On to happier matters. Well, happy for the winners.
It was the radio industry's big night out last night - the Sony Awards - and, as usual, many of the big winners came from the BBC, with Russell Brand, Chris Moyles, Simon Mayo and Jonathan Ross all taking awards for their respective shows on Radios 2, 1, 5 and 2. Radio 4, meanwhile, was named UK Station Of The Year, while departing BBC radio chief Jenny Abramsky was give a Special Award. The BBC World Service, meanwhile, won four awards, including News Journalist Of The Year for Owen Bennett-Jones and Best News And Current Affairs Programme for 'Newshour'.
Just in case you wondered if commercial radio stations were capable of winning awards when the BBC is also a contender well, yes, they can. The commercial sector took four of the other station awards and officially ran the best competition of the last year, so that's good. One of the winning commercial stations was Planet Rock, which commercial radio group GCap is currently considering closing down. Which is slightly ironic.
Anyway, the full list of Gold winners this year was as follows...
People Awards
Music Radio Personality Of The Year: Jonathan Ross/BBC Radio 2
Rising Star Award: George Lamb, 6 Music
Speech Broadcaster of the Year: Simon Mayo/BBC 5 Live
Entertainment Award: Russell Brand/BBC Radio 2
Breakfast Show Award: Chris Moyles/BBC Radio 1
Music Broadcaster Of The Year: Andi Durrant/Galaxy
News Journalist Of The Year: Owen Bennett-Jones/BBC World Service
Programmer Of The Year: Mary Kalemkerian/BBC 7
Show Awards
Drama Award: Q&A/BBC Radio 4
Comedy Award: Down The Line/BBC Radio 4
Live Event Coverage Award: Gosnold 400/BBC Radio Suffolk
News & Current Affairs Award: Newshour/BBC World Service
Sports Programme Award: All The Tickets Are In The Wrong Hands/Radio City
Music Programme Award: Dermot O'Leary/BBC Radio 2
Specialist Music Programme Award: Friday Night Floorfillers/Forth One
Music Special Award: Feelgood Factor/BBC Radio 2
Speech Programme Award: Saturday Live/BBC Radio 4
Feature Award: Malcolm McLaren's Life & Times In LA/BBC Radio 2
Internet Programme Award: Book Slam Podcast/Karen P Productions
Multiplatform Radio Award: Bangladesh Boat Project/BBC World Service
Listener Participation Award: World Have Your Say/BBC World Service
News Awards
News Feature Award: Britain's Missing Girls/BBC Asian Network
Breaking News Award: Omagh Fire Tragedy/BBC Radio Ulster
Community Award: Lights Out London/Capital 95.8
Marketing Awards
Competition Award: Sell Me The Answer/Key 103
Promo Award: Green Project/Radio Aire
Station Imaging Award: Magic 105.4
Station Awards
Digital Station of the Year: Planet Rock
Station of the Year Award (TSA under 300,000): Silk FM
Station of the Year (TSA 300,000 - 1million): GWR Bristol
Station of the Year (TSA over 1 million): Key 103
UK Station of the Year: BBC Radio 4
Special Awards
Local and Regional Lifetime Achievement Award: Eamonn Mallie/Downtown Radio
Gold Award: Brian Matthew/BBC Radio 2
Special Award: Jenny Abramsky/BBC Audio & Music