MUMBAI: The Indian Radio Forum 2008 culminated with the Indian Excellence in Radio Awards 2008. The atmosphere was charged with all radio stations hooting and cheering for their nominees. A total of 27 awards were given out this year.

And in the end, it was Red FM that emerged the clear winner bagging a total of nine awards, followed by Radio Mirchi, which bagged four awards.

This year also saw the introduction of four new categories- Excellence in New Media Initiative, Excellence in Communication. Best FM Brand, Best On-Ground/Activation by an FM Station.

Red FM led the winners' list with awards in categories like Best Program (Hindi), Best Interactive Idea, Best Community Service Award, Best Radio promo Single Spot, Best use of Advertising, Excellence in Communication and Best On-Ground/Activation by an Fm station. Red's firebrand RJ Malishka bagged the RJ of the Year (Hindi). RJ Neel of Radio Mirchi (Bengali), RJ shekhar of Big FM (Telugu), RJ Suchi of Radio One (Tamil), RJ Prithvi of Radio One (Kannada) and RJ Sarthak of Hit FM (English) were the other winners of the Best RJ category.Radio Mirchi, continuing with its creative work, won most awards for the jingle and promotions category. RJ of the Year (Bengali), Best Radio Promo-In House (Hindi, Bengali and Kannada) were the categories where Mirchi swept the honours.

Big FM walked away with the regional awards - one each for the Best Program Show (Telugu), RJ of the year (Telugu), Best Radio Promo-In House (Tamil).

Radio One, Radio City won three awards and two awards respectively. Radio One (Kannada) bagged an award in the 'Best Programming' category for breakfast show and 'RJ of the Year' in Tamil and Kannada, while Radio City won Awards for the 'Best Cross Platform Communication' and 'Excellence in New Media Initiative'.

Other winners included Fever FM that won the Best Radio Promo (English) award, Sun Network for 'Best Programming Category - Breakfast Show.
WorldSpace Satellite Radio won the award for Most Innovative Show. Radio Mid-Day West (India) won the award for Best RJ (Tamil), Friends FM won for the Best Programming Show (Tamil), while Hit FM won the award for RJ of the Year (English). The Award for the Best New Launch went to My FM for its Indore station.

The fanfare ended with the joyous team of Red FM coming on the stage to receive the Best FM Brand Award.