• Simon Bates wins Arqiva/IRN Newslink Special Award
• Nick Ferrari takes Arqiva Commercial Radio Presenter of the Year Award
• GMG's Real Radio wins Arqiva Gold Award

Broadcast transmission group Arqiva and the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) have today announced the winners of this year's Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards.  The awards, presented at a lunchtime ceremony in central London, recognise excellence and talent in all aspects of Commercial Radio from sales and marketing to technical innovation and presenting.  Virgin Radio's Christian O'Connell hosted the event, assisted by guest presenters that included Jamie Theakston, Tony Blackburn, David Prever and Shaun Woodward MP.

Big winners this year include Guardian Media Group's Real Radio services who, between them, won Arqiva Commercial Radio Station of the Year (> 1 million TSA) and the Arqiva Commercial Radio News Award, as well as the Arqiva Commercial Radio Programme or Feature of the Year Award thanks to Real Radio Yorkshire's moving documentary feature "Bradford City Fire: 20 Years After". 

Simon Bates won the Special Award, marking his 35 years in UK radio.  Simon currently hosts Commercial Radio's biggest programme - the Classic FM breakfast show - and presents "Our Tune at Noon" once more across GCap's One Network group of stations.  The judges thought he had a unique radio style and, throughout his remarkable career, had never lost an ounce of his passion for communicating with listeners.

Fresh from success at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in May, LBC 97.3FM's Nick Ferrari reclaims the Arqiva Commercial Radio Presenter of the Year award, having previously won the title in 2003.  Nick has added listeners and hours year-on-year, but judges were particularly impressed by his ability to serve up a skilful mix of humour, pathos and headline-grabbing interviews to an appreciative and loyal London audience.

Commercial Radio's commitment to finding and nurturing new talent was in evidence as Rupert Jones and Thomas Bowker of Fox FM Oxfordshire collected the Arqiva/Skillset Commercial Radio Presentation Newcomers of the Year Award.  The contribution stations make to the community was highlighted by The Arqiva Commercial Radio Social Action Initiative Award, won by GWR Radio for their "Radio in Schools" campaign which tackled the problem of child literacy and made reading fun again for Bristol schoolchildren.   In fact, smaller local Commercial Radio stations fared well generally with UTV's 107.6 Juice FM, Lincs FM Group's Dearne FM and TLRC's Wessex FM all fighting off much larger competitors to win their categories. 

At the national end of the scale, Classic FM's Sales Team won their category for the third year running while talkSPORT won the Arqiva Commercial Radio Station Sound Award for an entry described by judges as  ‘irreverent and passionate - just like the station'.

In London, Heart 106.2's Mark Browning scooped the prestigious Arqiva Commercial Radio Programmer of the Year Award for an entry that the judges said made the station sound ‘big, funny, human and proud'. 

Finally, in a year which has been all about choice, manipulation, interaction and downloading of radio content, Chrysalis Radio Engineering walked away with the Arqiva Technical Innovation Award for their Premium Podcasting Service which saw 500,000 audio files downloaded in its first four months and which is actually bringing in revenue for the station.

Alison Winter, Research and Communications Manager at the CRCA, commented: "This is the last year that CRCA organises this event and we could not be handing it over to our successor, the RadioCentre, in any better shape with record entries and a list of winners that truly reflects the diversity and creativity of the people and stations that make up today's UK Commercial Radio industry."

Paul Eaton, Head of Radio at Arqiva, added: "The Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards is a fantastic event that we are proud to support.  With digital radio and independently-owned stations allowing radio to quickly adapt to the changing needs of today's audience, it's a truly exciting time to be involved in the Industry. These awards recognise the talent, accomplishments and innovation of all those who work in radio and, on behalf of Arqiva, I would like to congratulate all the winners."     

The full list of awards winners is given below:

• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Programmer of the Year - Mark Browning - Heart 106.2
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Marketing Award - Sue Green, Graham Lysaght and Hamish Law - 107.6 Juice FM 
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Social Action Initiative Award - Radio in Schools - GWR FM Bristol
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Station of the Year (<300,000 TSA) - 102.5 Radio Pembrokeshire
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio News Award - Real Radio Yorkshire
• The Arqiva Local Sales Team of the Year - The Dearne FM Sales Team
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Technical Innovation Award - Chrysalis Radio Engineering for LBC 97.3FM and LBC News 1152 AM
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Station of the Year (300,000 to 1 million TSA) - 97.2 Beacon Radio (West Midlands)
• The Arqiva National Sales Team of the Year - Classic FM Sales Team
• The Arqiva/British Heart Foundation Action on Health Award - Wessex FM
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Programme or Feature of the Year - The Bradford City Fire: 20 Years After - Real Radio Yorkshire
• The Arqiva/Skillset Commercial Radio Presentation Newcomesr of the Year - Rupert Jones and Thomas Bowker - Fox FM Oxfordshire
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Digital Station of the Year - Planet Rock
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Station Sound Award - Peter Gee, Jonathan Young and Liz Brace - talkSPORT
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Presenter of the Year - in association with x-trax - Nick Ferrari - LBC 97.3FM
• The Arqiva Commercial Radio Station of the Year (>1 million TSA) - Real Radio Scotland
• The Neil Robinson Memorial Award for Marketing Excellence - Dawn Gibson - 96.6 TFM
• The Arqiva/IRN Newslink Commercial Radio Special Award - Simon Bates
• The Arqiva Gold Award - Real Radio