This year, the competition is fierce, with charming and funny moments that could only ever happen in the audio format, to some seriously touching topics, and a political debate in the middle of it, too.

Which one gets your vote?

You have until 1st May 2025 to cast your vote, and remember – don't click until you're really sure who you want to win as once you've clicked, your vote will be submitted!

Interviews by Laura Rutkowski and Simon O'Hagan.

The nominees are…

Sunday Love Songs remembering Steve Wright, on BBC Audio for BBC Radio 2

Just six days after Steve Wright’s death in February 2024, Liza Tarbuck presented an emotional tribute to her friend and colleague in his Sunday Love Songs slot on Radio 2. “It’s bittersweet to be nominated for this category. I wish Steve was still here,” she says. “There was an outpouring of emotion for him. When I was asked to present the show, I didn’t hesitate. Steve always put the listeners first and they needed a safe place to share their feelings. I had to do him proud because he taught me how to be a broadcaster. There is nobody in my life whose opinion I valued more. We’d often geek out, and I miss that very much.”

Frank Off the Radio first, on podcast

Frank Skinner has a long and illustrious history as a much-loved comic presence on TV and radio. But he confesses that finding the right opening to his podcast Frank Off the Radio causes him anxiety. In this sublime moment, he came up with a whole set of titles, much to the amused disbelief of co-presenters Emily Dean and Pierre Novellie. “I was still pining for my radio show,” Frank explains. “I felt like I’d died and was now communicating with my loved ones through a clairvoyant.” In the clip, Frank promises to do “a slicker version” for the next show, but this one is really unimprovable.

Mishal Husain challenges Home Secretary James Cleverly, on BBC Radio 4

James Cleverly was Home Secretary when he went on the Today programme and was challenged by Mishal Husain about language he’d allegedly used to describe someone. Today editor Owenna Griffiths was in charge of the edition and “left speechless”. She says that “although we had planned for Mishal to ask James Cleverly about his reported use of the word s**t, including in the House of Commons, neither of us expected the conversation to turn out quite as it did. This moment cemented Mishal’s reputation as one of the finest interviewers of our time.”

Coldplay go Orange for Luton, on BBC Three Counties Radio

When news broke that Coldplay would be playing Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Luton, Justin Dealey asked listeners an important question: surely they can’t play Yellow, can they? Why not? Well, Luton Town FC is orange, and their rival, Watford FC, play in yellow. That began a tongue-in-cheek campaign for Coldplay to do something about it. Dealey thought they might change one of the “yellows” in the song to “orange”, but what actually happened was Coldplay’s Chris Martin wrote a new song called Orange, dedicated to Luton Town. “People turned up to Stockwood Park wearing orange with orange banners. I never in a million years thought anything was going to come from it,” says Dealey, a lifetime Luton supporter. “It just all happened organically. Greg James was going to be introducing Coldplay on stage and got a message to Chris Martin. I’m always banging on about how Luton gets bad press. The people of Luton deserved that moment, because they’ve been kicked for years, and here was a huge festival coming to their town off the back of the Premier League success.”

Johnnie Walker bids farewell at the end of his final show, on BBC Radio 2

The legend of DJ Johnnie Walker goes all the way back to his days in the 1960s as a pirate radio pioneer. Walker, who died in December, presented his last ever show on Radio 2 three months earlier, his sign-off recalled by his executive producer Paul Thomas: “He was determined to make his final show one of the very best, despite the debilitating illness he faced. He poured his energy into curating the music, opening with George Harrison’s What Is Life and closing with Judy Collins’s version of Amazing Grace. He said goodbye to his legions of dedicated listeners in the most genuine, heartfelt way possible.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene blames media for Trump assassination attempt, on Times Radio

At the Republican National Convention in 2024, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the US Representative for Georgia, told Times Radio reporter Jo Crawford she blamed the media for division in America. She also blasted Crawford with ridiculous claims, including, “You’re the cause of President Trump almost being assassinated,” before walking off. “It’s crazy to be nominated for someone screaming at you, but I’ll take it!” Crawford says. “I was shaking afterwards. The only thing I can give Marjorie credit for is that she highlights how important it is to have good journalists who hold politicians to account.”

“I want my mum to die” interview with Stuart George, on BBC Radio Stoke

As part of a series on dementia, a man called Allen (not his real name) told Stuart George he was caring for his 100-year-old mother with dementia. “I want my mum to die. I do it as a sense of duty,” he said. The situation was complex, as Allen was abused by his father, and said his mother did nothing to stop it. “I felt sympathy for him,” says George. “One of the local carers’ organisations said it’s a common way to feel, but nobody ever talks about it. One of the best things about what I do is that people come on our show and regularly say, ‘I’ve never told anyone this.’ Allen’s mum has since died. We played the audio back to him and he did feel guilt about what he said, but also relief that she’d died.”

Evan Davis challenges then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott, on BBC Radio 4

Politicians who want to talk economics when they go on PM with Evan Davis need to know their stuff. The then-Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Laura Trott, clearly didn’t, unable to counter Davis’s polite assertion that she’d got her facts wrong on the national debt. It made for riveting radio. Natasha Shallice, editor of PM, describes the moment: “I was thinking, ‘This is incredible.’ Nowadays it feels like interviews are so well choreographed on the part of politicians and that everything they say is quite beige. It’s rare that you get a moment without a standard answer, and here was one where you felt there was some real jeopardy. “It was a nail-biting listen – all the more so, because Evan isn’t a ‘Gotcha!’ type of interviewer – he always remains calm. I think we’ll try to invite her back some time. You know, when enough water has passed under the bridge!”

Early morning presenter Dan Noble responds to the far-right protests that broke out in the summer of 2024, on Absolute Radio

British towns and cities were besmirched by right-wing demonstrations last summer, and Absolute presenter Dan Noble was having none of it. “I was driving to the studio thinking, what’s going on? I’m mixed race – my mum’s from India – and I’m not even sure if my listeners knew this. I was getting texts from friends saying, ‘Take care.’ I thought, ‘What?’ Suddenly I felt an obligation to say something. When I finished, I put the fader down and took a really big breath. My bosses Rob and Paul were incredibly supportive. I’m only 26. I’ve had some amazing opportunities, and Absolute was somewhere I’d dreamt of working. This showed why.”

A listener calls Cristo Foufas’s show to thank him for saving his life, on Talk, News UK

Cristo Foufas was presenting his final breakfast show with Talk when he received a call from Simon in Bristol to thank him for saving his life four years before. During Foufas’s late-night show in lockdown he’d rung in to tell him he was feeling suicidal. “I was calling myself your friend because people were lonely, and my show was a lifeline to some,” says Foufas. “I was on the phone to Simon for at least 20 minutes and that is the absolute power of late-night, off-peak speech radio. It was the finest hour for Talk, to give the space to do that, when so many shows nowadays are so overproduced. “I’d been thinking about Simon since, and wondered what had happened to him. Then out of the blue I got this call. I was so thrown by it. I told him I didn’t do anything, he did the work by calling me and getting his life back on track. It’s humbling, and incredibly kind, of him to give me some of that credit.”

The 2025 ARIAS take place on Wednesday 14th May.

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