The Broadcast Education Association has announced the 2026 Best of Festival Award winners, selected from a pool of 2,250 entries representing more than 300 colleges and universities. Recipients will be honored in Las Vegas as part of BEA’s annual convention, held in conjunction with the NAB Show.
19 faculty and student projects received the Best of Festival distinction, the highest honor awarded during the Festival of Media Arts, which showcases faculty creative work and student productions across multiple media disciplines. Each winner will receive a $1,000 cash award from the Diana King Memorial Endowment and will have their project featured in a special screening during the ceremony on April 19.
In the Audio Competition, faculty honors went to Jeff Jacoby of San Francisco State University for “The Traveling Radio Show Goes to the CSU!” in the Long-Form Production category. The student Audio award was presented to Krystal Guerra of Texas Christian University for Deliver US in the Narrative Audio category.
Other Audio winners included:
Air Personality Category: Seth Berquist, Indiana State University
Sound Engineering and Production Category: Seth Krispin, Regent University
Comedy or Drama Category: “Paranormal Inactivity – Log 3: The Case of the Entrapped Alien;” Hayden Hauge, Grace Koch, Katie Mulloy & Jakob Fisher, University of Nebraska Lincoln, and “Ruidosas Episode 14: Las Brujas de Cachiche;” Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, University of Colorado Boulder (tie)
Educational Program Category: “Hospice Chaplain Provides Comfort in Life’s Final Moments;” Bryan Gonzalez & Claire Macchiarola, University of Central Florida
Multimedia Sound Design Category: “The House Next Door;” Lexi Ogan, Katherine Purvin, Anson Aldridge & Josh Raynor, Missouri State University
Narrative Audio Category: Deliver U.S.; Krystal Guerra, Texas Christian University
A full list of winners, runners-up, and Award of Excellence winners for the Festival of Media Arts is posted on the BEA site.
In addition, many of those being honored will participate in the 2026 BEA Career Fair and Graduate Student Showcase the following day. Set for 11a to 3p at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the event connects students, graduate candidates, and recruiters across broadcast, audio, and media in partnership with the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation.
