Welcome to judging for the 5th Annual Signal Awards! We are grateful to have you as a member of The Signal Awards Judging Academy, and look forward to your participation.
Who is in The Academy?
The Signal Awards Judging Academy is composed of industry leaders and on-mic talent including Jay Shetty (Host, On Purpose), Latif Nasser (Co-Host, Radiolab), Carrie Lieberman, (Chief Operating Officer, iHeartPodcasts), Steve McLendon, (Product Lead, Podcasting at YouTube), Anna Sale, (Host, Death, Sex & Money) Valentina Bojanini, (Director of Audio Content Strategy, TED) Ney Alvarez (Head of Audio, Al Jazeera), Lauren González (Senior Manager of Programming, NPR) and many more. A complete directory of our Judges can be found here.
How Does Membership in The Academy Work?
Members are eligible to cast votes annually. Voting for the 5th Annual Signal Awards will run from June through mid-September, 2026. As a Judge, you will be sent a login to our proprietary Judging portal and invited to select a two-week window of your choosing to complete your listening and deliberations which are done from the privacy of your own computer.
Why Participate
The Signal Awards is mission-focused on uplifting excellence in audio through recognizing the podcasts that define culture. Our Judging Academy is the engine that steers this work, bringing the highest caliber stories and interviews to the surface – and we celebrate our Judges year-round through editorial features, panels, exclusive happy hours and community gatherings.
Will Judging Make me Ineligible to Enter?
No. Being a Judge does not preclude you or your team from entering The Signal Awards, as we ensure you won’t judge your own work.
What is the Time Commitment?
All Judges are requested to review 20 entries. You have been hand-selected to be part of The Academy because of your expertise and knowledge. We encourage you to listen to the entries submitted in full, but invite you to use your best judgement in deciding how much of an entry you need to hear in order to weigh its merit. Depending on the length of the entries you are served, about 10 hours is a good ballpark. Judging takes place on your schedule and from your computer. You will select a two-week window between June and September to participate, and log on/off at your convenience.
