The Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) Awards are presented by the Alliance for Community Media West Region. The awards recognize excellence in community media programming in the ACM West Region consisting of Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico.

Tune in our awards ceremony on Friday, April 19, 2024.

The WAVE award: This prestigious plaque is a symbol of the best TV, radio and new media programming from a 6 state western region.

"Best in Show" winners will receive a free full conference pass to our next West Region Conference and Trade Show. All submissions will be automatically considered for this honor.

3 Divisions of Entry:

Who can enter: Anyone who lives or produced their project in any of the following states: California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii and Colorado.

PROFESSIONAL PRODUCER:
This is anyone who creates video as a primary source of their income or who was paid to create the program being submitted. These professionals have previously submitted the work in question to a PEG Access TV station or media center. These submitters are asked to please name the media center they submitted to.

COMMUNITY PRODUCER:
These are non-professionals who have previously submitted the work in question to a PEG Access TV station or media center. These submitters are asked to please name the media center they submitted to.

STUDENT PRODUCER:
These are non-professionals, enrolled in an educational institution, who have previously submitted the work in question to a PEG Access TV station or media center. These submitters are asked to please name the media center they submitted to.

FOR ALL ENTRIES:

A) Entries must have been created between September 1, 2022
and August 31, 2023 or have had their first public showing between those same dates.

B) By submitting, you agree to allow any member TV station or outlet within the ACM West Region to play your submitted content via their non-profit channels with the understanding that no specific profit will be accrued from the playback of such content.

C) Entries must be received no later than January 19, 2024. All submitted programs must have been produced by individuals or organizations within the ACM West Region (Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico).

D) This is no limit to the total running time of any projects that can be submitted.

E) Participants may submit several different video projects under one category. Participants may also submit a single video program into several categories.

F) Participants can submit a link to the whole program. Participants are not required to cut down any programs into shorter clips for judges to review.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Laureen Fallahay

    Santa Barbara Hosts were spectacular. Great team effort and volunteers. Great vendor turnout and informative workshops. The conference committee worked tirelessly to make the event happen kudos to all involved and to all the attendees.

    March 2023
  • David Palomares

    The 2022 WAVE Awards offered an opportunity for our community to see all the great work we are doing and for our staff to receive some well deserved recognition. Four of our eight video entries were chosen to be finalist, and we ended up winning two WAVE Awards. This was a great team building experience, and we are looking forward to participating in next years festival.

    June 2022
  • David Witham

    UPDATE:
    After two years and three months, I finally received my corrected 2019 WAVE Award plaque today. Thanks to ACM West Board Member Bryan Harley, who got the ball rolling in regards to rectifying the situation, and Rory O'Farrell of Tahoe Truckee Media.
    I won the award for Best Experimental Program (Community Producer) in Feb. 2019, and as of 08/2020, I HAVE NOT RECEIVED MY AWARD PLAQUE. Communication with ACM West has been sporadic at best, and always initiated by me. My show was credited as winning the Arts and Entertainment category on their website, and this has never been corrected. I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED BY THIS LACK OF FOLLOW -THROUGH BY ACM WEST.

    August 2020
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Hi David. On the website, I see your name under Experimental - Community Producer. https://acmwest.org/wave-awards/2019-winners/. Let me know what's wrong and we'll fix it. I'm not sure why you never received your plaque, but please email info@acmwest.org and we'll take care of that.

  • Alma Love

    I would like to think wave Awards for nominating my story the Tuskegee Airmen ,and giving me the opportunity to expose my work ,thank you I hope to work with you again in the near future.
    Alma Love from ,Med pen media center, Palo Alto,Ca.

    February 2019