BRAD LEASK WINS IRON IMAGER VI

LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 8, 2017— Brad Leask, Network Imaging Producer, NOVA Entertainment, Melbourne, Australia, captured the title of World’s Best Imager on Friday, May 5, 2017, winning the high stakes 6th Annual Iron Imager competition at the Worldwide Radio Summit held at the W Hollywood Hotel. Leask took on fellow Aussie, 2016 Iron Imager Champion Sideshow Mike Andersen, Triple M Imaging, Southern Cross Austereo of Sydney, Australia, in the head-to-head live audio imaging competition presented annually by Benztown, which took home the honor of Best Domestic VO/Imaging Production in Radio from the 2017 Worldwide Radio Summit Awards, also presented on Friday at the W Hollywood Hotel. Benztown is a global leader in radio imaging, voiceover services, production libraries, programming, and jingles and one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. Iron Imager is the first and only competition of its kind.

In the Iron Imager competition, Leask and Andersen demonstrated their world-class imaging skills by producing a cash giveaway promo on Thursday, May 4, for a format unannounced until the day of the live competition. This year’s format was Rhythmic CHR. The Iron Imager finalists 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 2017 Iron Imager were:

Ken Charles, Program Director, KNX 1070, Los Angeles, CA

Cat Thomas, Vice President, CHR, Cumulus Media

Benztown Imaging Blog Readers

Dave “Chachi” Denes, Benztown President, said: ” “I often think to myself and hear others say that we don’t see a lot of millennials interested in working in our medium. At just 23, Brad has proven that not only is Gen Y interested, they’ve got some incredible chops!”

Iron Imager 2017 Champion Brad Leask said: “Wow, what an awesome experience! It was a huge honor competing against Sidey. He is a great guy and we had so much fun together. A massive thanks to the Benztown team for having me out to L.A. and for shining a light on imaging people all over the world. What a crew! Bring on next year.”

2017 Iron Imager Champion Brad Leask has been NOVA Entertainment’s Network Imaging Producer for the past three years. While undertaking an advanced Diploma of Sound Production at RMIT, Brad became part of NOVA Entertainment’s Internship Program. In February 2014, Brad joined that company as an Imaging Producer and within 12 months had developed his skills to take on his current role crafting the imagery for NOVA Entertainment’s Nova and smoothfm networks, Star 104.5 and FIVEaa.

Title defender Mike Andersen has been pushing buttons and writing great creative at Australia’s top rock station, Triple M in Sydney since 1995. He worked with breakfast team Andrew Denton and Amanda Keller in the 90s, before moving into the imaging slot. His style is a quirky mix of rock riffs and clever, subtle scripts. In additon to winning Iron Imager in 2016, he’s managed to rack up a record 20 Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRA’s) for his production. In Australia, Sidey is also a well known voiceover artist, lending his voice to national campaigns for Qantas, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Mitsubishi, Energizer, Coca Cola, Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, Virgin Mobile and many more, including being the station voice for TV networks Channel 7 and FX.

Learn more about Iron Imager, here: https://www.benztown.com/ironimager.