Sony Awards – 6 wins Station of the Year

BBC Radio 6 Music has won the UK Station of the Year Award at the 30th Sony Radio Academy Awards, with Kiss crowned Breakfast Show of the Year.

Classic FM awarded The Special Award and Nicholas Parsons is honoured with The Gold Award

The event was held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, hosted by Chris Evans – this year’s Music Radio Personality of the Year winner.

Oldies Beryl and Betty won the Gold for their show on BBC Radio Humberside, with radio celebs Fearne Cotton, Jools Holland, Richard Keys & Andy Gray and Danny Baker also winning a Gold.

See the full list of winners here.

In addition to the 34 Award categories, the Sony Radio Academy Awards Committee gave the Special Award to Classic FM and the Gold Award to legendary broadcaster, Nicholas Parsons. For the first time in the Awards’ history, guests were treated to three live performances from Gary Barlow, Jessie J and Alexandra Burke.

Classic FM was presented with The Special Award “in recognition of its significant and valuable contribution to commercial radio in this its 20th anniversary year.” And national treasure, Nicholas Parsons, is the 2012 Gold Award recipient in recognition of “a lifetime of professionalism in radio and in particular his outstanding and total commitment to ‘Just a Minute’, a programme that Nicholas has brilliantly presented for an amazing 45 years.”

In a night that celebrated the rich diversity of UK radio, there was no doubt that BBC Radio Humberside’s Beryl, 86, and Betty, 90, were the evening’s most popular winners. They scooped Best Entertainment Programme, defeating BBC Radio 6 Music’s Adam & Joe (Silver) and Absolute Radio’s Frank Skinner (Bronze). The judges commented: “A joyous, entertaining double act, having fun with the medium and unconstrained by any ingrained ideas of what works and what doesn’t. They give a voice to a sector of society unrepresented on radio, and do it with a joy that puts many of their fellow broadcasters to shame.”

Commercial radio had much to celebrate too, winning three of the four Station of the Year Awards: KLFM 96.7 for ‘under 300,000’, 107.6 Juice FM for ‘300,000 to 1 million’ and Radio City 96.7 for ‘1 million plus’. And a further hat trick of commercial Golds was scored by Xfm, Absolute Radio and 106 JACKfm in the on-air marketing awards for Danny Wallace’s Naked Breakfast (Best Use of Branded Content) Geoff Lloyd’s Hometime Show – The Complaints (Best Single Promo/Commercial) and 2 Strangers And A Wedding (Best Competition).

It was kisses all round as Rickie, Melvin and Charlie from Bauer’s KISS won the highly coveted Gold for ‘Breakfast Show of the Year (10 million plus), defeating Absolute’s Christian O’Connell, who took Silver, and BBC Radio 2’s Chris Evans, the Bronze. KISS’s night got even better when Andy Roberts was crowned Station Programmer of the Year. Real Radio North East’s Gary and Lisa scored another triumph for the commercial sector, taking top honours in Breakfast Show of the Year (under 10 million).

BBC Radio 1’s Fearne Cotton topped the winners’ podium, taking her first Sony Gold for Best Music Programme with the judges commenting that her show “was an excellent blend of the best new and live music, audience interaction and event coverage.” BBC Radio 2’s David Rodigan, was first past the post winning Best Specialist Music Programme, while his station colleague, Jools Holland, won his first Sony Gold for Music Broadcaster of the Year with the judges noting that “his enthusiasm, diverse knowledge, passion and sense of fun shone bright throughout.”

It was a golden radio debut for talkSPORT’s Richard Keys and Andy Gray who scored the winner for Best Sports Programme, with the judges citing “their knowledge and professionalism was second to none and in their debut year of broadcasting on British radio they have become a must listen for serious sports fans.”

Several previous Sony winners added to their trophy haul, with Danny Baker, BBC Radio 5 live, successfully defending his title of Speech Radio Personality of the Year, Victoria Derbyshire, BBC Radio 5 live, getting the nod over Jeremy Vine and Evan Davis in the Speech Broadcaster of the Year category, Eddie Mair triumphing for BBC Radio 4 in Best Interview, and Stephen Nolan winning the Best Speech Programme award for BBC Radio 5 live.

Prison Radio Association for National Prison Radio pulled off the unique feat of winning two Sonys in the Best Community Programming category: Gold for ‘Face to Face’ and Bronze for ‘Behind Bars’; the winning citation said: “True ‘stop what you’re doing’ radio. Bringing violent offenders ‘face to face’ with family victims of crime, was daring, tense and raised many questions.”

Other Gold winners included BBC World Service, taking Best Event Live Coverage for ‘The Royal Wedding’, The Guardian winning Best Internet Programme for ‘Science Weekly: Sounds of the Space Shuttle – An Acoustic Tribute’, GMG Radio North West News Team for Smooth Radio winning Best Feature/Special/Documentary for ‘Walking With The Wounded’ and Sue Clark Productions for BBC Radio 2 striking Gold for Best Music Feature/Special/Documentary with ‘Feeling Good – The Nina Simone Story’.

John Myers, Chief Executive of The Radio Academy and Chairman of the Sony Awards Organising Committee told RadioToday.co.uk: “All our Award winners have shown that UK radio is crackling with talent and vitality. I am proud that tonight we have demonstrated that radio is a medium that is truly inclusive – regardless of age, colour and creed. It’s been a wonderful celebration of 30 years of the Sony Radio Academy Awards and the future looks very bright indeed.”

The winner of this year’s Sony DAB ‘Rising Star’ Award, voted by the listening public, was Luke Franks from Fun Kids.

Award presenters included Sir Tom Jones, Gabby Logan, Gary Numan, Kay Burley, Melanie C, Tinchy Stryder, Engelbert Humperdinck, Sharleen Spiteri and Ronnie Wood.