Danny Baker, Eddie Mair and Cerys Matthews were deserving winners at last week's Sony awards
*The Sony Radio Academy awards*
*The Danny Baker Show* (5 Live) | iPlayer
*PM* (R4) | iPlayer* *
*Cerys on 6* (6 Music) | iPlayer
To the *Sony Radio Academy awards* last Monday, radio's annual big bash. The Sonys have improved over the past few years: slicker and (slightly) quicker, with host Chris Evans ditching his cringey comments on women's appearances and, instead, this time, putting his son Noah on stage, for the "Aw" factor. Still, despite our host's best efforts, the evening was still an endurance test: five hours of awards, to a hall so packed that half the crowd couldn't see the stage, with winner after winner using the microphone wrongly so no one could hear what they were saying. Plus, you can never get a mobile signal at the Sonys, so no hilarious tweeting opps. Boo!
There was musical entertainment, in an effort to sparkle things up. Ultra-pro Robbie Williams, audience-pleasing with his Butlins-style banter, and Jamie Cullum, who played wonderfully, to a drunk and distracted room. Also Blue, with a new song (why?), and four-fifths of the Saturdays, who displayed the on-stage charisma and God-given performance talent of a family pack of Kit-Kat.
Winners? Sony Golds and big hoorays for Radio 1, which bagged best documentary, best music documentary, best news and current affairs programme, best use of multiplatform and some Golden Headphones (listeners' favourite presenters) for Dan and Phil. It was lovely to witness Steve Lamacq being honoured with a special award for his 20 years' radio service, to see John Humphrys and the Today programme grinning onstage with their gongs and to applaud 5Live's bagging of UK station of the year, best sports programme and best coverage of a live event after its excellent Olympic summer. Christian O'Connell had a top night, too, winning music radio personality and best use of branded content. But my three favourite Golds went to Danny Baker (entertainment programme), Eddie Mair (speech radio broadcaster) and Cerys Matthews (music radio broadcaster).
*Danny Baker*'s Saturday-morning 5 Live show is just as you'd expect: if you don't know Danny's broadcast style, then what have you been listening to for the past 20 years? Baker begins every programme with no prepared topics other than what's rattling around his quick and strangely wired mind. Thus you get a show that wonders about cramped spaces, double-crossing your mates, not realising your own strength. He knows a lot about football (a requirement for 5Live), a lot about music (less so, but endearing) and a lot about what gets people going. "Does any woman wear a nightdress any more?" he wonders and the listeners call in.
I once did an interview with Chris Tarrant when Tarrant was presenting the Capital breakfast show. He told me that if the phones weren't ringing there were three topics that guaranteed an instant response: religion, men versus women and nasty neighbours. At no point would Danny Baker ever resort to such tawdry tactics. Last Saturday he gave us: "Don't talk to me about… petals.""If we get one phone call about this it justifies it," he said, on air, "because I like to challenge an audience. There's no point in saying, 'Don't talk to me about… the government, Manchester United.' All we'll get is nuisances and professional people who call the radio all the time." That's why he's brilliant.
Eddie Mair didn't pick up his award at the Sonys, because he's cool. Mair doesn't appear to be cool – he looks like a banker with morals – but he is. Anyone who combines his scrupulous politeness with scalpel-sharp yet sympathetic interviewing is cool: add an offbeat sense of humour and you get, as André 3000 had it, ice-cool. *PM* both breaks stories and rounds up a day's news without sounding irrelevant (harder than you think in the internet age), and Mair has a rare, cherished connection with PM's listeners. Hands off, telly, that man is ours.
And *Cerys Matthews*'s show, every Sunday morning on 6 Music, is a proper delight. Early on in her 6 Music career, on weekday afternoons, Matthews was almost impossible to listen to: her mic technique was terrible, she ummed and aahed and dithered and blathered. Just four years later she's a different broadcaster: relaxed, warm, enthusiastic, eccentric. She switches from in-studio to outside broadcasts without a blink; her interviews are excellent. Her chat with Tom Jones last year was funny and sensitive, bringing out a side of him I'd not heard before. "I wore fluorescent orange," said naughty Cerys, "to remind you of the flamingo catsuit you wore on your show. Skin-tight with orange-pink ruffles!" Plus her choice in music is mind-boggling: from yodelling Bulgarians to finger-picking US folkies, yet she makes it seem all of a piece. Great stuff. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
*The Sony Radio Academy awards*
*The Danny Baker Show* (5 Live) | iPlayer
*PM* (R4) | iPlayer* *
*Cerys on 6* (6 Music) | iPlayer
To the *Sony Radio Academy awards* last Monday, radio's annual big bash. The Sonys have improved over the past few years: slicker and (slightly) quicker, with host Chris Evans ditching his cringey comments on women's appearances and, instead, this time, putting his son Noah on stage, for the "Aw" factor. Still, despite our host's best efforts, the evening was still an endurance test: five hours of awards, to a hall so packed that half the crowd couldn't see the stage, with winner after winner using the microphone wrongly so no one could hear what they were saying. Plus, you can never get a mobile signal at the Sonys, so no hilarious tweeting opps. Boo!
There was musical entertainment, in an effort to sparkle things up. Ultra-pro Robbie Williams, audience-pleasing with his Butlins-style banter, and Jamie Cullum, who played wonderfully, to a drunk and distracted room. Also Blue, with a new song (why?), and four-fifths of the Saturdays, who displayed the on-stage charisma and God-given performance talent of a family pack of Kit-Kat.
Winners? Sony Golds and big hoorays for Radio 1, which bagged best documentary, best music documentary, best news and current affairs programme, best use of multiplatform and some Golden Headphones (listeners' favourite presenters) for Dan and Phil. It was lovely to witness Steve Lamacq being honoured with a special award for his 20 years' radio service, to see John Humphrys and the Today programme grinning onstage with their gongs and to applaud 5Live's bagging of UK station of the year, best sports programme and best coverage of a live event after its excellent Olympic summer. Christian O'Connell had a top night, too, winning music radio personality and best use of branded content. But my three favourite Golds went to Danny Baker (entertainment programme), Eddie Mair (speech radio broadcaster) and Cerys Matthews (music radio broadcaster).
*Danny Baker*'s Saturday-morning 5 Live show is just as you'd expect: if you don't know Danny's broadcast style, then what have you been listening to for the past 20 years? Baker begins every programme with no prepared topics other than what's rattling around his quick and strangely wired mind. Thus you get a show that wonders about cramped spaces, double-crossing your mates, not realising your own strength. He knows a lot about football (a requirement for 5Live), a lot about music (less so, but endearing) and a lot about what gets people going. "Does any woman wear a nightdress any more?" he wonders and the listeners call in.
I once did an interview with Chris Tarrant when Tarrant was presenting the Capital breakfast show. He told me that if the phones weren't ringing there were three topics that guaranteed an instant response: religion, men versus women and nasty neighbours. At no point would Danny Baker ever resort to such tawdry tactics. Last Saturday he gave us: "Don't talk to me about… petals.""If we get one phone call about this it justifies it," he said, on air, "because I like to challenge an audience. There's no point in saying, 'Don't talk to me about… the government, Manchester United.' All we'll get is nuisances and professional people who call the radio all the time." That's why he's brilliant.
Eddie Mair didn't pick up his award at the Sonys, because he's cool. Mair doesn't appear to be cool – he looks like a banker with morals – but he is. Anyone who combines his scrupulous politeness with scalpel-sharp yet sympathetic interviewing is cool: add an offbeat sense of humour and you get, as André 3000 had it, ice-cool. *PM* both breaks stories and rounds up a day's news without sounding irrelevant (harder than you think in the internet age), and Mair has a rare, cherished connection with PM's listeners. Hands off, telly, that man is ours.
And *Cerys Matthews*'s show, every Sunday morning on 6 Music, is a proper delight. Early on in her 6 Music career, on weekday afternoons, Matthews was almost impossible to listen to: her mic technique was terrible, she ummed and aahed and dithered and blathered. Just four years later she's a different broadcaster: relaxed, warm, enthusiastic, eccentric. She switches from in-studio to outside broadcasts without a blink; her interviews are excellent. Her chat with Tom Jones last year was funny and sensitive, bringing out a side of him I'd not heard before. "I wore fluorescent orange," said naughty Cerys, "to remind you of the flamingo catsuit you wore on your show. Skin-tight with orange-pink ruffles!" Plus her choice in music is mind-boggling: from yodelling Bulgarians to finger-picking US folkies, yet she makes it seem all of a piece. Great stuff. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.