Things We Don't Want To Hear In A Radio Ad (Parts 1 and 2)

Things We Don't Want to Hear in a Radio Ad (Part 1) from Radio Mercury Awards on Vimeo.

Things We Don't Want to Hear in a Radio Ad (Part 2) from Radio Mercury Awards on Vimeo.

2013 Radio Mercury Award Winners

The Radio Mercury Awards have just been announced. Click here to listen to the winners.

Radio is still a writer's medium. It's awesome to have an A-list director and a crew of 100 working on your TV or video spot. It's really cool to see top designers and programers bringing a web site or an app to life. But it's equally amazing to sit down with a small team of a producer, a sound engineer, and some great talent to pull off something like this.

2011 Mercury Finalists Announced

Finalists for the Radio Mercury Awards were announced today. To listen to the spots, click here.

Here are just a few things that continue to fascinate me about radio:

1. You can do anything. Anything you want the listener to see, they will see. And because they're creating the images, they'll see it perfectly.
2. While it's fun to collaborate with a director, a line producer, a full film crew, cast, an editor and a music house to produce a piece of film, it's just as fun to work with a sound engineer, and some talented actors to make something just as memorable.
3. There's no medium where a writer can have this much control and this much fun.
4. That said, the very best art directors I've worked with knew how to make great radio, cared what it sounded like, and had their names on the credits.
5. You get about 80 words for a :30, and 155 for a :60. Radio was Twitter before there was Twitter.

Radio Mercury Awards Workshop

If you're a writer, and you'll be in the LA area on July 14th, you should go to this.

I went to one of these workshops as a junior writer. Well worth the money. Especially, since my agency paid the bill - something you might want to look into yourself.

Radio On! Creative Workshop

The Radio Mercury Awards are hosting the Radio On! Creative Workshop in New York on February 9th. Should be great. Sign up or get more info here.

The Radio Mercuries are here! The Radio Mercuries are here!

A One Show annual costs about $60.

A Cannes reel is a little over $700.

But you can download the best radio of the last year right here for free.

(And if you're not convinced radio's relevant to your career, read this.)