Top award for BBC Manchester

At the BBC Frank Gillard awards, which were held last night, BBC Radio Manchester was named station of the year, the award which BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC London 94.9 were also up for. Under the new control of John Ryan, BBC Radio Manchester also picked up the Outside Broadcast Award for The Bomb - 10 years on.

The ceremony was held at the Low Wood Hotel, Windermere, Cumbria and hosted by Richard Bilton.

It was a good year for the bigger metropolitan stations as BBC London 94.9's Jono Coleman and Joanne Good won the Breakfast Programme Award and Nicola Rees of BBC Radio Leeds hit Gold in the Reporter category.

BBC Hereford & Worcester added a Gillard to the Sony they won earlier in the year when they claimed the Social Action Campaign category for their mental illness project.

Another campaign winner was Liz Kershaw of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire. Her 'Liz'll Fix It' project was the tops in Radio Promotion.

Smaller stations took a good share of the awards. The Programme Presenter award was won by Bernie Keith of BBC Radio Northampton and BBC Radio Shropshire scooped Gold in News Coverage for its reports on a local family's campaign to make the drug Herceptin available on the NHS; whilst BBC Radio Suffolk secured the Sports award for its investigation into exploitation in the horse racing industry within the county.

There were two awards for Outstanding Contributions to BBC Local Radio. They went to Margaret Hyde, the Managing Editor of BBC Essex, whose distinguished career in Local Radio began back in June 1973 as a journalist at Radio Merseyside; and to Paul Rowley of the Regional Political Unit whose reporting and two-ways on Westminster politics for the past 12 years have become by-words for accessibility and made him a well-known and admired voice throughout the Local Radio chain of stations.

The awards were presented by BBC Deputy Director-General Mark Byford.

Thirty-nine BBC Local Radio stations and services put forward 256 entries for the awards, which are named in honour of Frank Gillard, the founder of BBC Local Radio.

At the Gillard Awards evening, a Radio Academy Fellowship was conferred on the former Managing Editor of Radio Bristol, Jenny Lacey, by the Director of the Radio Academy, John Bradford.

The winners list in Gold, Siver and Bronze order are:


Station of the year

Radio Manchester
London 94.9
Radio Berkshire


Breakfast programme

London 94.9 - Jono and Jo Breakfast Show
Radio Gloucestershire – Mark Cummings at Breakfast
Radio Lincolnshire – The Breakfast Show with Rod Whiting


Programme presenter

Radio Northampton – Bernie Keith
Radio Sheffield – Toby Foster
Radio Suffolk – Nick Pandolfi


Coverage of a news story

Radio Shropshire – The Herceptin Story
London 94.9 – Rolling News Coverage July 7
Radio Nottingham – The Danielle Beccan Murder Trial


Interactive programme

Radio Oxford – Planet Speedway
Radio Norfolk – David Clayton’s Norfolk Years
Three Counties Radio – Treasure Quest


Reporter

Radio Leeds – Nicola Rees
Southern Counties Radio – Allison Ferns


Sports coverage

Radio Suffolk – Riding Roughshod
Radio Sheffield – Football Heaven – Derby Day Special
Radio Merseyside – FA Cup Final: Liverpool v West Ham


Social action campaign

Hereford & Worcester – Hearing Voices
Radio Cornwall – Sea Sense
Radio Lancashire – Rice Appeal


Radio feature

Radio Solent – Finding Dad
Hereford & Worcester - George
Radio Northampton – The Nag’s Head, Wollaston


Outside broadcast

Radio Manchester – The Bomb 10 Years On
Radio Berkshire – The Queen’s 80th Birthday
London 94.9 – The 2006 London Marathon


Religious programming

BBC Radio Devon – The Weekend Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Lancashire – Joe Wilson - Lancashire Sunday
BBC Radio Nottingham – Breakfast Compilation


Radio promotion

Coventry & Warwickshire – Liz’ll Fix It
Radio Bristol – Brunel 200
Radio Berkshire – The Reading FC Promotion Campaign


Diversity

BBC Radio Merseyside – Ticket to Ride – Journeys on a BBC Bus
BBC London 94.9 - Compilation
BBC Radio Leicester – Telling Lives


Outstanding contribution to BBC local radio

Paul Rowley – BBC regional political unit
Margaret Hyde – managing editor BBC Essex
BBC Radio Manchester.