Prison radio station steals the show at Sony Awards

Some of Britain's biggest radio stars such as Chris Moyles and John Humphrys are eating humble pie this morning after a prison radio station dominated the annual Sony Radio Academy Awards. The in-house radio station of Brixton Prison picked up four gongs including two prestigious gold awards in the listener participation and community categories.

Electric Radio Brixton, whose patrons include Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, promotes itself as "making waves behind bars". Most of its output - both music and talk radio - is produced and presented by inmates. An interview with former Belmarsh inmate Jonathan Aitken, the MP who was jailed for perjury, also earned the station a bronze award.

Jokes about "captive audiences" aside, the judges praised the prison radio's "intimate connection to deliver powerful, meaningful content that targets an audience who have a genuine need to be fulfilled". They added: "Everyone interested in making great radio would do well to follow its example of powerful simplicity."

By contrast, the 'self-proclaimed Saviour of Radio 1', breakfast presenter Chris Moyles - who boasts 7.7m listeners and a £630,000 salary - left the Grosvenor House event empty-handed, as did all of his Radio 1 colleagues. Radio 4's Today presenters John Humphrys and Evan Davis, who were both nominated for the speech broadcaster of the year award, lost out to LBC London talk-radio host Nick Ferrari.

One DJ who did have a good night was Radio 2 drive-time presenter Chris Evans, who picked up two gold awards for Entertainment and best Music Radio Personality. Evans (pictured) took the titles from last year's winners Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, neither of whom was nominated after the obscene phone calls row that saw Brand resign and Ross suspended from the BBC for 12 weeks.

As for Evans, the 43-year-old DJ who was sacked from both Radio 1 and Virgin Radio for his much-publicised problems with alcohol, the judges said: "Chris is still setting the pace for others to follow".