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Press Releases
Great 40th birthday present for Radio Leicester at the Frank Gillard Awards 2007
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91Èȱ¬ Director-General Mark Thompson honoured the winners of the Frank Gillard Awards 2007 at an awards ceremony in the impressive surroundings of Birmingham Town Hall.
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The Gillard Awards were the centrepiece of a celebration of 40 years of 91Èȱ¬ Local Radio attended, on Saturday 24 November, by listeners, staff and freelances, past and present, from all the 91Èȱ¬'s 40 stations.
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The awards were presented by well-known alumni of 91Èȱ¬ Local Radio, including Jane Garvey, Simon Mayo, Jon Sopel, Kate Adie, Sophie Raworth, Michael Buerk, Mary Rhodes, Sonia Deol, Garry Richardson and by the Chairman of the 91Èȱ¬ Trust, Sir Michael Lyons.
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91Èȱ¬ Radio Leicester celebrated its 40 years on air (the anniversary was 8 November) by winning two Gillards. Ben Jackson took Gold for the Breakfast Programme category and Herdle White, whose black music programmes and reporting have been a constant on the station for 39 years, won one of the six Outstanding Contribution to 91Èȱ¬ Local Radio awards.
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The coveted Station of the Year award for 2007 went to 91Èȱ¬ Radio Leeds while Ronnie Barbour of 91Èȱ¬ Three Counties Radio won Gold in the most strongly contested category – Programme Presenter – coming first out of 28 entries.
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It was a good year for the bigger metropolitan stations as 91Èȱ¬ London 94.9's coverage of the London marathon gained the Outside Broadcast Gillard, 91Èȱ¬ Radio Manchester came tops in the Station Sound category, and 91Èȱ¬ Radio Merseyside's prison phone-in took the Interactivity Award for Roger Phillips.
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Amongst the smaller stations, 91Èȱ¬ Hereford and Worcester has been making a habit of winning Gillards and this year was no exception with the station winning the Original Journalism category for its coverage of the plight of migrant workers.
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The 40 years of 91Èȱ¬ Local Radio were marked by six Outstanding Contribution Awards presented by Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the 91Èȱ¬, to:
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- Radio Leicester's Herdle White.
- Alison Hartley, a founder member of the 91Èȱ¬ Essex team whose battle with a brain tumour has not stopped her contributing to the station.
- John Walch, a much appreciated 91Èȱ¬ Radio Sheffield engineer who has been with the station since 1973 and is now the second longest-serving member of 91Èȱ¬ staff.
- Ray French, the doyen of Rugby League commentators for Radio Merseyside and 91Èȱ¬ Sport.
- John Jefferson, the former manager of 91Èȱ¬ Radio York and Leeds whose career began on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Durham as a reporter and continues to this day with 91Èȱ¬ Local Radio as a consultant and trainer.
- Owen Bentley, organiser of the Gillard Awards, who started his career as a producer at 91Èȱ¬ Radio Stoke-on-Trent in 1967 – after a few weeks at Radio Sheffield while Stoke's opening was delayed by foot-and-mouth – and who has since been manager at Radio Leicester, and Head of Local and Network Radio in the Midlands.
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JW
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