GMG Radio MD wins top personality award

Andy Carter, GMG Radio’s Group Managing Director, has been named Media Personality of the Year at a regional awards ceremony.

The How Do event, now in its 5th year, also awarded Juice FM Liverpool with the Station of the Year title.

Carter was given the award because of his services to the north west media scene, having held many positions including running Smooth Radio, Real Radio and Real Radio XS from their Manchester base. He was also recently in charge of Channel M when it moved in with the three radio stations in Salford Quays.

Accepting the honour, Andy joked about not making it to the awards because of the bad weather and said he had driven back to the North West in the afternoon – but added that he was glad he did attend and was surprised by the award. “This is a genuine shock,” he said. “I’ve spent the last 10 years working for GMG Radio with a fantastic bunch of people. I’m honoured to be the third person from radio to win this award. It’s a brilliant industry full of genuinely passionate people. The best thing is it creates pictures in people’s minds every day and influences millions of people around the UK. We’ve got brilliant radio stations here in the North West – it’s a great place to do business and be part of the media community.”

UTV Media’s 107.6 Juice FM won the Radio Station of the Year award, beating Real Radio North West, BBC Radio Cumbria, Capital FM Manchester, Heart North Wales and Wirral, Indigo 106.6, Signal 1 and XFM. The regional sales team from talkSPORT won the Sales Team prize, while GMG Radio was ‘highly commended’ in the Live Event category for their work on the 2011 Blackpool illuminations switch-on.

RadioToday.co.uk was also shortlisted in the Media Website of the Year category.