Real Radio is celebrating today after winning a prestigious Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for their poignant News Feature special programme, ‘Aberfan: Forty Years On’. 

 

Real Radio was the only radio station in Wales to receive a nomination, and win an award at this year’s Sony Radio Academy Awards, which was held last night at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. 

 

The Sony Radio Academy Awards, which celebrate excellence within the UK radio market, are recognised as the radio industry ‘Oscars’.

 

The Real Radio news team’s special award winning programme entitled ‘Aberfan: Forty Years On’, included interviews with survivors and the first return to the scene for one TV reporter who covered what is still considered to be one of Britain’s worst disasters, when a coal tip above the village collapsed and destroyed a school.

 

Andy Duckworth, Real Radio’s Deputy News Editor said: “The team planned this programme at the beginning of 2006 as we knew it was a hugely sensitive topic which had to be approached with care.  First Minister Rhodri Morgan and former Labour leader Lord Kinnock spoke to us about their involvement in the aftermath and many leading Welsh sports personalities recounted their memories.”

 

The GMG Radio owned station celebrated their prestigious win last night, and pledged to continue broadcasting sensitive, informative and hard hitting news features, which are regionally specific and relevant to local communities, across all their stations.   

 

The Sony Radio Academy Judges commented: "This was commercial radio at its best - relating to its community and its core demographic brilliantly. This was made by a small news team, but it had ambition both in terms of its journalism and in terms of its production standards. It not only told the story of a devastating event in the history of the local community, but also found a news angle which had not been covered before. It was a moving story, told simply and well by the people who had lived through it - the use of archive and new interviews was compelling."