Radio has always been popular. It has always been a good source of news, music, story telling and fun. Even nowadays with all the new inventions and technology that are available a lot of people listen to radio regularly. There are now may sources to get information from or relax to, but radio still keeps a strong position in a number of audience however with Internet and television its’ popularity decreased a little.

Commercial radio is a relatively newcomer having only been born in 1973. It has been experiencing substantial growth over the last three years, both in terms of audience and advertising revenue. Since the beginning of 1999, as one can see in chart 1, listening to commercial radio has increased by 11%. Covering the last three months of 2001, RAJAR reports that weekly reach is up by 1 million to 31.9 million listeners per week that is 66% of the population tuning in each week. Since 1999, advertising revenue has consistently grown faster than in any other media. The radio sector saw increased spending by some advertisers such as car manufacturers, including MG Rover, Fiat and Toyota, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau. Radio advertising was marginally ahead of last year in the third quarter at £568m, compared with £565m in 2000.

According to this fact, radio can be a powerful communicator. Commercial radio in the U.K. has only recently begun to fully identify and market its own individual strengths, which will be described and analysed in the following.

Like already mentioned in the above, radio is becoming increasingly popular as an advertising medium. This is due to the growth of the radio stations themselves, but more importantly to the different strengths of it, which make radio advertising valuable.

Starting with the key media strengths, it is important to mention that radio is a mass medium. Over 60% of the population are listening to it every week. This enables an advertiser to build a high average reach.

A great advantage of radio is that advertising time is relatively cheap, and production costs are low. When comparing it to other forms of advertising, radio has the ability to reach thousands of people simultaneously, making it one of the most economical methods of advertising. Radio delivers more advertising impressions than any other medium for the same budget. “Thus, for advertisers seeking a low-cost medium, radio advertising is often extremely attractive.”

A further value is radio’s ability to create a dominant share of mind. On the one hand, this is a result of it’s intrusiveness, and on the other hand of the high levels of frequency at which radio campaigns are normally broadcasted. For listeners, radio occupies, according to RAB, a third of their media time every week. This allows brands that have strong presence on radio stations, for example ‘Carphone Warehouse’, to be dominant within the mind of the listener. Additionally, in the majority of categories an investment in radio means a far higher share of voice than would be secured in press or TV.