Sony awards give 6 Music and Asian Network a boost

Presenters from BBC 6 Music and its sister station the Asian Network - the two digital broadcasters earmarked for closure despite concerted campaigns from their listeners – have won a hat-trick of prizes at the Sony Awards last night, the radio industry's top annual ceremony.
 
Former Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker (above) won the "rising star" award for his new show on 6 Music while Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish - who are currently taking a break from their Saturday morning slot - won the best comedy prize. Meanwhile the Asian Network's Nihal Arthanayake won the best speech programme category for his weekday afternoon show. In contrast the BBC's most popular station, Radio 2, picked up only one gold award, for Dermot O'Leary's Saturday afternoon show.  
 
Other big-name winners at the Sonys included Sir David Attenborough, named speech broadcaster of the year for his work on Radio 4, and Radio 1's presenter Zane Lowe, who won both music broadcaster of the year and the best specialist music prize. 5 Live was named national station of the year while R4's Today programme took the best breakfast show.
 
The accolades for 6 Music and the Asian Network will come as an embarrassment to BBC director general Mark Thompson. He has said the stations are not popular enough to justify their combined budget of about £21m. However, when the latest official listening figures are published on Thursday, both stations are expected to show a significant jump in their audiences - no doubt helped by the high-profile campaigns to save them.

A Facebook campaign to save 6 Music has gained nearly 180,000 members while more than 100 prominent British Asians, including actress Meera Syal, film director Gurinder Chadha and boxer Amir Khan, have urged the BBC to halt its plans to close the Asian Network at the end of next year.
 
The proposals to close both digital broadcasters are currently the subject of a public consultation being overseen by the BBC Trust. Last month Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said that the planned cuts could be rethought if there was evidence of "massive public concern".

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