Arqiva Nominations announced

Bauer Radio leads the way in the 2009 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards, with 12 nominations across the group. Global Radio takes 10, UTV Radio gets five and Absolute Radio (group) and Lincs FM Group takes three.

Bauer's nominations range from National Sales Team of the Year, to a Social Action Award for Rock FM, whilst Global's Beacon Radio is up for Station Sound, and the Creative Technology department hope for a gong for the iPhone Application.

talkSPORT attracted three nominations, with Juice FM and Peak FM making five for UTV Radio.

Absolute Radio is going head to head with Global in the Technical Innovation category for their own iPhone app, whilst JACK fm and Oxford's FM107.9 win a nomination each, taking Absolute Radio Group's total to three.

Elsewhere, GMG Radio is recognised with two nominations in sales and news, and TLRC's Minster FM hopes for the title of Station of the Year (TSA under a million) and Local Sales Team of the Year for Alpha.

Digital Station of the Year is a battle between Fun Kids, Planet Rock and Q Radio.

Key 103 joins talkSPORT with no less than three station nominations, Star Cambridge has two (Station of the Year TSA under 300,00 and Presentation Newcomer), and Trevor White takes Planet Rock's total to two as he is nominated for the Programmer of the Year.

The evening was hosted by Magic 105.4’s breakfast show presenter Neil Fox, winner of the 2008 Gold Award. Neil said: “In these tough economic times, and despite facing increasing competition from what is effectively a recession-proof BBC, Commercial Radio continues to flourish. The Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards recognise the incredible work that commercial stations up and down this country are doing every single day to keep our great nation informed and entertained."

Those nominations in full:

Radio Marketing Award

Sponsorship and Promotions Team – 107.6 Juice FM
Stuart Robinson - Citybeat
James Brown and Sam Haddadi – The Galaxy Network

National Sales Team of the Year

Bauer Media
talkSPORT
UBC Media Commercial Division (now GTN)

Local Sales Team of the Year

Alpha Radio
Real Radio Scotland
Wave 105

Station of the Year < 300,000 TSA

Rother FM
Rutland Radio
STAR Radio Cambridge

Station of the Year 300,000 – 1 million TSA

104.7 Minster FM
Heart 96.3 (formerly GWR Bristol)
Lincs FM

Station of the Year > 1 million TSA

Hallam FM
Key 103 Manchester
talkSPORT

Programmer of the Year

Darren Henley – Classic FM
Gary Stein – Key 103 Manchester
Trevor White – Planet Rock

Presentation Newcomer

Leo Green – Jazz FM
Adam Inker – Oxford’s FM107.9
Ryan Taylor – STAR Radio Cambridge

Radio Presenters of the Year

Boogie, Arlene and Dingo – 97.3 Forth One
Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott – London’s Heart
Mike Toolan – Key 103 Manchester

Station Sound

Beacon Radio (West Midlands)
Heat Radio
JACKfm

News Award

Peak FM News Team
Pirate FM News Team
TFM Radio News and Sport

Programme or Feature of the Year

The A-Z of Classic FM Music – Classic FM
Hit40UK
The Shannon Matthews Story – Real Radio Yorkshire

Station Creative Award

Gary Muircroft, Carole McConnell and Ann-Marie Miller – Central FM
Kevin Price and Paul Hawkins – Invicta FM
Mitch Suffolk, Helen Towers & Steve Henderson – Trent FM

Technical Innovation

Absolute Radio for the MiniAmp
Global Radio Creative Technology for the iPhone Application
talkSPORT for talkSPORT magazine

Digital Station of the Year

Fun Kids
Planet Rock
Q Radio

Social Action Award

97.3 Forth One - Radiothon
97.4 Rock FM - Breakfast Breakout
Choice FM - Peace on the Streets


Andrew Harrison, chief executive, RadioCentre, said: “Commercial Radio offers a fantastic range of programming with over 345 stations producing an incredible breadth of output across the airwaves every day. These awards recognise and celebrate the many talented people who work in the sector and once again we’ve had a huge number of entries which certainly made life difficult for our judges.”

Paul Eaton, head of radio at Arqiva said: “Arqiva is once again proud to facilitate recognition of the immense talent and creativity that we have in Commercial Radio. There's never been a better time to shout about the achievements of radio people, who care so much about the future of the medium."

Absolute Radio’s breakfast show presenter Christian O’Connell will host the ceremony which will take place on the evening of Friday, 5th June at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. There will also be a live music performance by a special guest. Winners of the Commercial Radio Special Award, The Gold Award, The Neil Robinson Memorial Award, The Schools Radio Award, The Chairman’s Award and The PPL Most Played Artist on Commercial Radio will be revealed at the ceremony.