A new Statistics Canada report states that – despite new technologies like satellite radio, online radio and portable digital players – private radio broadcasters increased their advertising revenue by 6% in 2007, bringing it to $1.5 billion. It’s the third time in five years radio advertising growth has overtaken advertising market growth as a whole.

Private radio achieved 19.8 cents of profit per dollar of revenue, before interest and taxes, in 2007 – the industry’s third-best result in 30 years, after 2005 and 2006. FM radio manufactured 78.3% of ad revenues and 94.6% of profits before taxes and interest last year.

StatsCan credits radio’s recent financial successes mostly to industry restructuring and economic growth. In 1998, it says, regulatory amendments allowed more concentration of ownership, helping radio withstand competition from other media. The industry also increasingly transferred stations from the AM band to the more profitable and popular FM band.
Incidentally, radio in the United States is not faring nearly as well as it is north of the border. Figures released by the Radio Advertising Bureau state that National and combined local spot radio advertising dropped 8% in the second quarter to $4.6 billion, for a 7% drop in the first half 2008 to $8.4 billion.