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Some podcast awards ask the hosts to submit self-selected audio clips as a montage or edited overviews for judging purposes. Some will only listen to 15 minutes of an episode. Other podcast awards allow listeners to vote or nominate. While all of those formats have merit, we want our judges to base their opinion on an experience closest to a real live listener experience. Listener voting has the potential for a podcast to win or place based on how aggressively the podcaster solicits their contacts to cast their votes or nominations. And the average listener does not find self-selected segments or partial listens when they tune in.

To recreate an authentic listening experience, each podcast entry will be judged in the following ways.

• Three of our judges will listen to two episodes of their choice – in their entirety with a 60-minute max.
• Three additional judges will be assigned an episode and will listen in its entirety with a 60-minute max.
• While this involves a lot of time, we feel it is the only way to really listen, hear, and ‘get’ the nuances of the podcast.
• All judges evaluate using the same scoring criteria – 10 questions with a ranking of 0-5. We award up to three winners for each category when appropriate. Each podcast is scored, and the highest three scores will place. In very rare cases, ties are possible. 
• When possible, entries will be judged with those of the same classification.
• The judges are experienced humans with previous or current jobs within the audio industry. Current resumes include work experience at iHeart Radio, CBS Radio, SiriusXM, Itunes (now Apple), voice coaches, voiceover actors, podcast producers, audio editors, sound engineers, content researchers/creators,  and others from over 25 U.S. terrestrial radio stations within the United States.  Our judges are also diverse and represent a cross-section of ages, cultural heritage, race, religion, gender, and experience.  To mitigate any bias, Pat Rullo is not a judge.
• As much as we are proud of our judges and would like to share them with the world, these people currently work in the audio field and cannot receive solicitations for advice, contacts, syndication requests, or other such conversations. While they are enthusiastic about their judging positions, we must honor their time and/or their employer’s need for privacy.
• Due to the high demand for judges’ time, we will not offer written critiques, comments, or reasons for not winning.
• Not all categories will have a winner if the scores are not high enough to win.