BBC NI among winners on radio awards prize night
BBC Northern Ireland has received 10 gold, four silver and two bronze awards at the 2019 Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) awards.
Presenter Karen Patterson of Radio Ulster was one of the big winners at the gala prize night in Kilkenny, being named news broadcaster of the year.
Radio Foyle claimed gold in the news story category for its coverage of the murder of journalist Lyra McKee, while The John Toal Show also won gold in the magazine programme category.
This year BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle secured a total of 20 nominations.
More than 100 judges – all drawn from the radio industry – were involved in selecting the eventual winners.
The nominations spanned a wide range of output, including speech, news, music, sport, specialist music and the BBC’s Irish language programmes.
Among a number of other BBC NI gold standard winners were Radio Ulster news reporter Declan Harvey and Radio Foyle’s Mark Patterson, and The Blame Game in the specialist speech programme category.
Eddie Doyle, the BBCNI head of content production, said it had “been a great year” for BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle.