- 2009 Award Categories Announced
- Open for entries on Friday 21st November
Full details on the Categories and Conditions of Entry for the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards, the UK’s most coveted radio honours, have just been announced and are available here.
Entries will be accepted from Friday 21st November and the closing date for entries is: Wednesday 21st January 2009. The Nominations will be announced early in April and the winners of the 2009 Sony Radio Academy Awards will be revealed at a gala ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House on Monday 11th May 2009.
2009 will mark the 27th year of the Sony Radio Academy Awards and there are a total of 34 categories to enter, covering the full range and depth of UK radio programming and divided into 4 main groups – Music, Speech, General Programming and Station.
Four new award categories have been introduced this year: The Music Programming Award – to recognise a station/network’s overall music programming strategy; The Speech Radio Personality of the Year – for presenters who work primarily in speech radio and are best known for their style and rapport with their audience; The Interview Award – for a single, outstanding interview; and The Themed Programming Award – for any special activity that generated exciting programming across a station’s regular output.
A podcast reviewing the new categories and explaining the changes made to the entry procedure this year, is available here.
Tim Blackmore, Chairman of the Sony Radio Academy Awards Committee said: “This is definitely another year of real progress for the Sonys: entries uploaded directly to the Awards website, judges’ CDs replaced by pre loaded Sony mp3 players, the earliest ever announcement of the categories, and those four brand new ones. That’s a record total of 34 categories through which to celebrate radio’s pursuit of excellence.”
Two Special Awards – The Gold Award to recognise a career achievement by an outstanding practitioner and The Local & Regional Lifetime Achievement Award to recognise the long term and significant contribution of a local/regional broadcaster or practitioner, will also be made. Both lie within the gift of the Sony Radio Academy Awards Committee and Radio Academy members are invited to nominate candidates for consideration. Nominations for both Special Awards must be received by Wednesday, 25th February 2009. For further details on how to nominate, click here.
For further information, please contact: Riza Turner or Georgina Hall at The Sony Radio Academy Awards Secretariat, Tel: 020 7723 0106 or email: secretariat@radioawards.org
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