The Texas Hill Country Podcast Network was recently honored as a triple winner of the 30th Annual Communicator Awards. The three podcasts honored this year were From Last to First: The John Aceti Story, which received an award of Excellence in the Documentary category; The Texas Hill Country Artist Podcast, which received an award of Excellence in the Art and Culture category; and the Museum of Western Art’s podcast It’s Art, Let’s Talk About It, which received an award of Distinction Arts and Culture category.
The Communicator Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the podcast industry. It is awarded by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA). The Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. The Texas Hill Country Podcast Network competed against over 3,000 entries received from across the US and around the world.
Lauren Angeloni, AIVA Managing Director, said of this year’s selections, “The entries into this season of The Communicator Awards were a great representation of our three decades celebrating innovation and creativity in all forms of communication. I couldn’t have wished for a more diverse and brilliant body of work to be placed in our jurors’ capable hands. I want to congratulate all of the honorees for their well-deserved wins.”
The Texas Hill Country Podcast Network was founded in 2022 to tell stories about the businesses, people, and places that make Texas Hill Country unique. The Texas Hill Country Podcast Network currently has 15 different podcasts. Gilbert Paiz, a co-founder of the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network, said, “The idea for the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network was born from the desire for us to help businesses, people, and organizations to tell their story cost-effectively and compellingly. Every business and organization has a story; there is no better way to relay that story than through a podcast. The three Communicator Awards confirm that a podcast, even from a rural podcast network, is effective and can spread the message of any organization or business far and wide.”
The three award-winning podcasts each have a different focus. The Museum of Western Art’s podcast It’s Art, let’s Talk About It is hosted by Darrell Beauchamp, Executive Director of the Museum of Western Art. He interviews nationally known Western artists who have exhibited at the Museum. The Texas Hill Country Podcast Network produces and distributes the podcast. Beauchamp said, “We are honored to be working with the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network on the production of our award-winning podcast “It’s Art, Let’s Talk About It.” They make it easy to produce, distribute, and market our podcast. Quite frankly, without the expertise of the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network folks, there would be no podcast for the Museum of Western Art. They are the leaders in the podcast industry, especially here in the Texas Hill Country.”
The Texas Hill Country Artist Podcast features artists local to the Hill Country. Andrew Gay, a co-founder of the Texas Hill Country Podcast Network, said, “The Texas Hill Country Artists Podcast is proof that there are exceptional artists with vibrant stories right here in our backyard. In a world of Joe Rogan’s and larger-than-life Podcasts that intentionally market to a National or Global audience, The Hill Country Artists Podcast officially captures and breathes life into the voices of the local, rural artists and their respective stories. Podcasting for these artists can help them better market themselves within their respective markets as well as help them develop a legacy story about their artistic works.”
Diane Eixman, a local artist who was one of the inspirations to start the podcast, said, “A huge “Thank you” to Tom Fox for supporting the arts and the artist of the Texas Hill Country with his podcast ‘Texas Hill Country Artist.’ His interviewing style is thorough, but he has an incredible knack for making the interviewee feel right at home and like they are speaking with their best friend! I am so thankful for his support, encouragement, and the opportunity given to educate the public through his podcast.”
The podcast, From Last to First: The John Aceti Story was a passion project of another co-founder, Tom Fox. Fox hosted and produced the entire series. Aceti has long wanted to tell his life story, so Fox proposed a 10-part podcast series. Fox provided Aceti with the transcript from each episode, which Aceti then used to form the basis of a chapter in his autobiography, published last fall. Fox said of this podcast series, “Unfortunately, we lost John Aceti earlier this year, but his life and his story live on through this podcast and his autobiography. People literally from Chile to Sweden emailed me to tell me how inspired they were by John Aceti’s story. Working with John was one of the highlights of my professional career.”
Two other Texas Hill Country Podcast Network podcasts have previously won Communicator Awards. The podcast The Night Sky, Two Eclipses Come to Kerrville told the story about the two annular and solar eclipses that came in Kerrville in 2023 and 2024, an award of Excellence in the category Science in 2023. The Hill Country Podcast won a prize of Distinction in the Lifestyles category in 2022 for its episode on ‘The Cookie Lady,’ Julia Cardioshinsky.
