The winners for the Audio Production Awards 2020 have been announced during an online ceremony hosted by Jeremy Vine and Snoochie Shy. It was a good night for George the Poet and producer Benbrick as they collectively won four Gold awards for ‘Have you heard George’s Podcast?’ This included Benbrick winning ‘Best Arts Producer’ with the judges saying: “We were simply blown away by the originality of this audio. It mixed amazing topics with a unique soundscape and was outstandingly creative”. Elsewhere BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne won Gold for ‘Best Presenter – Music’. Mark Kermode won Silver in that category for his Scala Radio show, while Radio 1Xtra’s Snoochie Shy, who co-hosted the APAs with Jeremy Vine, picked up the Bronze award. Gordon Lundy won ‘Best Station Producer’ for the Audio Content Fund-financed ‘Absolute Radio 40s’, specially produced to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day. The ‘Lifetime Achievement Award went to Annie Nightingale, in recognition of her 50-year career at BBC Radio 1, where she remains on air with 1Xtra. And the special Gold Award went to the online radio station No Signal, which champions the many different forms of black music, including scheduling ‘clashes’ between different DJs, some of which had over 200,000 listeners. The Gethin Thomas Comedy Award Gold was presented to Jon Holmes/Unusual for ‘The Skewer’, with the judges saying that “Along with impressive creativity, this entry embraced diversity in an impressive way, involving new first time writers and creators.” AudioUK Chair Kellie While said: “I’d like to offer my congratulations to all the winners and nominees. We’re so pleased at how this event was able to continue during the lockdown period in England, and it was a great night. The APAs team put together a really fun event and it was great to reward people’s hard work in our sector over the last year. The new Life in Lockdown Award, which recognises innovative and/or creative production during the COVID-19 restrictions, went to Aoife Allen and ‘Brixton Got Talent’. Made at HMP Brixton by Prison Radio in May, Brixton’s Got Talent featured inmates at HMP Brixton performing rap, song & poetry. The prestigious ‘Production Company of the Year’ Award went to The Prison Radio Association – which aims to contribute to a reduction in reoffending using the power of radio – also won three Golds, including, and New Voice award for Anthony Olanipekun.

(Source: Radio Today / RCS).