The Frank Gillard Awards 2004 have been evenly distributed in contrast
with previous years where stations like Derby and Leeds dominated.
The 14 awards this year were shared by 13 stations with only BBC
Radio Kent gaining more than one, taking Gold for its Breakfast
and Outside Broadcast entries.
The awards, which celebrate the very best of BBC Local Radio, were
presented by the Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson,
at a ceremony held at Birmingham's International Convention Centre last
night (14 October).
BBC Radio Solent was named Station of the Year winner
repeating its triumph from 2000 in the inaugural Frank Gillard Awards.
BBC Essex missed out in the Outside Broadcast category
for its recreation of Sixties pirate radio but its programme All At
Sea about the early days of the Essex pirate stations scooped the Gold
award in the Feature category.
BBC Radio Cleveland is celebrating after pulling off
an amazing double this year. Its Gold in the Coverage of a News Story
category for the State Visit of President Bush repeated the programme's
triumph in the Event category at the national Sony Awards.
Nick Pandolfi from rural BBC Radio Suffolk triumphed
over BBC London's Vanessa Feltz in the Programme Presenter category
but BBC London's Ben Wilkins guaranteed
a Gold for the metropolitan station for his Reporter entry.
The Outstanding Contribution to BBC Local Radio award went to Peter
Adamson of BBC Radio Humberside.
Peter was a contributor on the station in the late Seventies when he
was a teacher, but then went on to present a weekly jazz programme across
ten northern stations and to become the station's key mid-morning presenter.
He has now presented more than 4,000 programmes for the station, but
is stepping down from his regular Soapbox phone-in later this month.
Before the awards ceremony BBC Local Radio's first and only Controller,
Michael Barton, was honoured with the fellowship of
the Radio Academy by Helen Boaden, BBC Director of News and Chair of
the Radio Academy.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mark Thompson congratulated the winners and
said: "BBC Local Radio is a public service cornerstone, a place where
the BBC's relationship with communities up and down the country comes
to life."
Judges for this year's awards included past and present Local Radio
broadcasters along with leading journalists, managers and regulators
from both public service and commercial radio.
The awards are named in honour of the founder of BBC Local Radio in
England, Frank Gillard, who died in 1998.
Full list of winners (in Gold, Silver and Bronze order):
The Breakfast Programme
BBC Radio Kent - Good Morning Kent
BBC GMR - Greater Manchester's Breakfast
BBC WM - The Adrian Goldberg Breakfast Show
Programme Presenter
BBC Radio Suffolk - Nick Pandolfi
BBC London 94.9 - Vanessa Feltz
BBC Radio Solent - Julian Clegg
Coverage of a New Story
BBC Radio Cleveland - The State Visit of President Bush
BBC Radio Humberside - Soham murders and the Bichard Inquiry
BBC Radio Nottingham - The murder of Marian Bates
Interactive Programme
BBC Radio Nottingham - Groundswell: No Room for Students?
BBC Radio Leeds - It's Your Call
BBC Radio Stoke - Inside Lives
Reporter
BBC London 94.9 - Ben Wilkins
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - Max Rushden
BBC Radio Lincolnshire - Scott Dalton
Sports Coverage
BBC Radio Merseyside - I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It - The
Story Of Rome '84
BBC Radio Cleveland - The Welsh Weekender (Silver)
BBC Radio Humberside - Hull City: Promotion to Division Two (Bronze)
BBC Radio Oxford - British Speedway GP 2004 (Bronze)
Social Action Campaign
BBC Radio Gloucestershire - Bio-Diversity Day
BBC Radio Devon - The Chestnut Appeal Story
BBC Radio Merseyside - Taking Care on BBC Radio Merseyside
Radio Feature
BBC Essex - All At Sea
BBC Three Counties Radio - The Stephen Rhodes Consumer Programme
BBC Radio York - One Soldier's Story
Outside Broadcast
BBC Radio Kent - The Drive Show D-Day OB
BBC Radio Leeds - The Funeral of John Charles
BBC Essex - Pirate Radio Essex
Religious Programming
BBC Radio Leeds
BBC Radio Gloucestershire
BBC Radio Nottingham
Radio Promotion
BBC Radio Devon - Test the County
BBC Radio Lincolnshire - Proud To Be A Yellowbelly
BBC Radio Solent - D-Day Sixty Years On
Diversity
BBC Radio Stoke
BBC Radio Nottingham
BBC London 94.9
Outstanding Contribution to BBC Local Radio
Peter Adamson - BBC Radio Humberside
Station of the Year
BBC Radio Solent
BBC Essex
BBC London 94.9
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