Australian hoax call DJ wins Austereo's 'top jock' award

One of the radio DJs who made a prank phone call which was followed by the suicide of a British nurse said he was at the top of his game after taking a top radio award from his network.

Michael Christian, along with fellow DJ Mel Greig, was involved in a phone call to the King Edward VII hospital in London pretending to be from the Queen when the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for acute morning sickness in December.

Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who put the pair through to the ward, killed herself a couple of days after the prank was aired and in her note wrote she blamed the DJs.

Christian, who works at Melbourne's Fox FM, was awarded Top Jock by the Southern Cross Austereo network, but the network removed its online statement saying it was "thrilled" to give the award to him, along with Sydney 2DayFm presenter Ellie Mobbs.

"From the start I felt like I had something to prove to myself," Christian said in a statement.

"That regardless of all that's happened in the past few months I'm still at the top of my game.

"So it felt good to see my name at the top of the final leaderboard."

The contest recognises Austereo's "best in the land" and Christian will be flown to Los Angeles as part of his prize.

Christian and Greig were taken off-air after the death. Christian quietly returned to work in February but Greig remains off-air and is planning to appear at the inquest into Saldanha's death, despite not being legally required to saying she wants to answer any questions about her role in the "tragic death".

Christian was targeted with death threats in the weeks after the death and has not made any public commitment to appear at the inquest.

In her suicide note, Saldanha wrote: "Please accept my apologies. I am truly sorry. Thank you for all your support. I hold the radio Australians Mel Greig and Michael Christian responsible for this act. Please make them pay my mortgage. I am sorry. Jacintha."

Austereo's leadership team were the judges of the Top Jock gong.