Who won what at the PPI Awards

Mid-Atlantic accents were the order of the night last night as the cream of the country’s radio personalities gathered in Kilkenny for the PPI awards. Here’s who went home with the major gongs.

We’re not saying that it did, but if the quality of Irish radio broadcasting slipped last night it shouldn’t come as a big surprise as some of Ireland’s best known voices were in Kilkenny attending the PPI (Phonographic Performance Ireland) awards.

While they say it’s a team game, most of the attendees were probably more interested in the individual categories, where 98FM’s Dermot Whelan won the Music Broadcaster of the Year and for those of you who’ve been following the on-air campaigns on Off The Ball all week, Eoin McDevitt (or #TeamEoin) saw off the challenge of colleagues Ger Gilroy and Ken Early to claim the Sports Broadcaster gong.

Elsewhere, there were nods for RTE’s Aine Lawlor and Today FM’s Justin McCarthy as best news broadcaster and best news reporter respectively, while the late Gerry Ryan, Ronan O’Rahilly of Radio Caroline fame, Candy Devine of Downtown Radio and Seán Bán Breathnach of RnaG were all inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In the collective categories, RTE Radio One was recognised as the Full Service Station of the Year, FM 104 as the Music Station of the Year and WLRFM as the local station of the year.

There was further acknowledgement for Dermot Whelan as 98 FM’s Dermot and Dave was voted as the Best Music Programme, with Ian Dempsey winning the Breakfast Show award and the specialist Music Programme going to the John Kelly ensemble on RTE’s Lyric FM.

A nice bit of ego-massaging for the winners, but the nominees also deserve credit for their contributions, disgruntled though they probably were at being overlooked (we’re joking, of course).

To check out the list of winners in full, click here.