PrepPad® by Radio Essentials

ARIAS Best Technical Innovation Award

An innovation that benefits the Audio Industry and gives back to hardworking presenters the one thing they can’t buy or have enough of… Time.
Introduction
The team at Radio Essentials believe that innovation in the Radio Industry needs to address a clear problem with an elegant solution that delivers tangible listener impact. It should be human-centred technology with Industry relevance and scalability to benefit people throughout the Audio Industry.
PrepPad® is a genuine workflow innovation that delivers demonstrably improved audio outcomes for live radio. PrepPad® isn’t just software. It is a structural change in how radio is made.
PrepPad® by Radio Essentials brings everything presenters need into one simple workspace — cutting preparation time, improving live shows, and helping broadcasters sound more confident, connected, and in control on air.
Instead of searching multiple sources, broadcasters access curated global, national and hyperlocal content in one dashboard, building full running orders in minutes using drag-and-drop editorial tools.
The result is faster preparation, reduced cognitive load, and presenters who sound calmer, more confident, and more connected on air.
PrepPad® doesn’t automate creativity, it protects it, giving broadcasters back their time, their focus, and their audience connection.
Video courtesy of Dave Hyde, Station Manager and presenter at Coalville Public Radio (CPR).

PrepPad® Transforms radio preparation so presenters can focus on what matters most...their audience.

PrepPad® was created to solve one of radio’s longest-standing invisible problems: fragmented, time-consuming show preparation.
Across the UK, presenters typically spend hours each day searching multiple websites, social feeds, and information sources to assemble news, sport, weather, celebrity content, birthdays, and local stories.
This repetitive manual process steals creative energy from broadcasters and limits the time available for storytelling, listener engagement, and live spontaneity.
Radio Essentials PrepPad® set out to change that.
PrepPad® is a purpose-built CMS for radio and podcast presenters that aggregates trusted global, national, local and hyperlocal content into one intuitive workspace. It allows hosts to curate complete running orders in minutes using drag-and-drop tools, date filters, geographic targeting, and topic selectors — delivering all show prep before their coffee is cold.
But PrepPad® goes beyond automation.

It reshapes the relationship between presenter and content. Instead of reacting to scattered information streams, broadcasters gain a structured editorial canvas where stories are discovered, refined, and sequenced in a way that supports natural narrative flow on air.

The innovation lies in how PrepPad® treats preparation itself as part of the creative process.

Rather than offering raw feeds, PrepPad® presents broadcast-ready content blocks designed around real presenter workflows: topical clusters, contextual headlines, concise story summaries, and live-reading formats. This enables hosts to move fluidly between information and performance, enhancing authenticity and reducing cognitive load during live shows.
The platform was developed collaboratively with UK presenters, producers, and digital editors, iterating through multiple prototypes to ensure real-world usability.
The result is a system that adapts equally well to breakfast radio, drive-time shows, community broadcasting, and podcast production.

Search for topics of relevance or interest to your audience. PrepPad® is the search engine of the Audio Industry delivering accurate and upto date content, reliably and instantly.

Since launch, PrepPad® has demonstrably reduced prep time by hours per day for presenters while increasing on-air confidence, topical relevance, and audience responsiveness. Broadcasters report feeling more relaxed, more informed, and more creatively present during live output.
For stations, PrepPad® delivers consistency of quality across schedules, faster onboarding of new presenters, and a measurable uplift in editorial coherence. For audiences, it means tighter shows, fresher stories, and hosts who sound fully engaged rather than rushed.
PrepPad® represents a new category of radio technology: not automation for its own sake, but intelligent preparation that restores humanity to broadcasting.

By removing friction behind the scenes, it amplifies what listeners value most — real voices, timely stories, and authentic connection.

PrepPad® is doing something revolutionary.

It introduces shared prep, collaborative editing, and standardised show formats, allowing producers and presenters to work together inside the same system.

PrepPad® is the genuine technical innovation that just keeps scaling. It doesn’t automate creativity. It protects it. It doesn’t replace presenters, it empowers them. it gives them back their time reducing hours of work into minutes each day and giving presenters more time to… just be themselves.

Stations use this to maintain consistent quality across schedules, onboard new presenters faster, and ensure editorial continuity — even when staff change or shows rotate.

And here is our greatest innovation! Radio Essentials have made PrepPad® very inexpensive starting at just £5 per month up to £29.99 per month so all stations and presenters can easily afford it… and half price for community or charitable broadcasters. Now, that is a fresh idea. Service before profit!

Why PrepPad® CMS Matters

The December 2025 introduction of our PrepPad® Dashboard brings everything into one screen to run the content live throughout the show.

In coming months radioessentials.com will be adding even more brilliant functionality with Social Media content management and further customisation options.

This presentation of PrepPad® shows just the tip of the iceberg of functionality, convenience, reliability and scalability of this extraordinary service for the Audio Industry.

The December update, adding the Dashboard has brought all of the functionality into one screen that updates in real time to keep presenters ahead of the news, instead of always one show behind. To fully grasp the value that PrepPad® brings to the audio industry for radio and podcast presenters, please view the video and explore the website for yourself.

What is even more exciting is that, as radio station owners and managers, with 20 year backgrounds in software development and three years in AI development, we have a detailed roadmap ahead of enhancements and upgrades including Station Management, The PrepPad App and Social Media Management:

Station Management.
The platform provides a dedicated Station Management environment, allowing each station to operate within its own secure organisational space. Stations can manage their own users, roles, and permissions, ensuring the right people have access to the right tools, content, and shared resources.
This structure enables teams to collaborate efficiently within shared workspaces, while maintaining clear ownership and control over local content, assets, and workflows. Administrators can add or remove users, assign responsibilities, and manage access to publishing areas, social media functions, and shared content libraries.
The model supports both independence and scalability — allowing multiple stations to operate autonomously while remaining part of a wider network.
Impact
  • Empowers local teams with full operational control
  • Protects brand integrity through role-based access and permissions
  • Enables secure collaboration within shared content areas
  • Provides a scalable framework for growing multi-station networks
The PrepPad® App.

The PrepPad App delivers curated content and ready-to-use audio directly to a presenter’s mobile device, providing a fast and flexible way to prepare for live output wherever they are.

Users receive station-relevant news, show prep, features, and audio clips in a clear, structured format. Content can be quickly reviewed, selected, and then shared via email or printed for studio use, ensuring presenters always have accurate, up-to-date material at their fingertips.
Designed for speed and simplicity, PrepPad supports both remote preparation and in-studio workflows, helping presenters stay organised, informed, and ready to go on air.

Impact

  • Provides instant access to show-ready content and audio
  • Supports flexible, mobile-first preparation for presenters
  • Reduces manual research and preparation time
  • Ensures consistent, accurate content across all programmes
The Radio Essentials Social Media Dashboard.
A purpose-built Social Media Dashboard enables station managers to log in and manage their content from a single, intuitive platform. The system automatically generates posts using verified content sources and formats them to match each station’s editorial tone and style guidelines.
Every post is instantly branded, with station-specific visual overlays, logos, and colour schemes applied in line with individual brand standards. Managers can review, edit, and approve content before publishing, ensuring full editorial control while significantly reducing production time.
The platform then allows seamless scheduling and submission across social media channels, delivering consistent, high-quality output at scale while maintaining a strong local identity for each station.

Impact

  • Saves hours of manual content creation and design
  • Ensures brand consistency across all platforms
  • Enables faster, more responsive local publishing
  • Empowers small teams to deliver professional, multi-platform content efficiently
Forward Development.
And it doesn’t stop there. PrepPad® is part of a continuous innovation roadmap, with future enhancements already in development. Planned integrations include direct connectivity with studio audio and playout systems, enabling seamless transfer of content and audio straight into broadcast workflows.
The platform is designed to evolve, with ongoing development focused on deeper automation, enhanced integrations, and new features driven by user feedback. PrepPad will remain on a continuous improvement cycle, ensuring it adapts to the changing needs of modern radio teams and supports the future of efficient, connected broadcasting.

20 years ago, a Radio Academy award was given to RadioPrep.ai which was produced by Matt James and it has evolved into its current AI-integrated radio station management and show prep platform. Whilst RadioPrep.ai is primarily a station operations tool, Radio Essentials are focused on show presenters, their content and show quality. What we really do is give presenters back their time and we deliver the broadest, the fastest and the most customisable radio and podcast content in the world.

Presenters are choosing Radio Essentials because:
  • Their need is for radio show preparation focus, content quality, and fast segment building — especially for local and live environments
  • Their primary goal is high-quality, real-time show preparation content (topics, talkers, local feeds).
  • They value curated show anchors and segment ideas with minimal overhead.
  • Local news/traffic/weather integration is crucial to their broadcast format.
PrepPad® is the world’s best dedicated, show-centric prep with real-time local context. We do not rely on AI to generate content. That is madness and very unreliable.
By carefully building a complex web of APIs (code with information requests) that are linked to the most trusted sources of real time content, and by building a platform that optimised the rapid selection, customisation and display of the data.
PrepPad® delivers accurate and reliable content… super fast.
Dave Hyde, Station Manager and presenter at Coalville Public Radio (CPR)
Radio Essentials Prep Pad has genuinely transformed how I prepare my shows. Whether I am recording a voice tracked show or going live, I can pull together solid, relevant content in under five minutes and be ready for air. That kind of speed makes a huge difference when you are working to tight schedules.
Having real time local news, weather, travel, trending stories and national headlines all in one place keeps my content fresh and relevant. The range of topics from business and sport to lifestyle and science means I am never stuck for ideas or talking points. The prep sheet generator is a standout feature. Being able to create structured show content and downloadable PDFs at the click of a button saves time and keeps everything organised.
The ability to access it across devices is another big advantage. Whether I am in the studio, at home or on the move, everything I need is there and ready to go. There is nothing else like it for presenters or stations wanting contained, constantly updated content in one place. The service keeps improving and genuinely gets better over time. It is more than a content tool. It is a time saver and a confidence booster. It helps me sound informed, current and prepared whether I have planned days ahead or I am building a show minutes before going live.
— Dave Hyde, Station Manager and presenter at Coalville Public Radio (CPR).
Thank you for the opportunity to share our PrepPad® with you and a little about the development path ahead. Everything we have submitted in this overview is fully functional and in currently active commercial use. We are very proud of the positive benefits PrepPad® brings to the Audio Industry and we are honoured just to have it reviewed by the judges of the ARIAS.
Steven Booth-Waterhouse, Steven von Kohorn and The Radio Essentials team.
Our contact details for any further required clarification are:
Steven von Kohorn: steven@radioessentials.co.uk 07429 744007 – Steve Booth-Waterhouse: steve@radioessentials.co.uk 077656 622334