Australian music artists will receive a big boost with the introduction of a new award for Most Played Australian Artist at the 2003 Australian Commercial Radio Awards.

The winning artist will receive a total of $150,000 worth of radio airplay and promotional support across the DMG, Australian Radio Network (ARN) and RG Capital radio networks, who are sponsoring the new award.

Commercial Radio Australia’s CEO Joan Warner told radioinfo: “This is great news for Australian music and demonstrates commercial radio’s ongoing commitment to supporting Australian artists.

Over the past year, commercial radio has been an influential medium for promoting new and established Australian artists such as Delta Goodrem, Kasey Chambers, Holly Valance and The Androids, and we are very pleased that this new award will further raise the profile of Australian music.”

The new award is in addition to the Austereo-sponsored Best New Artist on Australian Commercial Radio Award, worth $50,000 in airtime, now in its fourth year.

Warner said commercial radio music stations are comfortably exceeding their quotas for new Australian music programming, and statistics show new and upcoming artists are making up 70-80% of the required Australian content at many stations.

The winner of the new award will be announced at a gala ceremony in Sydney on October 18. The 15th annual Australian Commercial Radio Awards recognise the cream of Australia’s on-air and off-air broadcasting talent, with awards being handed out in 28 categories, including Best Talk Personality, Best News Presenter and Best Music Director.