Feeling lonely? Kerrang are waiting for you

An email arrives from Peter D, bringing news of a new entrant to the overcrowded online dating scene:

This is genius. Spotty youths sat in their dark bedroom listening to My Chemical Romance, their only companion are the black walls they thought were a great idea but will be a bugger to paint over when mum and dad rent out their room. Lets introduce a dating service for these people.

Yes, it's Kerrang dating. More precisely, it's Kerrang Radio dating, so not quite the magazine readership alone (with the emphasis on alone) - which would probably consist of 500 entries in the Men Seeking Women Who Look Exactly Like Her Out Of Paramore But Not As Scary category, and nothing else.

There is something really a bit nasty about how Kerrang Dating has options for men seeking women, and women seeking men. Doesn't Kerrang have any gay listeners?

It turns out that this might just be a Bauer Radio dating site, with everyone tossed into one pot and just presented through a interface with varying logos. They try to pretend that you're joining a specific interest group, but it doesn't quite work...

Look at Radio City dating, for example:

See? You're only going to meet people from Merseyside or Cheshire, Radio City's target service area. Brilliant - no timewasting with people who live miles away, right?

Except... what's this list of new members saying?

Surprisingly, for a dating site which restricts itself to introducing you just to people in the Liverpool and Chester areas, it seems to have a lot of far-flung new members.

And tucked away in the terms and conditions, there's this:

The Service is offered through and accessible through a number of other websites in addition to the Site. By registering with the Site you acknowledge and accept that all Content that you post to the site may be searchable and available to users of the Service who access it via different web sites from the Site. You further acknowledge and accept that other members of the Service that you may view and communicate with via the Service may have registered with and accessed the Service through a number of different web sites.

So pity the poor Kerrang head, signing up in the hope that, at last, they might meet someone who understands them (and looks a bit like her out of Paramore), only to wind up being hooked up with someone who listens to Magic FM.

Heartbreaking.

Kerrang will pay you for your reckonings

I've often said that I'd want paying to listen to Kerrang Radio. And soon, that might happen.

They've come up with a scheme where listeners who rate unsigned bands (supplied by Slicethepie) will, indeed, get paid cash in return for their ears.

A music industry model where everyone gets paid is not to be sniffed at. You do wonder if you're offering cash for rating bands, are the raters fans getting rewarded for their insight, or farmers being paid to hit buttons?

Sony Awards: The winners

So, we know that Chris Moyles was mocked - mocked - by being told that he's one of the very best broadcasters in Britain. But who else won Sony prizes?

Vanessa Feltz won speech personality of the year, although she beat Ian Wright on TalkSport to that one, so maybe not quite so unusual. Nick Ferrari won speech broadcaster (a subtly different category), which was more surprising

David Rodigan's Kiss programme won best specialist music show, Chris Evans took both music radio personality and the entertainment award, which seems to confirm the theory that Evans does his best work when he's not trying to be "Chris Evans off the telly".

Radio 3 was, as Gordon Smart pointed out, station of the year. Kerrang was best station broadcasting to an TSA of a million plus, somehow being specialist and general at the same time according to the judges (no, us neither.) BBC Hereford & Worcester won the station prize at the next tier down, and Beacon Radio in Shropshire picked up the best small station award.

Fun Kids - perhaps the most godawfully named radio staion in the entire world - picked up digital station of the year.

Music broadcaster of the year went to Mark Radcliffe, which is well-deserved. Although you have to feel sorry for Stuart Maconie who seems to have been inadvertently labelled a sidekick by the Sonys. Which isn't fair at all.

Winners in full:

The Music Programme Award

Words and Music – BBC Radio Arts and Radio 3 for Radio 3

The Specialist Music Programme Award

David Rodigan – Kiss Specialist Production Team for the Kiss Network

The Music Radio Personality of the Year

Chris Evans – BBC Radio 2

The Music Broadcaster of the Year

Mark Radcliffe – Smooth Operations for BBC Radio 2

The Music Special Award

Vaughan Williams: Valiant for Truth – BBC Radio 3

The Entertainment Award

Chris Evans Drivetime – BBC Radio 2

The Music Programming Award

Classic FM

The Drama Award

Mr Larkin's Awkward Day – BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

The Sports Award

5 Live Olympic Breakfast – BBC News Programmes and BBC Sport for 5 Live

The Speech Award

Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode – BBC News for 5 Live

The News and Current Affairs Award

The World Today – BBC World Service News and Current Affairs for the World Service

The News Special Award

The Investigation: Never Too Old To Care – A Stark Production for BBC Radio Scotland

The News Journalist of the Year

Gavin Lee – BBC News for 5 Live

The Speech Radio Personality of the Year

Vanessa Feltz – BBC London 94.9

The Speech Broadcaster of the Year

Nick Ferrari – LBC 97.3

The Breakfast Show Award

5 Live Breakfast – BBC News for 5 Live

The Listener Participation Award

Electric Radio Brixton: Daily Show – Prison Radio Association and Electric Radio Brixton for Electric Radio Brixton

The Comedy Award

Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! – Komedia Entertainment and Smooth Operations for BBC Radio 4

The Feature Award

Between The Ears: Staring At The Wall – BBC Radio Documentaries for Radio 3

The Interview Award

Feargal Keane interviews Lana Vandenberghe – Taking a Stand, BBC Radio Current Affairs for Radio 4

The Breaking News Award

The Rangers Riot – BBC Radio Manchester

The Live Event Coverage Award

Absolute Coldplay – Absolute Radio and TBI Media for Absolute Radio

The Community Award

A Sound Fix (Spots) – Prison Radio Association for Electric Radio Brixton

The Themed Programming Award

Family Life – BBC Hereford and Worcester

The Promo Award

Kiss The Planet – What Will You Do? – Kiss Imaging Team for the Kiss Network

The Competition Award

Facebuck – Galaxy Network Imaging for Galaxy (Manchester, Birmingham, Yorkshire and North East)

The Station Imaging Award

1Xtra

The Internet Programme Award

The Budgerigar and the Prisoner – Clifton Diocese.com

The Multiplatform Radio Award

Wimbledon – BBC Radio 5 Live Interactive for 5 Live

Station of the Year (Under 300,000 listeners)

Beacon Radio (Shropshire)

Station of the Year (300,000 – one million)

BBC Hereford and Worcester

Station of the Year (One million plus)

Kerrang 105.2

Digital Station of the Year

Fun Kids

UK Station of the Year

BBC Radio 3

Someone at Bauer finally notices Kerrang problem

The decision to use Kerrang as a radio station brand for music that overlapped but went further with the sort of music the magazine writes about was always a curious one, and finally someone seems to have spotted it. MediaGuardian are reporting the Bauer are thinking of changing the name to stop, frankly, putting people off:

Travis Baxter, the managing director of Bauer's Big City network of stations, said the Kerrang! Birmingham station had a committed audience but he was looking at ways of expanding its appeal. A change of name is one of the options being considered, he added.

"People think it is heavy metal. There are risks and opportunities with the name but we don't want to throw away what we have got," Baxter said.

A name unattractive to a general audience linked to a magazine that isn't doing as well as it was. Yes, you wouldn't want to throw that away, would you?

Seed's appeal falls on stony ground

Kev Seed won't be returning to Radio City; the company has rejected his appeal against his suspension.

In other atonement for sins at Bauer, Tim Shaw no longer works at Kerrang after fixing it for a mate to win a pre-recorded competition:

Shaw, who has since moved to Absolute Radio, admitted that he had fixed the competition but told the station's owners, Bauer, that he believed he was "doing the right thing by rewarding a loyal and deserving listener", who he knew suffered from a chronic and debilitating illness and was a fan of the Rolling Stones.

Wow. While it's nice to help someone with a nasty illness, if that was what Shaw wanted to do, wouldn't it have made more sense to just give him the prize rather than invent a fixed competition? What if other loyal and deserving listeners who loved the Stones and had chronic illnesses had tried to enter?

Tim Shaw is now working for Absolute Radio - what used to be Virgin - so at least he's somewhere where there are no listeners to harm.

Rick Shaw pulled along by XFM

Back in our distant past, we were around Radio City at the time when the then-management told a new presenter he was going to be known as Rick Shaw on air. So successful was the not-quite-relevant punning name at rebranding him, we can't for the life of us remember what he was called before that.

Now, still with humorous name in place, Rick has joined XFM to take over the drivetime programme in London. In the meantime, he's been at Kerrang Radio, so this is something of a step up. He was always a thoroughly nice bloke, and we wish him well. "Well" might include something better than the broken XFM.

In other radio news, Classic FM has announced Barbie is going to be a presenter on the network over Christmas. The station says it doesn't see anything wrong with having a small chunk of plastic most people dimly remember from their childhoods doing a show, pointing out it already has Simon Bates in the line-up.