Bay FM in Byron Bay NSW won the Radio Station of the Year award, sponsored by Klotz Digital. This caps off an excellent year for Bay FM, a year that also saw Bay FM open up brand new studios. Congratulations to Chezi and all the gang at Bay FM!

Jim Beatson and his tireless efforts were recognised when Jim was awarded the Michael Law Award. It’s hard to encapsulate everything that Jim has done for the sector in the short time allotted for the winners’ acceptance speeches, but that didn’t stop Jim from having a go (only joking, mate!).

3CR of Melbourne were the recipients of the prestigious Tony Staley Award that recognises activities that promote values of community radio broadcasting. 2006 was a banner year for 3CR as they celebrated their 30th anniversary of dynamic and progressive radio with no signs of slowing down.

Noani Pearce-Rasmussen of Edge Radio in Hobart won the Excellence in Spoken Word Programming - Radio prize for the program ‘Journalists on the Edge’. This was another hotly contested category. Ghassan Makaren, Annandrie Reyes and Reged Ahmed of National Radio News, Angelina Edwards and Annie Hastwell of Radio Adelaide and Katrina Roe of 89.9 Light FM all received a Highly Commended in this category, and we congratulate you all.

Best Innovative New Program/Segment Idea – Radio award went to Desh from Syn FM in Melbourne for the program ‘Word War One’. Logan Bold and Stephen House of Radio Adelaide and Grant and Debbie Glastonbury of Great Southern FM were both awarded Highly Commended in this category.

Syn FM were also the proud winners of the Innovation in Training award. 8KIN and Triple B FM were awarded the Highly Commended.

The Can’t Get Out of the Car award for radio went to Stephen Pickells of 2SER for ‘Gay Super Guy’ with Graham Smith of 5GTR’s ‘Lead in Pencils' picking up the Highly Commended.

Local music was represented in two categories. The APRA sponsored Contribution to Local Music Content for Radio award was taken out by ‘On The Corner’ by Peter Nelson and Ross Ogden as heard on Sydney’s 2SER. Highly Commended in this category went to ‘The DIY Arts Show’ by Lou Smith and Nicole Hurtubise of 3CR. Seth Jordan of Artsound FM and his program ‘The Tiki Lounge’ won the category for Excellence in Music Programming for radio, proudly sponsored by the PPCA.

Bay FM continued their winning form when they took out the award for Contribution to Indigenous Broadcasting awarded to Ros Elliot for the ‘Caring for Country’ edition of the program Go EarthCare. Perth’s Access 31 and their program ‘BobTales’ were highly commended in this category.

Never a station to settle on being the bridesmaid, Access 31’s ‘Australian Croats’ program, overseen by Antony Sunich won the award for Contribution to Ethnic Broadcasting.

Megan Venn-Brown from Noosa Community Radio won the award for Innovative Place or Subject for an Outside Broadcast for the ‘Peregian Originals Concert’.

Ahmed Hassan of Salam Cafe was awarded the Television Producer of the Year.

Best/Innovative Idea in Fundraising went to Larrkardi Radio from Derby in Western Australia for ‘Books in Homes’.

Sydney’s Muslim Community Radio were victorious in the category for Best/Innovative Announcement, Sponsorship or Promotion. Highly Commended in this category went to a number of stations, those being ninety nine seven fm for ‘Local Auctions’ (Craig Rowe), 92 FM - Sound of The City for ‘Clip Joint’ (Terry Mather), RTR FM for ‘Woodstock Rock’ (Bill McGuiness and Erik Hecht) and Noosa Community Radio for ‘Doggy Business’ (Mark Rodriquez).

Rob Ball and the team from ‘No Limits’ of C31 Melbourne were the winners of Television Program of the Year while Access 31 Productions were awarded highly commended for the program ‘Teenwire’.

Graham Smith of 5GTR won the award for Innovative Station /Program Promotion Idea for their ‘Jazz ID’. Highly Commended went to ONEfm 98.5 for their coverage of the Goulburn Valley Football League.

The award for New Voices (Radio & TV went to Chadwick and Jessica Palmer of the 4MBS program ‘Kids Classics’.

Value for Money for Radio prize went to the team at Radio Upper Murray.

The Troy Garner Award for Excellence in Sports Programming went to 5GTR’s ‘The Round Ball’ hosted by Nathan Butler. We thank Troy’s father Arnie Garner for kindly donating the prize money for this award. It’s a very special award for the CBAA as it commemorates the late Troy Garner’s love of sport and broadcasting.

We thank all award entrants and conference attendees for making this a fantastic event!