Evans wins breakfast battle of hype with nomination for radio Oscar

CHRIS EVANS has been handed a new victory in his battle with Radio 1's breakfast show. The ginger disc jockey's Virgin radio show has been nominated in the breakfast category in the radio world's Oscars - the Sony Radio Awards - but Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening's Radio 1 show has been ignored by the judges.

Evans has already managed to augment his breakfast show audience faster than his BBC rivals, although the high-profile battle of hype that started when both shows began on the same day has brought in more listeners to both programmes.

Chris Evans' show is up against the veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan, who is nominated for his Wake up to Wogan Radio 2 programme, and the London dance station Kiss 100 FM's Steve Jackson's Morning Glory show. Two years ago, when Chris Evans was at Radio 1, he angrily refused to collect his Sony award for British broadcaster of the year because he was beaten to the breakfast show prize by Virgin Radio's Russ'n'Jono.

The BBC would only say that it had "no pre-ordained right" to a Sony nomination for the breakfast show. The corporation still dominates the awards, with 58 nominations across the 26 categories, and Radio 1 itself gets six nominations.

These include the highly prestigious DJ of the year nomination for Chris Moyles, who only received his own show yesterday.

Until now he has been deputising on the breakfast show and the early- morning show, but has now been given his own programme on a Saturday mornings.

Moyles is up against fellow Radio 1 disc jockey Jo Whiley and Mike Edgar of BBC Radio Ulster. The innovative and controversial broadcaster Chris Morris has received a nomination in the comedy category for his early-hours programme Blue Jam, which began a new series last week.

Morris is competing with the local radio station Magic 1548's Hold Your Plums Christmas Special and Radio 4's On the Town with the League of Gentlemen.

Other notable nominations include the Radio 5 Live broadcaster Nicky Campbell, who is up for an award in the Talk/News category after making the unusual transition from music DJ to current affairs broadcaster.

Campbell's show is up against the comedian Mark Lamarr's talk programme on BBC GLR and the Stephen Rhodes Show on BBC Three Counties Radio.

The awards will be presented in London on 7 May.