Friday, May 4.
Dave “Chachi” Denes, President of Benztown, said, “This UK-Aussie audio challenge has all the makings of an epic event — two of the world’s cutting-edge imaging professionals battling it out live in Hollywood for the coveted Iron Imager belt! Brad and Sam are instrumental to the winning sounds of their respective brands. We are honored to bring them to the U.S. to showcase and celebrate their talent and the power of the world’s best audio imaging. We also thank all the incredible imagers who threw their hats in the ring this year and are pleased to honor the other top contenders who raise the quality bar for this competition every year.”
Benztown also recognized Iron Imager semi-finalists who captured Honorable Mention status in this year’s competition. Those high-performing semi-finalists are: Jonathan Young, Audio Producer, Global, London; Brendan Tacey, National Head of Production, Southern Cross Austereo, Melbourne; Jordana Klein, Imaging Producer and Voice Talent, Toronto; Chris Longman, Imaging Producer, Global, London; Ryan Drean, Worldwide Voiceovers and Audio Production, Dallas, and Sergey Zelentsov, Head of Production, Europa Plus, Moscow.
To hear some of Wickens’ work, visit: https://soundcloud.com/spwickens. To hear some of Leask’s work, visit: https://soundcloud.com/brad_leask. To hear the submissions of the top Iron Imager 2018 competitors, please visit: https://soundcloud.com/benztownradio/sets/iron-imager.
