BBC dominates at the Sonys

The BBC dominated at last night's Sony Radio awards, winning 24 of the 33 awards.

Only nine of the awards went to commercial stations, most notably GCap's Classic FM, which won UK station of the year.

BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans beat Jonathan Ross to Music Radio Personality of the Year, while Evans' drivetime show also won the Entertainment Award.

Radio 1's Colin Murray was named Music Broadcaster of the Year, while Mark Radcliffe won the Music Programme Award, for Smooth Operations on Radio 2. The Music Special Award went to Malcolm McLaren’s Musical Map of London - Just Radio for Radio 2.

Radio 4's John Humphrys, who won News Journalist of the Year for his reporting in Iraq, used his acceptance speech to highlight the work of foreign correspondents, including kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston. He said they were doing "what I did, day after day, week after week, month after month." Radio 4's Today programme also won the Best Breakfast Show award.

Sir David Frost, who presented the award, was cheered by the audience when he said: "Next year I hope this will be the Moira Stuart news journalist of the year award," in reference to BBC News dropping the newsreader from some of its bulletins.

The Breaking News Award went to BBC London 94.9 for its coverage of the London Tornado, the News Feature Award was won by Whistledown Productions for Radio 4 with Letters from Guantanamo Bay, and the News & Current Affairs Programme Award was given to Five Live Breakfast.

The late John Peel won a special honour to mark the awards' 25th year, being named the Broadcasters’ Broadcaster, given to the most influential radio star of the past 25 years.

SMG's Virgin Radio won an award for Best Radio Competition for 'Who's Calling Christian?', which ran on the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show.

A new Lifetime Achievement Award went to BBC West Midlands presenter Tony Butler, 76, who sparked controversy recently when he said the Royal Navy's Faye Turney, who had been held hostage by Iran, should not be serving in the armed forces. He later apologised, saying his "words came out wrong".

The London ceremony was co-hosted by Sir Terry Wogan and longtime host of the Awards, Paul Gambaccini, who also won the annual Gold Award.