The award for the Radio Station of the Year for 2017 at the Bauer Media Radio Awards went to Wave 105. The awards ceremony was hosted in London on June 16 and radio stations from all over the country from the Bauer Media group were competing for 25 different awards. The most sought after of the awards is the Radio Station of the Year award which goes to the best of the best, the station that leads as others follow in its footsteps. According to RAJAR independent audience research, Wave 105 got a record number of audience over the past 12 months. According to the latest figures, 404,000 people were listening to it for 11.2 hours a week on average translating to 4,540,000 listening hours in total per week.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, the judge who was presenting the station with the award said that the station had set new records in reach hours, reaching the highest numbers it has achieved since it was launched 18 years ago. However, the performance also went beyond the numbers of people listening in as the commercial team was also credited for their record breaking performance which saw the revenue reach new heights and helped to push KPI to the top of the local sales league. The judge also pointed out that the performance was in the same spirit as last year’s Gold Award winner, Martin Ball.
Martin Ball is the managing director at Wave 105 and he spoke during the event, crediting the station’s amazing performance to having a talented, positive and committed team which has resulted in a culture that has encouraged them to try and have a greater impact on clients and audiences as much as possible. He described it as a major achievement and very rewarding for the team at Wave 105 to be recognised for the work that they do every day.
The Bauer radio awards is a yearly event that recognises radio stations in the Bauer group that have performed well in various areas over the year. Some of the categories that are awarded include Digital Product of the Year, Best Broadcast News or Sports Reader, Cash for Kids Team of the Year, Show of the Year, Breakfast Show of the Year, Event of the Year, The Content Team of the Year, Best New Idea of the Year, Digital innovation of the Year among others.