It might be too "middle class" for the presenter of Woman's Hour but a resurgent Radio 4 was crowned Station of the Year at the industry's annual awards.

Chris Moyles, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross also shared the honours at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, which confirmed the BBC's dominance over the commercial sector.

Radio 4, currently celebrating the sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and riots of 1968, took the took prize. The judges commended "a network at the top of its game".

The last quarterly figures showed that Radio 4 has added 270,000 listeners to reach 9.56 million. Kirsty Young has increased the Desert Island Discs audience to a record 2.93 million across the week since taking over from Sue Lawley.

But Mark Damazer, Radio 4 Controller, was forced to defend his station after Jane Garvey, the new Woman's Hour presenter, criticised its "massive middle class bent".

"I would like to have less (sic) middle-class ladies talking about cookery," she said. Mr Damazer said he was not ashamed at the tag. "The country has become infinitely more middle class than it was," he argued.

Ms Garvey has contributed to Radio 4's resurgence. The Woman's Hour audience increased to 3.06 million in her first full quarter, an increase of 200,000 on the previous one.

Radio 4 won the Drama and Comedy categories at the awards. Mr Damazer is seeking more hit comedies to follow Down The Line, the spoof phone-in show, created by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, which listeners initially thought was genuine. Fi Glover's Saturday Live magazine programme won the best Speech prize.

Rejecting criticisms that The Archers has become "sexed up" in search of ratings, Mr Damazer is promising more highbrow offerings. Professor Jonathan Spence, the author of The Search for Modern China, will deliver the Reith lectures, now in their 60th year, before this year's Olympics in Beijing.

The judges said Radio 4 "moves with ease between news, culture and entertainment without losing its shape and overall sense of editorial purpose."

Planet Rock, which will close this month if a buyer is not found, won Digital Station of the Year. The Station, which has 563,000 listeners, has been abandoned by owners GCap Media.

Brian May, the Queen guitarist, hopes to lead a rescue package. He said: "I am part of a small group of people who have great hopes that we will succeed in taking over the station, and putting it on a firm footing, for the benefit of its growing audience."

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