WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 27th SONY RADIO ACADEMY AWARDS
LEADING LIGHTS OF COMMERCIAL RADIO HONOURED WITH‘SPECIAL AWARDS’
CHRIS EVANS STRIKES DOUBLE GOLD
RADIO 3 CROWNED UK STATION OF THE YEAR
ELECTRIC RADIO BRIXTON WIN FOUR SONY AWARDS
COMMERICAL RADIO WINS THREE OF FIVE STATIONS OF YEAR
GOLD RUSH FOR NICK FERRARI, VANESSA FELTZ, DAVID RODIGAN, CHRISTIAN O’CONNELL
Monday 11 May 2009: The winners of the 27th annual Sony Radio Academy Awards, the UK’s most prestigious radio accolades, were announced this evening at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. This year’s ceremony was hosted by Radio 2’s Chris Evans, who turned out to be one of the evening’s big winners. The event was also webcast live from the balcony of the Great Room, hosted by Richard Allinson and Margherita Taylor. The Gold, Bronze and Silver winners of this year’s 34 categories were drawn from all sectors of the vibrant UK radio industry – illustrating its geographical spread and breadth of output. It was an evening where the winner was clearly UK Radio Inc.
Commercial radio, which has experienced a challenging 12 months, had good reason to feel that the ‘green shoots’ of recovery are here, as they took three of the five highly prestigious Station of the Year Awards. Beacon Radio won Station of the Year: Under 300,000; Kerrang 105.2 rocks as Station of the Year: 1 Million Plus; and Fun Kids is the 2009 Digital Station of the Year, about which the judges said: “it takes the great idea (of a children’s radio station) and makes it a creative and innovative reality.”
BBC Hereford & Worcester not only won the accolade of Station of the Year 300,000 – 1 million, but secured a further Gold, winning The Themed Programming of the Year.
Paul Brown CBE was honoured with the ‘Special Award’, for being “A champion of all that is best about British Radio. He’s forged some of radio’s most important links … and in so doing has won the respect of everyone with whom he’s been in contact.”‘The Gold Award’ was presented to Neil Fox, Magic’s ever popular, breakfast DJ, in recognition of “a broadcaster at the top of his game, for his mastery of the challenges of first class music radio.” BBC Radio Nottingham’s Colin Slater MBE, or ‘Mr Notts County’, was presented with ‘The Local & Regional Lifetime Achievement’ “for his 40 year dedication to our medium. For his craftsman’s skill at shaping match commentary, for his unstinting commitment to radio’s role within the sporting community of his home city.” These ‘Special Awards’ are in the gift of the Sony Radio Academy Awards Committee.
Chris Evans brightened Radio 2’s annus horribilis, taking time out from hosting the evening’s proceedings, to win Golds for The Music Radio Personality of the Year and The Entertainment Award. The judges commented that: “he currently integrates music and entertaining speech better than anyone else.”
For the first time Radio 3 was proclaimed UK Station of the Year, triumphing over Classic FM and Radio 1, and impressing the judges with a “particularly strong schedule of appealing breadth.” And the good news kept coming for Radio 3, winning a total of four Golds, including The Music Special Award and The Music Programme Award.
Electric Radio Brixton, a satellite radio station based at HMP Brixton, proved that winning Gold is about quality broadcasting, irrespective of budget, size or reputation, and from their four inaugural Sony nominations they won a staggering four Sony Awards, two Golds and two Bronzes. The Station struck Gold in The Community Award and The Listener Participation Award and Bronzes in The Interview Award and The Speech Award.
The judges enthused: “(this) is an example of what can be achieved when radio is used for what it does best – an intimate connection to deliver powerful, meaningful content.”
It was a winning night for two of radio’s acknowledged music kingpins: David Rodigan, Kiss’s reggae King, won Gold with The Specialist Music Programme Award, and also Silver in The Music Broadcaster of the Year, pipped to the double by Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe.
In a year which staged the Olympics, it was not surprising to see strong entries on this theme, and it was BBC Radio 5 live that stood on the winners podium, collecting the Gold for The Sports Award for 5 Live Olympic Breakfast. In fact, during the course of the evening, BBC Radio 5 live bagged five Sony Golds including The Speech Award for Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, and doing a Usain Bolt and speeding off with the blue riband The Breakfast Show Award for 5 Live Breakfast: the judges noted that the show was “lively and revelatory, ambitious but always grounded.” Breakfast runners up were Kiss 100’s Breakfast with Rickie, Melvin and Charlie with the Silver and Radio 1’s Chris Moyles for Bronze.
Two of London’s most ‘opinionated’ broadcasters found favour, with LBC’s Nick Ferrari anointed The Speech Broadcaster of the Year, leaving Radio 4’s Evan Davis with Silver; and Vanessa Feltz of BBC London 94.9 winning her first Sony Gold for The Speech Radio Personality of the Year. The judges said that she “brings humanity and an authentic personality to her programmes.”
BBC Radio Scotland’s grand dame of broadcasting, Edi Stark, carried off The News Special Award and first-time nominee, Radio 5 live’s Gavin Lee, was awarded The News Journalist of the Year. BBC Radio Manchester won Gold in The Breaking News Award for ‘The Rangers Riot’.
Classic FM continued its history of Sony success by triumphing in The Music Programming Award, as did Christian O’Connell, picking up Absolute Radio’s first Sony Gold for The Live Event Coverage Award.
The Internet Programme Award was won by Bristol’s Clifton Diocese.com for ‘The Budgerigar and the Prisoner’. Kiss picked up its second 2009 Gold for The Promo Award and Galaxy took The Competition Award.
Tim Blackmore, Chairman of the Sony Radio Academy Awards said:“This has been a difficult year for UK Radio. One in which all sides have experienced tough challenges, but through it all, hundreds of hours of great radio and audio have still been created and as last week’s RAJAR figures reported, more people in the UK are listening to radio than at any point in the last 10 years. The entries for this year’s awards have once again demonstrated that through good times and bad, UK Radio serves its listeners in exceptionally imaginative, informative, and entertaining ways. There is much of which we should continue to be proud, and which rightly deserves the celebration that the Sonys offer.”
Kerrang! Radio’s Singing Henry, was named the winner of the Sony DAB Rising Star Award, established in 2008 to recognize new radio talent and won last year by George Lamb of 6Music.
Presenters of the Awards included Ronan Keating, Kirsty Gallacher, Christine Ohuruogo MBE, Jim Kerr, Jazzie B OBE, Donal MacIntyre, Frank Skinner, Polly Toynbee, Kate Thornton, Jon Culshaw, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Kate Adie OBE, Michael Mansfield QC, Philip Glenister and Sharleen Spiteri.
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