After a whirlwind year of album releases, festival appearances and radio debuts, Milwaukee picked its favorites for the fifth annual 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Music Awards. Radio Milwaukee announced awards including peoples’ choice for album of the year, band of the year and catchiest song on Tuesday, March 6.

But the celebration at Turner Hall Ballroom did not stop after select artists performed. Winners of the coveted awards are still celebrating — taking their glass trophies, and bragging rights, into the remainder of the year.

“I’ve been celebrating a little bit too much, especially last week — if I can remember correctly,” said Nick Amadeus, vocalist and guitarist for The Delta Routine. The four-piece band snagged band of the year and is still surprised, to say the least. Amadeus thought Trapper Schoepp and the Shades might have won but was deeply moved to be recognized, especially after growing up in Milwaukee’s music scene.

“Winning band of the year has a lot to do with exposure and hard work,” said Mark Keefe, program director at Radio Milwaukee. “If a band is fun to see live, people will remember that. It comes down to: did they make an impression on people?”

Evidently, they did. The Local Playlist, a Milwaukee music blog, called The Delta Routine “the band to watch in Milwaukee” after their show at Summerfest’s Rock Stage. The review praised the band for their clever lyrics, seamless flow and ease on stage.

Amadeus said the band has truly evolved since 2005, when the former three-piece band picked their name from a band name generator (something they searched on Google). Original members, Amadeus and Kyle Ciske, drums, added a new bassist, Evan Paydon, in 2008 and a second guitarist, Kevin Topel, in 2009. The new members — and the crazy chemistry between them — gave The Delta Routine the boost necessary to make 2011 their best year yet.

For Amadeus, the chemistry has been one of the most rewarding parts of being in the band. He never used to collaborate as the primary song writer before Topel joined the group. But the two synched up for their second album, “More About You,” in a way Amadeus never thought possible. His favorite song on the album, “Blame It On Me,” is most frequently played on Radio Milwaukee probably because of its fun, pop-rock style that is most detached from their classic rock ‘n’ roll, he said.

“In my head, I’m always trying to make sure we can be on the radio,” he said. Lest the group be prone to classic guitar solos and thrasher-style shreds, Amadeus asks himself one question: “Is a woman going to like this? If not, we gotta go back to the drawing board.” The Delta Routine’s thank-you-Milwaukee-for-making-us-band-of-the-year show is April 5 at Yield Bar, 1932 E. Kenilworth Place.

Boy Blue shared a similar shock and thanksgiving after winning catchiest song of the year. The band’s radio hit, “Robot Tube Socks,” seemed a no-brainer for the award. It’s a catchy song with an even catchier name — one the boys thought of while at the kitchen table. That, and after putting robot arms on a stack of amplifiers.

The first track on Boy Blue’s EP had fans calling Radio Milwaukee and requesting that it be played. Keefe said callers would sing the keyboard melody they had stuck in their head.

“Out of any category that we were up for, that was the one we really wanted,” said Josh Loeffelholz, guitarist and vocalist for Boy Blue. “That’s why we’re writing music, because we want to make a catchy and fun song.”

Loeffelholz, Nick Schubert (synthesizer and guitar) and Jered “Polish” Shilling (beats) started Boy Blue as a folk-rock band two years ago. They released “I Liked You Better When,” a four-track EP which debuted radio hits like “Robot Tube Socks.” But the boys didn’t think that release best described their identity as a band.

The addition of Sammie Anderson changed all of that. The bass player joined Boy Blue in January after the hiatus of another band. “We were kinda dead in the water before he came,” Loeffelholz said in a text message.

With Anderson’s help, the four-way dude bromance (as Loeffelholz called it) found its focus. Now in the electronic-dance genre, Boy Blue is producing fun and upbeat keyboard-centric songs.

And for Boy Blue, it’s all about the fun (and women and beer). One of their most memorable shows was a themed party in Madison. They were the only ones dressed up for the ’80s prom. That was the best part, they said. It was extreme.

“The direction we’re heading now could potentially take us to the next level of where we’re ending up,” Loeffelholz said. According to Keefe, if Boy Blue works as hard as The Delta Routine to cultivate Milwaukee’s music scene, that ‘next level’ may be as far as band of the year.