Radio revenues recover at Chrysalis

Chrysalis chairman Chris Wright has revealed that the company's radio revenues have returned to growth despite "challenging" trading conditions.

"Although trading conditions for the UK radio industry remained challenging throughout the final calendar quarter of 2006, at Chrysalis we have seen a return to positive revenue growth in the first few weeks of 2007," said Wright in an AGM statement. "As such, whilst revenues for Chrysalis Radio in the four months to 31 December 2006 declined by 10% (which we believe is in line with the overall market), revenues for the month of January have showed encouraging year-on-year growth of 5%. Given this improvement in the radio advertising market, coupled with last week’s announcement of the strongest ever set of Rajar audience figures for Chrysalis Radio, which showed Heart as both the leading London commercial station and the most listened to ILR network across the UK, we remain confident that we are well positioned to meet the Board’s expectation of flat year-on-year revenues for Chrysalis Radio in the 2007 financial year as a whole."