Sony Awards Get it Right

With all the fuss about the lamentable Young Musician of the Year coverage (more to come, by the way), I nearly missed the Sony Awards, the 'radio industry Oscars'. And finally we have something that the BBC should be celebrating - namely awards for Radio 4 and the wonderful Simon Mayo (above).

The Radio Academy website has all the winners and a press release.

And here's a blog about the awards from John Plunkett on the Guardian website.

Simon Mayo, who has won Speech Broadcaster of the Year, is one of the BBC's very finest talents; incredibly versatile, capable of dealing with serious news content and the very lightest fluff, usually in the same show on Five Live, but always intelligent, interested, probing and warm. Of course, his two-ways with film critic Mark Kermode are now legend. When Simon recently stood in for Ken Bruce (who, by the way, is always criminally over-looked - he is another astonishingly good broadcaster) on Radio 2, we were reminded of his natural talent for DJ shows too. He was always one of the more thoughtful and incisive Radio 1 DJs, but his seamless move into more serious news-based formats on Five Live has proved that this is a brilliant performer will much to offer.

Radio 4 is the best radio station in the world, absolutely no contest. On holiday abroad, it's the one thing I miss most about home. It is consistently intelligent, challenging, stimulating and entertaining radio. It's not perfect and there are corners of the schedule that I dislike very much (as it should be). But there really is nothing like it on earth - a broadcasting treasure of which the BBC should be rightly proud. It deserves its Sony for Station of the Year every year.