Press Release: The Moth Wins a Peabody

Emily posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 | Blog, Press Releases

We were thrilled to get notified yesterday that The Moth Radio Hour has received a 2010 Peabody Award. Our joint press release with our partners at The Moth and Atlantic Public Media is below, along with the video trailer for our new season of The Moth Radio Hour, opening May 1st.

The Moth Radio Hour is thrilled and honored to receive a 70th Annual Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media for 2010. The Moth Radio Hour is a production of The Moth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to live storytelling. It is presented by PRX (Public Radio Exchange), and produced by Jay Allison and Viki Merrick of Atlantic Public Media.

“Storytelling, likely the oldest art, is revered and reinvigorated by this hour for everyday raconteurs,” write the Peabody judges.

Since its 2009 debut, The Moth Radio Hour has been an instant success, airing on more than 200 public radio stations and delighting listeners across the United States. It is one of an impressive 18 public media productions to win a Peabody this year.

“Just like our live shows, The Moth Radio Hour connects people everywhere through stories of bravery, wit, and humor,” said Joan Firestone, Executive Director of The Moth.

The Moth Radio Hour is a powerful selection of stories from The Moth’s live performance programs: The Moth Mainstage where celebrities appear alongside unique voices from all walks of life; The Moth’s StorySLAM competitions, which are open to all and rapidly expanding to cities across the country; and The Moth’s community outreach program, MothShop, which brings workshops to people whose stories would otherwise go unheard. The Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating.

“The Moth Radio Hour is the realization of my ten-year-long dream to bring The Moth to public radio,” said Catherine Burns, Artistic Director of The Moth. “We have long felt that radio was the perfect medium for our stories, and we are touched by the generous response from listeners and stations.”

The Moth Radio Hour, hailed as “brilliant and quietly addictive” by London’s Guardian, features old-fashioned storytelling on modern themes by diverse raconteurs who develop and shape their stories with The Moth’s directors. The Moth organization was founded in 1997 by the novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, where moths were attracted to lights on the porch while he and his friends told tales. Since then, The Moth has presented more than three thousand stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide.

“I love the feeling of The Moth. You can feel the risk each storyteller takes, getting up before us to recount something spellbinding and real. It makes you recognize how rare it is to hear truly honest, vulnerable voices on the airwaves,” says Jay Allison, a veteran radio producer now with six Peabodys to his credit.

“Public radio at its best connects compelling stories to communities to make a difference. We are incredibly proud that Peabody recognizes The Moth Radio Hour‘s excellence, and can’t wait to bring more of it to millions of listeners,” says Jake Shapiro, CEO of PRX.

The Moth Radio Hour is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Moth, Atlantic Public Media, and PRX congratulate all the winners of this illustrious prize.

For more information, visit www.themoth.org, www.prx.org/themoth, and www.atlantic.org.

Tags: Emily