2025 48-Hour Audio Competition Rules | BEA - The Broadcast Education Association
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48-Hour Audio #BEAudioStories

Competition Rules

Questions

Direct all questions to J-D Boyle

Email:

  1. Times and Dates
  • The BEASMC 48-hour Audio Stories Competition (“Competition”) is open to teams

(hereinafter “teams,” “groups” or “Entrants”) from BEA Student Media Clubs (BEASMC)

chapters. Each BEA Student Media Club may have multiple teams participating in the

competition.

  • The BEASMC 48-hour Audio Stories Competition will occur between 12:00 p.m. Local Time

on Friday, April 11 and Sunday, April 13, at 12:00 p.m. Local Time. This is the “Official

#BEAudioStories Time Period”.

  • BEASMC teams that wish to participate must submit a team application to the BEASMC

Audio 48 organizers by 11:59 p.m. EST, Wednesday, April 9th .

  • The participating group/team must complete its audio story in time to upload it to the

competition site on Sunday, April 13rd by 6:00 p.m. local time.

  • Only works that meet the deadline will be eligible to win the competition.

Teams providing late submissions are advised to email with an explanation

of reasons for the late submission.

All audios from each campus will be judged by a BEASMC peer-review panel, with an

announcement of the winner taking place in April 2025.

  1. Creative Work

❏ ALL CREATIVE WORK MUST BE DONE WITHIN THE “Official #BEAudioStories Time

Period”. “Creative work” is defined as:

  • Writing the script
  • Rehearsing & Narration
  • Editing
  • Sound Design
  • Mixdown
  • Exporting media in a form for submission to BEASMC.

III. Pre-Competition Work

❏ The only work to begin prior to the “Official #BEAudioStories Time Period” is:

  • Organizing Crew
  • Organizing Cast
  • Securing Equipment
  1. Kickoff

❏ Teams from BEA Student Media Clubs that wish to participate must submit a team

application via the BEASMC Audio Stories submission site by 11:59 p.m. EST, Wednesday,

April 9th .

❏ The assignment email will be sent to the email address provided by the team captain on the

entry form.

  1. Content Requirements

❏ Teams must submit AUDIO STORIES. Stories are “accounts of imaginary or real people

and events told for entertainment.”

❏ In order for an audio story to qualify for the competition, each submission must

address/include the following:

– Each group will be assigned randomly a topic for its audio story (ie. Comedy, Sci-Fi,

Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Crime)

You will receive more information on the points listed above, as well as upload instructions by 12:00

p.m. (your local time) on Friday, April 11st .

VII. Student Status

❏ All members of the production crew must be students at the BEA Student Media Clubs

institution.

  • Any actors in the audio don’t have to be affiliated with the University. However,

these actors still count as team members.

VIII. Team Size

❏ Each team must have a minimum of three members in order to be eligible to compete in the

#BEAudioStories competition. A maximum of five members will also be enforced. All

members must be listed on the competition registration form before the start of the

competition.

  1. Recording Device Use

❏ Any type of recording device may be used.

  1. Music/Sound

❏ Participating groups may use music/sound effects.

  1. Total Running Time

❏ The finished piece must be a minimum of three (3) minutes in duration, and within a

maximum of five (5) minutes in duration, not including end credits. (In other words, the

official running time begins after the required slates and ends prior to the end credits. The

required slates and the end credits do not count towards the minimum time of three (3)

minutes. The audio story may not be longer than five (5) minutes.)

XII. Credits/Slates

❏ OPENING CREDITS: Some audios start with opening credits. These are not encouraged,

but if you use them, opening credits are considered to be part of the audio, and therefore

count within the maximum.

❏ END CREDITS: Credits at the end of each audio are limited to a maximum of 60 seconds.

The 60 seconds is considered additional to the length of the audio. That is, the doc/story

may be five (5) minutes long, with an additional 60 seconds of credits, for a total running

time of six (6) minutes. The end credits must include the words: “This audio was made for

BEASMC 48-hour Audio Stories Competition, Spring 2025.”

XIII. Submission Requirements

❏ Submissions must be uploaded by each team to the submission site.

❏ Notes on submissions:

  • We recommend that you make sound levels relatively even throughout your audio.

(If your audio has uneven sound or sound that peaks, it may be modified to protect

the playback equipment.)

  • Only those audio documentaries submitted prior to or at the deadline will be eligible

for winning in the Competition.

XIV. Original Content

❏ To be eligible for the competition, Entries must be the original work of those persons

comprising the Entrant; must not infringe third-parties’ rights; must be suitable for

publication (i.e., may not contain obscene or indecent material); must not contain

defamatory statements about any person, company, organization or entity; must not invade

privacy or other rights of any person, company or entity; must not in any other way violate

applicable laws and regulations; and must not contain any copyrighted elements (other than

as owned one or more members of the participating group Entrant). Entries containing

prohibited or inappropriate content as determined by BEASMC 48-hour Audio Stories

organizers in their sole discretion, will be disqualified. BEASMC Audio Stories reserves the

right to make the final determination as to which entries are eligible.

  1. Distribution

❏ The members of the participating group Entrant may not distribute their audio in any way

before the results are announced without permission of BEA. This includes uploading the

audio to any website other than the submission site.

XVI. Organizer’s Rights

❏ Broadcast Education Association Student Media Clubs is the official organizer of the

BEASMC 48-hour Audio Stories Competition.

❏ All audios submitted to BEASMC Audio Stories Competition may be used by the BEASMC

Audio Stories organizers for future promotional uses. The entries may be used for the

making of an audio promotion about the competition itself.

❏ No Entries (media or documents) will be returned.

❏ The Audio Stories organizers may, in their sole discretion, disqualify entries deemed to be

inappropriate or otherwise non-compliant.

❏ The BEASMC Audio Stories organizers may add to or amend these rules at any time prior

to the beginning of the BEASMC Audio Stories time period for production of entries.

XVII. Liability and Hold Harmless Matters

By entering this BEASMC Competition, the members of the Entrant agree that BEA, its

board, employees, members, sponsors, agents, assigns and affiliated associations and

companies will be held harmless from any claims, actions, lawsuits, demands assessments

and/or judgments coming from any and all members of the Entrant participating in the

Competition. Moreover, members of the Entrant agree to indemnify, defend and hold BEA,

its board, employees, members, sponsors, assigns and affiliated associations and

companies harmless against any and all claims, actions, lawsuits, demands, assessments

and/or judgments arising from Entrant’s participation in the Competition.