The better-known Academy Awards come from Hollywood, but the radio Oscars always come from Mayfair. This year’s Sony Radio Academy Awards, to give them their proper title, will be presented tomorrow night in Park Lane. Both events are black-tie galas with plenty of paparazzi and the results are not known in advance, but there the similarities end. Acceptance speeches at the Academy Awards may be tearful and gushing, but at least they are not peppered with the sort of four-letter words that, in recent years, have helped make the Sonys an increasingly downmarket affair, more gaudy than glitzy.

When, for example, Chris Moyles won the entertainment prize in 2006 after a 16-year wait, he responded with a churlish “About f***ing time”, and others I have heard over the years, unwilling to restrain themselves in front of 1,200 guests, include Jonathan Ross, Christian O’Connell, Lucio and Bobby Friction. How ironic it is that, even in radioland, people moderate their behaviour only when the cameras are on them and they know they are on the air.

It does not have to be like this: when the Sonys began, in the early 1980s, they were sedate lunchtime gatherings, not preceded by hours of heavy imbibing, and with royalty sometimes in evidence. Princess Margaret and the Duchess of York both presented prizes during the first seven years.

Although the actual event has grown coarser, the stated object of the Sonys remains the same: to reward excellence across an ever-changing range of categories (I was a Sony judge for best children’s show and best news coverage, both now gone). And it is true that the neat Perspex slabs are still the most coveted prizes in British radio. But it is clearly absurd, if quality is the main criterion, that Radio 3 has never won station of the year and has only once been nominated - with no explanation ever being offered for this. It is absurd, too, that Radio 2’s Ken Bruce, a man of dry wit, impeccable timing and considerable musical knowledge, has never won a Sony, and that John Tusa’s millennial series, 20/20: A View of the Century, was not even shortlisted.

Most bizarrely, Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4, was a member of the Sony awards committee that last year produced a shortlist of 25 names in a “broadcasters’ broadcaster” poll that did not even (as I pointed out at the time) include the great jazz and comedy presenter Humphrey Lyttelton, though this did not stop him and other BBC bosses heaping praise on him after he had gone.

Perhaps it will always be like this: a matter of opinion, a bit of luck, a desire to please all sides of British radio and accommodate the increasing number of stations and formats. These Golden Mikes, as they could be called, do draw attention to the medium and recognise innovation (new awards this year are for “listener participation” and “multi-platform radio”). But it would do the organisers no harm to consider reforms to the judging. At the moment, who judges what is a secret, another recent odd stipulation, but the panels change from year to year, inevitably giving rise to inconsistencies. Why not give the vote to the Radio Academy’s 1,111-strong membership, just as it is the 6,000-strong voting membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who decide on the Oscars?

paul.donovan@sunday-times.co.uk

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