CBC's Age of Persuasion wins in New York

CBC Radio's Age of Persuasion, a weekly program exploring the world of advertising, has won five awards, including a Grand Prize at the 2011 New York Festivals International Radio Awards.

CBC Radio programs from across the country took home 26 awards at the ceremony Monday night. Productions from 35 countries competed in the annual awards.

Age of Persuasion, hosted by Terry O'Reilly, took home a Grand Prize in the business and consumer affairs category for an episode titled "AOP Goes to the Movies," which featured analysis of movie trailers, including Alfred Hitchcock's pitch for The Birds.

That episode also won a Gold prize in the business and consumer affairs category and a Silver for writing, while another episode titled "Speed Bumps," won Bronze and Silver prizes in the same categories. O'Reilly's Pirate Radio was named production company of the year.

One of the public broadcaster's most prominent wins was a United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) award to The Sunday Edition for "Habtom's Path," about a young Eritrean refugee who hanged himself in Halifax while facing deportation by Immigration Canada.

National daily news show World at Six took a Gold in the breaking news category for "Bangkok Bloodshed" about protests that involved spreading human blood held in Thailand last March. 

Vancouver's The Early Edition earned a Gold in the health and medical category for a look back at Dr. Peter Jepson-Young's 1990 chronicle of his own death from AIDS in "AIDS Then & Now." 

Other CBC wins included:

• Silver, human relations: The Current, "The Caregiver."
• Silver, education: Quirks & Quarks, "Top Ten Unanswered Questions in The Universe."
• Silver, ongoing news: Radio News Calgary, "Power, Parties and Paranoia at ENMAX."
• Silver, history: ReVision Quest, "Will the Truth Bring Reconciliation?"
• Silver, culture and arts: The Sunday Edition, "Watch My Stick, Please."
• Silver, regularly scheduled talk program:  Writers & Company, "John Le Carre Interview."
• Bronze, regularly scheduled drama: Backbencher, "Nose Ring/Second Chance/Cutting Loose."
• Bronze, narration: C'est La Vie, "Malcolm."
• Bronze, health and medical: The Current, "From The Heart."
• Bronze, news promotion:  The Current, "October Crisis."
• Bronze, history: The Sunday Edition, "The Women Are Coming."

Another five programs received finalist certificates.