Radio Mercury Judges Toss Out Radio-Produced Ads

RADIO ONLINE | , , | :am CT

The Radio Mercury Awards has dropped cash prizes in four categories from its 2009 awards, scheduled for Wednesday, June 17. In its announcement of finalists last May, the 14-judge panel decided that no radio station-produced spot was worthy of the $125,000 in prizes. Also eliminated were political, PSAs and student produced spots.

Two new awards were introduced this year, however, a $10,000 Integrated Radio Campaign prize honoring the best use of RAdio in an integrated multimedia plan, and the Marketer of the Year Award.

"Our final round judges felt strongly that only those commercials that met a certain standard should be recognized. As a result, we have fewer finalists and winners, and the following categories will not be award prizes in the following categories: Political, Public Service Announcement, Radio Station Produced, and Student Produced," said a statement on Radio-Mercury's web site.

The statement continued, "Going forward, we will be focused on raising the bar for creative excellence in Radio, both in the advertising community and within the Radio industry. We will announce several new initiatives at the Awards event on June 17 that we hope will strengthen our educational and outreach efforts."