NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED FOR
THE 26th SONY RADIO ACADEMY AWARDS
Commercial and BBC Radio go head to head
across multiple genre categories
DAB’s pulse beats strongly with Planet Rock, BBC7, BBC 6 Music and BBC Asian Network scoring a clutch of nominations
Johnny Vaughan v Chris Moyles contest King of Breakfast.
Russell Brand and Dermot O’Leary with first Sony nominations.
The nominations for the 26th annual Sony Radio Academy Awards, the UK’s top radio honours, were announced this evening at a launch hosted by multiple Sony Gold winner, Chris Evans and webcast live around the country. The winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze accolades in the 31 award categories will be announced at the radio industry’s gala night, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Monday 12 May.
The 2008 nominations reflect a UK radio industry that is dynamic, creative, diverse and has embraced digital technology to stunning effect. The Sony’s Committee has recognised this with the introduction of The Multiplatform Radio Award, following on from last year’s newcomer, The Internet Programme Award. This new category seeks to recognise the many and varied ways in which multiplatform services are utilised to extend and enrich the listener experience and is contested by Planetrock, one of three nominations for the Station, BBC York, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 1 and BBC World Service.
The growing strength in depth of commercial radio has earnt the sector a raft of nominations, many in categories that have traditionally been the preserve of the BBC, notably news: Century Radio is nominated in The News Journalist of the Year, The Breaking News Award, The News Feature Award and The News & Current Affairs Programme Award.
In the blue riband, The Breakfast Show Award, Capital 95.8’s Johnny Vaughan, Trent FM’s Jo & Twiggy and Radio Clyde’s Bowie@Breakfast take on 5 Live Breakfast and Radio 1’s Chris Moyles, the latter winning his first ever Sony nomination in the highly coveted Breakfast category.
The Entertainment Award is an intriguing battle between first time Sony nominee, Radio 2’s Russell Brand, with Radio 1’s Scott Mills and Key 103’s Toolan in the Morning, against twice nominated Capital 95.8’s Johnny Vaughan and Trent FM’s Jo & Twiggy Breakfast Show.
The Music Radio Personality of the Year is a contest between the ubiquitous Jonathan Ross (BBC Radio 2), Zane Lowe (BBC Radio 1), Jamie Theakston (Heart 106.2), Geoff Lloyd (Virgin Radio) and Lancashire’s finest, Adam @ Breakfast for Rock FM.
The diversity in this year’s nominations for The Music Broadcaster Award is testament to the abundance of talent behind the mic and across a broad range of music genres. BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lemacq is joined by Andi Durrant for Galaxy Radio, Fish for Planetrock, BBC Radio 3’s Sean Rafferty, and Paul Gambaccini for Classic FM, Radio 2 and Radio 4.
The Internet Programme Award, for podcast, streamed and downloaded programmes, showcases an exciting mix of on-line programmes. Last year’s Gold winner, Firin’ Squad is nominated again, along with Guardian.co.uk, who are also nominated in the Sports Programme Award, Unique the production company for Channel 4 Radio and Times Online and the Book Slam Podcast for the Book Slam Website.
DAB proves it is in rude good health with a total of 14 nominations. BBC Asian Network notches up a very impressive three nominations, including Digital Station of the Year where it competes with triple nominee, Planet Rock and last year’s Gold winner Gaydar Radio. BBC7 and BBC 6 Music receive four nominations and two nominations respectively.
The five Station of the Year Awards are highly coveted and a great reminder of the depth and geographical spread of the nations’s radio stations with BBC Guernsey, BBC Radio Foyle and Silk FM competing for Station of the Year: Under 300,000 and Radio 2, Radio 4 and 5 Live slugging it out in the national UK Station of the Year category.
The 26th Sony Radio Academy Awards were judged by over 100 industry professionals, each chosen for their broadcasting expertise. This year’s judges included Jon Snow, Miranda Sawyer, Colin Murray, Margherita Taylor, David Jensen, Andria Vidler, Lesley Douglas, and Mark Goodier. The judges were required to reach their decisions based solely on the content of the entry actually submitted, and not on the basis of any wider knowledge they may have. One of the enduring appeals of these awards is that they evaluate local radio against network radio, ensuring that every level of professional radio has an opportunity to shine.
Tim Blackmore, Chairman of the Sony Radio Academy Awards said: “With more than 1400 entries from 204 of the UK’s radio stations, and with the crucial involvement of judges from right across the industry, I want to thank my fellow professionals for their ongoing support of the only awards that celebrate the full breadth of our increasingly multi platform output. The Sony Radio Academy Awards’ recognition of UK radio’s creativity, integrity and personality remains without equal.”
The 2008 Gold Award, for a career achievement by an outstanding practitioner and the Local and Regional Lifetime Achievement Award recognising a broadcaster or practitioner whose body of work lies primarily within the localities, nations or regions of the United Kingdom, are in the gift of the Committee and will be presented at the awards ceremony on 12 May.
2008 also sees the launch of the Sony DAB ‘Rising Star’ Award, a new initiative from Sony UK, which seeks to recognise the radio stars of tomorrow. It is a ‘people’s choice’ award, with the winner chosen by listeners from a shortlist of emerging radio talent, none of whom have been broadcasting for more than 18 months. Steve Dowdle, Managing Director of Sony UK announced the shortlist of Amy Jones – Kerrang! Radio, George Lamb – BBC 6 Music, Hywel Evans & Jamie Atherton – Rock FM, Kelly Osbourne – BBC Radio 1 and The Rob Ellis Show Team – Galaxy Manchester, at the Nominations event and the general public are invited to vote for their favourite ‘rising star’ at http://www.sony.co.uk/risingstar
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Riza Turner at the Sony Radio Academy Awards Secretariat
riza@radioawards.org
T: 020 7723 0106
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