The joint campaign, which is planned and bought by Mike Colling & Co, is to run from September 26 to launch the first nationwide survey of public response to autism.
The campaign will follow a day after the charity's annual Day for Autism event, which takes place in London's Leicester Square from 12pm to 6pm on September 25.
WPN has created 30-second ads that feature high-profile names such as Tony Blackburn, Vanessa Feltz, Clive Anderson, Richard Park, Fiona Farrell, Arthur Smith, Emma Freud and Ben Shepherd.
The ads will be running twice hourly and be supported by programming relating to autism. This will include news broadcasts, phone-ins and presenters encouraging listeners to participate in the survey, which will reveal public awareness of the condition.
The media campaign is supported by direct mail, telemarketing and online marketing activity. It will run from October and focus on recruiting new donors as part of a three-year cause-marketing partnership funded by Vodafone.
Gail Cookson, client service director of WPN, said: "Autism is a widely misunderstood condition and the whole campaign will give NAS an all important opportunity to educate and also to establish the extent of people's knowledge."
The survey will give people the opportunity to have their say via an online survey hosted on a dedicated microsite. For those looking to find out more about the condition, the NAS has created 12-page information booklet that will be mailed out on request or downloaded online.
There will be a direct mail follow-up to the survey respondents and from this the charity hopes to encourage new donors.
Mike Colling, managing director of MC&C, said: "The combination and scale of the advertising and editorial support from the commercial radio network will make this campaign very special. We are creating both significant awareness for the NAS and real commercial return."
WPN and MC&C were appointed to represent the NAS in August after a four-way pitch.
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