Each year at the Riverside Radio Christmas party we hold an awards ceremony. It's a chance for our volunteers to be recognised for the superb work they put into creating, producing and presenting programmes dedicated to south west London. The three minute audio entries are judged by presenters, producers and others professionals in the wider radio industry.

This year and for the first time, one volunteer scooped three awards including for best specialist show, best community content and for best newcomer. Rosie Cooper joined Riverside Radio around this time last year. She had an idea for a programme which dives into the rivers, ponds and leaf piles of South West London to celebrate the amazing nature on our doorstep. Saturday Splash aired and has since become a very successful podcast.

Radio X Presenter Dan Gasser who judged the Best Specialist Show award said

“I really enjoyed the delivery and tone, the outside presenting was really skilful as opposed to just being in the studio and sat in front of the mic. I thought Rosie was really good at resetting features without repeating too much info and getting on with the next bit and it sounds like you genuinely enjoy hosting the show and having fun doing it.”

Dan Simpson who hosts the afternoon show on Fun Kids Radio judged the best newcomer award and selected Rosie as the winner saying

“Rosie is an incredibly engaging presenter with real warmth, the tone was funny, there was so much going on. I really wanted to listen to more and I wanted to be the mate of the presenter. It was very creative in the way it used radio for the subject, it wasn’t just one person talking into a microphone. It also had that real quality where you wanted to lean in and listen closely to find out more and with that on radio you're onto a winner.”

Other award winners on the night included…

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Best Reporter - Judged by Sangita Myska from LBC

‍Eve Bennet - Winner

Richard Wheatley - Runner up

Best Sports Reporter - Sanny Rudravajhala from BBC Sport

Ayisha Gulati - Winner

Finlay Morris - Runner Up

Best Specialist Show - Dan Gasser from Radio X

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Saturday Splash - Rosie Cooper - Winner

Whoah Pony with Grace Wheatley - Runner up

Best Community Content - Dom Chambers from Community Media Association

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Rosie Cooper - Winner

Ayisha Gulati - Runner up

Best Daytime Show - Mollie Finn from Reprezent Radio

‍Wake up SW London with Zofia Hare - Winner

Riverside Drive with Joey and Ally - Runner up

Best Newcomer - Dan Simpson from Fun Kids Radio

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Rosie Cooper - Winner

Lydia Rodford - Runner up

Best Female Presenter - Louisa Hannan from BBC Radio Solent

Lydia Rodford - Winner

Becca Kellaway - Runner Up

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Best Male Presenter - Jen Thomas from Magic Radio

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Dan Draper - Winner

Martin Joseph - Runner up

Best Breakfast Show - James Barr from Hits Radio UK Breakfast with Fleur East

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Friday Breakfast with Martin and Becca - Winner

Monday Breakfast with Ally and Georgey - Runner up

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The Steve Zetter Award

The Steve Zetter Award is a special award in memory of one of our most dedicated volunteers Steve Zetter who sadly died in 2017. It recognises a volunteer which has put extra special effort and time into the running of the radio station over the year with the award recipient being chosen by Riverside Radio founder and managing director Jason Rosam. This year Ian Barclay became a member of the management team as our Arts Editor after producing some superb arts news content for many, many years. Ian puts in so much effort training and supporting new volunteers not just in the arts team but new presenters as well. He is always available to hep in any way he can and his Sunday Barclays Brunch show is one of the most listened to programmes on the station. He massively deserves to be recognised for his commitment to the station.

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Volunteer of the Year

Finally our Volunteer of the Year award which is voted on the night by volunteers attending the Christmas party is our News Editor Stephen Menon. Although Stephen is studying journalism at University and keeps a weekend job producing at BBC Radio London he is always committed to getting exciting local news content on Riverside Radio. Always on the ball, Steven works hard to produce Riverside Reports every Friday night with a brilliant team.

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