GCap Media chief executive Ralph Bernard believes that the UK commercial radio industry has 'turned a corner' as advertisers which had stopped investing in commercial radio advertising start to return, writes Yvette Mackenzie.
GCap Media chief executive Ralph Bernard believes that the UK commercial radio industry has 'turned a corner' as advertisers which had stopped investing in commercial radio advertising start to return, writes Yvette Mackenzie.

GCap, the UK's largest commercial radio group, revealed its year-on-year advertising rose by 2% between 1 April and 25 July 2007. It expects growth in total revenue in the second quarter of the financial year to be ahead of that in the first quarter, with double digit growth year on year.

Bridgewell Securities analyst Patrick Yau commented: 'The GCap interim statement is the first evidence of quite strong growth in the sector and it's particularly encouraging that advertisers are returning from all areas, not just one sector, such as financial services.'

Radio Advertising Bureau managing director Simon Redican added: 'There's a sense of momentum among customers and we're getting interest from advertisers which want to give radio another go.'

An Emap Radio spokesman said it had enjoyed 'a significant increase in advertising activity since June' and 'healthy expenditure' from its top 10 advertisers.

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