The Radio Mercury Awards is a celebration of the best in Radio Advertising, and the goal this year has been to help Radio up its game. The 2009 panel of judges made a commitment to raise the bar on creativity and execution this year as they evaluated the hundreds of Mercury Award entries across all categories.

Entries went through two rounds of judging; the preliminary round in which between 4-6 judges listened to and scored each and every spot, followed by a second, final round of judging where 14 judges reviewed those that had made it through the initial round. All spots that made it through to the final round were judged in-person, fairly and impartially, by our panel. An electronic device was used for scoring purposes only.

As for the judges’ decision not to present awards in certain categories, our official guidelines give the judges the discretion to make selections, or not, to reduce the number of prizes or not to award a prize if they feel the quality of the entries does not meet their standards. (View judging guidelines here: http://www.rabmarketing.com/mercury2009/cfe.cfm). Please also note that, per our guideline, entry fees are non-refundable.

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 awarded prizes: Political, Public Service Announcement, Radio Station Produced, and Student Produced.

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.

The 2009 finalists are listed here alphabetically by agency name. Click the highlighted link for audio and credits for each finalist. Use the "Email Spot" link to forward the finalist to a friend. You can now also search the Radio Mercury Awards Audio Library. CLICK HERE to enter.