The radio industry's top awards ceremony is traditionally dominated by the big names of broadcasting such as Terry Wogan, John Humphrys and the controversial BBC Radio 1 breakfast DJ Chris Moyles.
But Radio 1 failed to win a single category at tonight's Sony Radio Academy awards at the Grosvenor House hotel in London, where the limelight was stolen by the unlikeliest of winners – Brixton's prison radio station. Electric Radio Brixton won four prizes, including two prestigious gold awards.
Run by the Prison Radio Association (PRA), whose patrons include Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, most of the station's music and speech output is produced and presented by prisoners. With a tagline of "making waves behind bars", it broadcasts 24 hours a day, but only inside the prison walls.
At the awards nomination ceremony last month, there were plenty of jokes about a "captive audience". Its interview with former Belmarsh inmate Jonathan Aitken, the MP who was jailed for perjury, was among its winning entries.
The judges said the station's gold award-winning daily show was "an example of what can be achieved when radio is used for what it does best – an intimate connection to deliver powerful, meaningful content that targets an audience who have a genuine need to be fulfilled."
The judges added: "Everyone interested in making great radio would do well to follow its example of powerful simplicity."The PRA is now working on developing a national prison radio service.
In the internet programme category, the Guardian's Media Talk podcast won a Sony silver award. The gold was won by the Bristol Catholic diocese for its entry, The Budgerigar and the Prisoner.
BBC Radio 3 won national station of the year for the first time. The judges said: "It has sustained a particularly strong schedule of appealing breadth, with a subtle combination of challenging and accessible material that is presented in a thoroughly entertaining manner".
There were two gold awards for Radio 2 drivetime presenter Chris Evans. The judges said: "Chris is still setting the pace for others to follow."But Radio 1 and its biggest star Moyles, who last week came within a whisker of overtaking Wogan as the country's most popular breakfast show, went home empty-handed.
Last month, Moyles angrily denied a newspaper report that he was being axed. The station, which has faced calls for it to be privatised, has been accused by its commercial rivals of letting its audience grow too old and breaking its public service remit.
BBC Radio 5 Live was the most successful station, with five gold awards, including two for its breakfast show and one for Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's film reviews.
Today presenters John Humphrys and Evan Davis, both nominated for the speech broadcaster of the year award, lost out to Nick Ferrari, phone-in host on London talk station, LBC 97.3. Another talk presenter in the capital, Vanessa Feltz, won speech radio personality of the year for her show on BBC London 94.9.
BBC Radio 4 won three awards, including the comedy prize for Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show, the fictional creation of comic Steve Delaney. Children's radio station Fun Kids won digital station of the year. The 2009 Gold Award was presented to veteran broadcaster Neil Fox, breakfast host of London's Magic 105.4.
