Let’s start with my perennial pet peave, the sound. I am pleased to report that the legendary aural curse of the ‘radio event’ has been broken. Even where I “chose” to sit, the farthest corner of the giant Pavilion Room at Jupiters, the sound was pleasantly audible and undistorted. And unlike last year, in perfect sync with the hi-def screens.

After a slightly delayed start the event ran smoothly with WSFM’s Amanda Keller easily out-shining her imported co-host Kelsey Grammer, who despite collecting a fee rumoured to be around twice that of the Australian average wage, refused to do any prep and did little else than offer amusing rejoinders to Amanda’s cleverly scripted leads.

If Grammer thought that a convention of Australian radio people would be a pushover for his charm and sonorous voice, he was soon hit with the reality that he was working one of the toughest rooms on the planet. Sent out to present a slew of awards on his own, without the reassuring guidance of Ms Keller, he struggled, no, failed to keep an acceptable level of shush in the room. In fairness, many before him, including Alan Jones and Jimmy Barnes, had been felled by this unique crowd that routinely treats celebrity with passionate indifference.

Nonetheless, while it could be argued that Grammer offered some style but little substance to the event itself, CRA CEO, Joan Warner insists that the 20 or so interviews he did while in Australia easily recouped his fee in terms of the publicity he generated.

Entertainment this year was kept to a minimum. During the awards dinner, there were only four songs, one each performed by Stan Walker, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, 2011 NA2R winners, Nine Sons of Dan and previous NA2R winners, Sneaky Sound System.

But for those wanting to party on, the hot ticket was a personal invite to DMG’s private after party. Shuttle busses took guests from Jupiter’s at Broadbeach to Hollywood Showgirls, a high tech pole dancing club in the heart of Surfers’. While the poles were in evidence, the dancers weren’t but premium drinks were on Lachlan and the musical entertainment kept on coming.

Back at the ACRAs the sizeable contingent from DMG was forced to endure a steady stream of awards going to their competitors. True, most of them went to regional stations were DMG does not compete directly with Southern Cross Austereo. Still it can get irritating to see your competitor’s brand pick up, literally, one in every two awards to your total of five. In some catagories SCA stations filled every nomination, making the winning network a foregone conclusion.

To make matters worse Guy Dobson had hired a mariachi band called the Gay Cabelleros or something to give a blast of Mexican trumpets every time SCA won. With hardly a break, by the end of the night the band was exhausted, in desperate need of siesta.

In response, the brave little mob from DMG cheered wildly at each of their own nominations, let alone wins, as if they had won Lotto. In the end they were appeased from an expected quarter. During his presentation, Kyle Sandilands, said he would be pleased to attend their party because, “My mob doesn’t even have one.”

All in all it was a polished show, with Tony Pilkington’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech a highlight.

With a full house forcing many regular attendees to stay at home, they will need to get a bigger venue or to ration tickets next year.

That’s how I saw the ACRAs. How about you?

Peter Saxon