Oxfordshire’s JACK fm  wins An Oscar!

At last night’s 2008 SONY RADIO ACADEMY AWARDS held at Grosvenor House in London Oxfordshire’s newest radio station JACK fm was recognized as one of the best sounding radio stations in the country.

At the evening, considered UK radio’s equivalent of the Academy awards, JACK fm was awarded the industry’s coveted Silver Station Imaging Award.  The judging panel praised JACK fm’s imaging (the bits between the songs) for displaying “Great writing, conveying a huge number of idea’s, always fresh yet always on-brief and highly talkable, just what you need when you’re new on the dial”. They also paid special tribute to the voice of Jack Fm, renowned Blake’s 7 star Paul Darrow, describing his casting as ‘inspired’. 

This is the first industry accolade for JACKfm which launched across Oxfordshire in October 2007. Programme Director Sue Carter says “The sheer amount of supportive emails and calls to JACK fm from our listeners tells us Oxfordshire already loves JACK fm, but it’s also nice to know our peers like what we are doing too.  It was especially nice to be paid compliments by celebrities Alex James, Al Murray, Clare Grogan, Jonathon Ross and Kelly Osborne too. Mind you, we suspect that may have had more to do with the free drinks than their love of JACK”.

JACK fm’s sister station FM107.9 was also nominated for the Speech Programming Award for Girls Talk, the only UK commercial radio station nominated as a finalist , up against BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service & BBC Radio 4. Girl’s Talk was recognized internationally last year by picking up a prestigious New York Radio Award.

Ian Walker General Manager of JACKfm & Oxford’s FM 1079 says “This is an amazing win for JACKfm and FM1079. A radio revolution is occurring across Oxfordshire with JACK fm already establishing itself as a true, fresh alternative for discerning listeners. We have an excellent creative team and look forward to entertaining and providing Oxfordshire with the very best commercial radio can offer”.