On Friday 19th November, Surge Radio travelled up to London’s Shepherd’s Bush for the 2004 Student Radio Awards.  

Having picked up four nominations, emotions were running high and everybody was excited.  Surge had been nominated for:

Best News and Talk

Best Technical Achievement

Best Male

Best Station

Doors to the event opened five minutes late, at 7.05, due to a pigeon causing a disturbance in the venue and trouble catching it.  However, once entry was allowed, those present were greeted by an all-you-can-drink champagne reception and an opening address by Steve Lamacq, who co-hosted the ceremony with fellow Radio One DJ, Jo Whiley.  As anticipated, his welcome speech was crammed full of cheesy one-liners and offered many thanks to the sponsors of the awards.  

Awards were given out for Best Marketing and Best Technical Achievement (sponsored by VCS Engineering), for which Surge received the second-place Silver award.  The Gold was presented to the winning station, CUR 350, University of Cambridge, by Radio 1 daytime DJ, Scott Mills.  Following the announcement of another load of coveted radio awards presented by celebrities from the world of radio, there was a break.  Then Jo and Steve took to the stage once more for a tribute to John Peel, the Radio One legend who recently passed away of a heart attack on holiday.  All gathered stood and clapped and Mich Ben’s “One Minute’s Noise” was played in Peel’s honour.  With a chorus of “to have a minute’s silence would be wrong/let’s have a minute’s noise for John”, Lamacq commented that this was “a fitting tribute”.

Best Technical Achievement was the only award that Surge managed to scoop, despite the promise of four nominations and their past form – last year they received Gold for Best Technical Innovation and Silver for Best Radio Website as well as being nominated for Best Show.  This year however, they were pipped to the post for their other nominations by the following student radio stations around the UK:

 

Best News and Talk (sponsored by LBC 97.3FM):

Bronze: “Unlucky in Love”, Utopia FM – University of Sunderland

Silver: “Mission Impossible”, IC Radio – Imperial College London

Gold: “The Mock Critic”, Utopia FM - University of Sunderland

 

Best Male (sponsored by BBC Radio 1):

Bronze: Pete Cooper, Fuse FM – University of Manchester

Silver: Andy Kench, Xpression FM – University of Exeter

Gold: Andy Scott, URN – University of Nottingham

 

Best Station (sponsored by BBC Radio 1):

Bronze: LSR – University of Leeds

Silver: Insanity – Royal Holloway College, University of London

Gold: Fresh Air – University of Edinburgh

 

Despite not picking up all the awards expected, Surge remained in high spirits all night and danced the rest of the evening away in the company of celebs such as Craig Charles and Nemone, whilst Colin Murray (who visited SUSU during Freshers’ Week 2004) played a whole bunch of fantastic records.  Matt Treacy, Surge Station Manager who was nominated for the Best Male category, commented that it was “an honour simply to have been nominated for so many awards given the stiff competition” and the ever-increasing quality presenters and shows offered by student radio stations.  Steve Lamacq summed the entire mood up perfectly in his final speech, which ended with, “whether you won or not, you matter!”.

Everyone at the Wessex Scene and SUSU would like to offer the Surge team their congratulations on their Silver Award for Best Technical Achievement and are looking forward to the Student Radio Awards 2005.  Keep up the good work!

Listen live to SURGE radio now!  Tune in on 1287AM or listen on the worldwide web at www.surgeradio.co.uk.

surge,award,radio,nominated,silver