B101

B101, WBEB-FM Philadelphia won the award for best “Station Produced Spot” at the Radio-Mercury Awards held last week in NYC. It was recognized for a commercial spot it produced called “Woodpecker” for engagingcommercials.com. This is the latest of multiple awards B101 has won for this spot.

The award comes with a $10,000 prize. B101 President Jerry Lee promptly gave half the prize money to the spot’s copy writer Michael Bense and donated the other half to the RAB Creative Fund, a nonprofit organization created to promote effective and creative radio commercials.

Jerry tells RBR-TVBR why this should serve as a bit of a message for keeping good radio creative rolling in-house and at agencies: “Basically, one out of five national commercials are engaging, and an engaging commercial can be eight times as effective as an average commercial. And when you get an engaging commercial, it’s dramatic the difference you see in sales.”

He adds, “85% of all TV commercials nationally are tested. Virtually 0% of radio commercials nationally are tested. So television keeps learning and learning and learning, and we don’t learn anything in radio. That’s why we set up an organization, “Engaging Radio Central” (www.engagingradiocentral.com). It will be operational within two weeks. We’re going to make great commercials available to anyone who wants them.”

Bense wrote the spot for engagingcommercials.com to promote the effectiveness of engaging radio commercials. In the spot the narrator demonstrates the difference between engaging and not engaging commercials by using humorous examples and sound effects, including “a woodpecker” and “woodpecker on your hot air balloon.”

“It’s great to have the opportunity to write fun, effective spots like this for B101 and Jerry Lee,” said Bense. “Jerry is a true advocate for engaging radio commercials, and his efforts are evolving the industry. And I truly appreciate his generosity to me.”

Listen to the Woodpecker spot by clicking on the player at the top of this story.