The ARIAS are returning for another year with the Radio Times Moment of the Year award – but who will win?
The Audio Radio Industry Awards are back for their eighth annual ceremony, honouring the biggest names and rising stars in radio.
Once again, Radio Times is partnering with the Radio Academy to celebrate the biggest moment of the year and you can decide the winner!
Previous winning moments include Deborah James’s final goodbye on BBC Radio 5 Live and Adele Roberts, whose return to Radio 1 encouraged listeners to get themselves checked after she received treatment for bowel cancer.
This year, the likes of Isabel Oakeshott’s Hancock hang-up, Rob Burrow being carried over the marathon finish line in Leeds, Ken Bruce’s first Greatest Hits Radio link and Luton Town being promoted to the Premier League are all up for nomination – it’s down to you to vote for your favourite moment in the poll below.
You have until 28th April 2024 to cast your vote and remember – don’t click until you’re really sure who you want to win as once you’ve clicked, your vote will be submitted!
There seems to be an issue with the quiz, please try again.The nominees are…
Jennie Longdon reveals the impact OCD has on her daily life, on Absolute Radio
During a discussion for Mental Health Awareness Week, presenter Jennie Longdon spoke about how her obsessive-compulsive disorder affected her life. As she talked about its impact on her caring for her baby son – making his bottle and changing his nappy repeatedly – she was overcome with emotion.
“When you have a mental illness, it can be very complicated, so it’s about removing any shame or stigma,” she says. “I don’t mind talking about heavy stuff concerning me, but when I mentioned my son that is when I got emotional, because as a parent it’s pretty impossible to talk about your children in that kind of way and to not.”
What she said had an almost instant effect: “A boss at a different radio station rung me, to say, ‘Wow, I just want to say, with what I now know you’re going through, you do an amazing job.’”
Ken Bruce joins Greatest Hits Radio
A month after he left his mid-morning Radio 2 show, Ken Bruce returned to the airwaves on Greatest Hits Radio with the Beatles’ Come Together and the words: “Ah, there you are.” Bruce remembers: “It was pretty much spur of the moment, it just seems like follow-on from what I’d been saying some weeks earlier. I don’t like to spend too much time poring over every detail of what I’m going to be doing.
“I think things usually work better in the moment on radio. So, as long as you are comfortable on air in radio and in a studio, then you’re going to trust yourself to come up with the right thought and it’s a natural forward. It was the longest I’ve ever had off since 1977, but the thing about the daily radio, it is a continuing conversation day to day. So, even if you’ve been off for a couple of weeks, even to a different station, you do just kind of pick up where you left off.”
Isabel Oakeshott’s Hancock hang-up, on Times Radio
In March 2023, journalist Isabel Oakeshott leaked the lockdown WhatsApp messages of former health secretary Matt Hancock. The pair had worked together on Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries and he described the leak as a massive betrayal and breach of trust. A few days afterwards, Oakeshott joined Cathy Newman on Times Radio Drive but took umbrage when it was suggested that she could no longer be trusted by any of her sources.
Newman remembers: “It was quite unexpected. But at the same time, I think you know when a conversation is going the way it’s going, there’s a possibility that it might not end entirely amicably. It’s not the first time it’s happened; George Galloway once walked out of an interview with me.”
She explains her line of questioning further: “Journalism does have a bit of a problem with trust sadly, so my concern as a journalist was just one of trust – and trust in our profession, not least – and the fact that she has betrayed trust.”
Nicky Campbell speaks to the daughter of his abuser, on his podcast Different
Nicky Campbell went public in 2022 about the sexual abuse he suffered as a boy at Edinburgh Academy. Since then he has been contacted by many others with similar claims – and also by the daughter of the teacher who abused him. Last November, he travelled to Edinburgh to interview her for his podcast Different.
He says: “Speaking with Jenny has been life-changing for me, and I think for her too. I’ve done some big interviews in my time but I’ve never been more nervous than going into that small studio in Edinburgh to talk to her. Terrified she would look like her father, terrified she would hold me responsible for all the pain she had felt since I spoke out… and terrified that I would break down.
“Instead we had a wonderful, and cathartic, interview. When I’m in my dotage I’ll look back on everything I did and I think this will be the thing that I am most proud of.”
Adrian Edmondson remembers Rik Mayall, on Desert Island Discs
Adrian Edmondson may have been doing the rounds promoting his memoir when he spoke to Lauren Laverne, but when the conversation turned to his late comedy partner Rik Mayall the raw emotion could not be suppressed.
Laverne reveals: “I was very grateful to him for talking about Rik because they were so special together to so many of us. It was very, very beautiful and we feel very privileged to be in a condition of trust, where people feel like they can do that. I was really glad he went there, even though it must have been difficult and I think he was a little bit surprised, because it had just been such a warm and quite jovial conversation.”
“Have you ever told a lie?” on BBC Radio Nottingham
When presenter Verity Cowley questioned the honesty of Ashfield MP Lee Anderson, who had just been appointed Conservative deputy chairman, the outspoken politician went on the attack, asking Cowley ten times if she’d ever lied and demanding the ten-minute interview be played out in full.
Cowley says: “He didn’t have the stoic politician’s response, but I was surprised he asked the question so many times, I think everyone was. Local radio is fantastic for this. It’s so rich and varied in what we do; we’re in this very privileged position where we are able to hold local politicians, the councillors and MPs to account in maybe ways that national media wouldn’t. One of the most privileged parts of working in local radio is the fact that you live in the community that you broadcast to and how close you are to the listeners as well.”
Rob Burrow carried over the finish line, on BBC Radio Leeds
Since Leeds Rhinos rugby league star Rob Burrow was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019, his family and friends have worked tirelessly to raise funds and awareness. At the end of the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon, his fellow rugby league star Kevin Sinfield, who had been pushing Burrow round in a wheelchair, cradled his friend in his arms and carried him over the finishing line.
Radio Leeds reporter Peg Alexander captured the scene. “I have the absolute privilege of being the only person who was live on air at that time, and it was beautiful; it was such a lovely thing to witness. I was completely overwhelmed by seeing this big macho man showing that level of tenderness and compassion. We just don’t see that sort of thing now,” says Alexander. “This sounds pretentious, but I feel like I lived through a moment of history.”
Comedian John Robins reveals his struggles with alcohol addiction and his journey of recovery for the first time, on BBC Radio 5 Live
At the start of a new run of their podcast How Do You Cope?, John Robins and Elis James dispensed with their usual catch-up at the top of the episode and devoted the whole programme to a full and frank discussion of John’s relationship with alcohol.
James says of their chat: “I have known John for 19 years and in the course of that long conversation, I felt like I knew him better than ever before. My job was very easy, I can claim very little credit for this nomination.”
Robins reflects on the impact the episode had: “So many people have been in touch with us to say that that conversation helped them, either to understand their own drinking, or understand their partner’s or their father’s. Most movingly, people have got in touch to say that it helped them come to terms with someone’s drinking when their drinking had actually caused their death.”
Luton Town are promoted to the Premier League, on BBC Three Counties Radio
Amid scenes of wild jubilation at Wembley after Luton won the Championship play-off against Coventry City on penalties, 13 years after the club was relegated to non-league football, presenter Justin Dealey and commentator Simon Oxley shared heartfelt family moments – Dealey was at the match with his seriously ill dad, who died shortly afterwards, while Oxley’s father had died months before.
Dealey remembers the day: “It was emotional because I knew it was going to be my last ever moment with my dad at a football game and what a moment that was, you couldn’t have written that script. His last ever kick of a Luton game was that penalty flying over the bar.”
Oxley says: “I think it was just a huge outpouring of emotion for many different reasons. A lot of people I’ve spoken to since were feeling the same, either because they were there with their dad, brother, or grandparent, or whether they weren’t and were thinking of them, it was a common thread of that moment.”
Letters to the Lionesses, on talkSPORT
As the England women’s football team prepared to make history in the World Cup final, talkSPORT invited young female football fans to deliver messages to their heroes, in the form of voice notes and letters. Liam Fisher, Head of Talksport says “We aimed to channel the immense momentum from fans at home to inspire the team against Spain in the final. Using the power of audio, we gathered numerous messages of support from young female fans. This emotive package was played on air and delivered to the Lionesses. While England fell short of victory in the final, their legacy has cemented a lifelong love for women’s football among fans of all ages.”
The 2024 ARIAS take place on Tuesday 7th May.
If you’re looking for something to watch, head over to our TV Guide.
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