Major radio group Chrysalis has stunned the industry by announcing a 17% rise in advertising revenues between September and November of this year. "Despite the continuing uncertainty surrounding the wider economy, we have enjoyed another good start to the current financial year," Chris Wright, chairman and founder of Chrysalis, told reporters.
"Chrysalis Radio has experienced a buoyant first quarter with revenues up 17%, again strongly outperforming the industry. Recent audience figures and increased revenue yield, gives us great confidence that this outperformance will continue for the foreseeable future.”
A lot of the success of the group is probably down to its London station Heart 106.2. The station's breakfast show, hosted by Jono Coleman and Emma Forbes, gained 119,000 over the year, taking its listener base to 862,000. Closest rival, Capital FM's Chris Tarrant, lost 300,000 as his show's audience slipped to 1.6m.
The group over all (including the company’s publishing, TV and music businesses) also reported it was back in profit after suffering the cost of some disastrous internet projects two years ago (including music site puremix.com). The group posted a pre-tax profit of £5.7m, with turnover soaring 25% to £241m.