NBC will air the first-ever iHeartRadio Music Awards on May 1 in partnership with Clear Channel Media and Entertainment.
The three-hour event will feature the year’s biggest artists and songs, along with live performances, never-before-seen duets and collaborations, celebrity guest appearances and live award presentations. It will also include performances from other Los Angeles venues, and broadcast and stream the live audio on Clear Channel radio stations and their websites, on iHeartRadio.
The awards will be based on results from the all-new iHeartRadio Chart. Mediabase, number one source for monitored airplay, provides and compiles the charts. These charts are to include listener feedback and performance data, according to airplay. They will also take digital streaming data from the iHeartRadio platform and it includes “thumbs up”, custom station creations, sales, social, video data and tags from BigChampagne and Shazam. One thing the awards show is doing differently than other awards shows is including social #hashtags as the primary voting mechanism.
“Collaborating with a company that has the global reach of Clear Channel allows us to interact with music fans all over the world,” said Paul Telegdy, President of Alternative and Late Night Programming for NBC Entertainment. “We feel fortunate being on the ground floor of the iHeartRadio Music Awards, which will deliver an array of great performances from today’s biggest stars.”
There will be 13 different categories across all genres of music. The categories will feature 10 nominees that listeners will narrow down to five finalists across a four-week period. Once this has occurred, the finalists will be announced on March 26, 2014 at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles. iHeartRadio reaches a large amount of listeners every month and they will determine the winners over the next several weeks following the announcement of the finalists.
“With a reach of more than 240 million people every month, Clear Channel has an unparalleled ability to identify and track the biggest artists and songs in the country,” said John Sykes, President of Entertainment Enterprises for Clear Channel. “The iHeartRadio Music Awards will be the first awards show in history to reflect America’s favorite music, and which is truly powered by the people.”
Fans will get to hear interviews and special programming focusing on the nominees across Clear Channel radio stations and iHeartRadio digital service. In addition to special programming, there is an iHeartRadio Countdown that highlights the top 20 Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) songs on the iHeartRadio Chart. The show is hosted by Romeo (major artist/iHeartRadio) and airs on Clear Channel Top 40/CHR stations Saturday and Sunday. They will also include other songs outside the top 20 each week, including most social song, most “thumbed up song,” iHeartRadio exclusives, premieres and sneak peeks.
“What’s unique about the iHeartRadio chart, countdown and awards is that all three are squarely focused on what the listener wants,” said Tom Poleman, President of National Programming Platforms for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. “For the first time, these three interconnected programs have shifted the power of how we measure an artist’s success — and, in turn, what’s heard on the radio and celebrated with awards — to the critically important listener.”
The iHeartRadio Music Awards are executive produced by John Sykes and Tom Poleman of Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, Ryan Seacrest Productions and Ian Stewart and Hamish Hamilton of Done and Dusted Inc. Hamilton will direct. NBC Studios will produce the awards show.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards will air from 8-11 p.m. ET/PT on May 1 in Los Angeles, CA.