Meet Your Ozzie Iron Imager
• Benztown proudly announced that Brendan “BT” Tacey, Head of Production, Triple M Network, Southern Cross Austereo in Melbourne, Australia captured the prestigious title of “World’s Best Imager” on Friday, March 29, winning the high stakes 8th Annual Iron Imager competition at the Worldwide Radio Summit at Castaway in Burbank, CA. Tacey took on reigning Iron Imager Champion Sam Wickens, Assistant Audio Producer for Capital FM in London in a head-to-head live audio imaging competition presented annually by Benztown. Iron Imager is the first and only competition of its kind.
Tacey and Wickens demonstrated their world-class imaging skills by producing a promo on Thursday, March 28, for a format unannounced until the day of the live competition. This year’s format was Country. Both guys used hand-picked elements from several of Benztown’s 23 production libraries and an original script created by the Benztown team to create their promo in just 60 minutes.
Judges for 2019 Iron Imager were: Kelly “K3” Doherty, President, TheImagingHouse.com; Chárésé Frügé, LLC Talent Consultant/voice actor; Dan Kelly, Creative Services Director, WPLJ/New York; Bob Lawrence, VP of Programming, Saga Communications and the intelligent readers of the Benztown Imaging Blog.
Andreas Sannemann, CEO of Benztown, said, “Congrats to both the new Champion Brendan Tacey and also to Sam Wickens for their exceptional performance. The Iron Imager produces fantastic results and is a real highlight in the year of every imaging director and imaging lover worldwide.” Benztown President Dave “Chachi” Denes commented, “BT is a remarkable talent and epitomizes the skill, character and creativity of an Iron Imager Champion!”
Tacey added, “What an amazing experience to be a part of the Iron Imager Contest. I’m stoked to take the trophy back to Oz! Big thanks to Sam Wickens for being a great opponent and all round top bloke to hang out with for the week in L.A., and to the awesome Benztown team for creating this competition that highlights our little corner of the industry. I encourage other imaging producers the world over of all levels to have a crack at next year’s competition. You just never know… Can’t wait to be back there for Iron Imager 9!”
To hear BT’s winning promo, please visit: benztown.com/ironimager.
