The Judges - Phil Maguire
Chief Executive
Prison Radio Association
Phil is the founding Chief Executive of the PRA – a national, award-winning charity that uses radio to support prisoner rehabilitation.
He developed the idea for, and subsequently launched, National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for prisoners.
Phil acts as executive producer for the Prison Radio Associations commercial arm – the independent radio production company, PRA Productions. Since its launch in 2011 PRA Productions has won commissions from BBC Radio 1, 2, 4 and World Service.
Phil and his team of professional radio producers and prisoners are the proud winners of eight Sony Radio Academy Awards. In 2012 the PRA-run station, National Prison Radio picked up the Radio Academy’s Nations & Regions Award for the London region.
The PRA’s work has also been recognised by Ofsted, the Centre for Social Justice, the Butler Trust and Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons.
Phil is a member of the Radio Independents Group and has judged the Sony Radio Academy Awards, Radio Production Awards and the Student Radio Awards.
He recently helped Trinidad and Tobago launch a radio station in the county’s Maximum Security Prison. Phil also presented a documentary about this experience for BBC World Service.
He worked in the fields of social work and education before entering the world of radio. After gaining an MA in Broadcast Journalism Phil went on to work as a radio producer on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show and subsequently as a project manager for the BBC.
In 2009 he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) by its Board of Trustees, in recognition of his work supporting prisoner training and reform through the medium of radio.
