SEDONA FIRMS WIN AWARDS

SEDONA - (February 2001) - Two Sedona firms have each been honored with the prestigious Communicator Award for their production of an audio walking tour of Montezuma Well National Monument. Walkabout Audio Tours, which produced the program, received the highest award: the Crystal Award of Excellence for the script writing. John Conway, a voice actor with audioworxx, won the Award of Distinction for his narration.

Based in Arlington, Texas, The Communicator Awards is a national awards program founded by communications professionals to recognize those in the communications field whose talent and creativity achieves a high standard of excellence and serves as a standard for the industry.
“It was exciting to win these awards for Montezuma Well,” said Conway, “as it was the first major project for audioworxx. I learned things about the Well that I had never heard in my 38 years in the area.”

The Montezuma Well tour guides visitors as they walk through the National Monument, highlighting important aspects of the site and its history. The tour’s low key narration by Conway and Betsy Houlihan, one of the principals of Walkabout, has been well researched. Location recording of subtle ambient sounds, such as birds and water, heighten the total visitor experience.

19th Century journalist Charles Lummis described Montezuma Well as not the greatest wonder of its kind, but “the only one... There is,” he wrote, “nothing else like it in the world”.

In addition to Montezuma Well, Walkabout has produced a series of walking and driving tours of other southwest national parks and monuments, and various points of interest. These include the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, and Boynton Canyon. The tours are available on either audio CD or cassette, with or without a player. More information about the various tours may be obtained from Walkabout’s website: www.walkaboutaudiotours.com.

Founded last year in Sedona, audioworxx is a digital voice-over recording studio. The studio specializes in narration for audio and video productions with a talent pool of professional voice actors and actresses. More information, including rates, is available from their website: www.worxx.com.