Radio Ads Coming Back

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Monday, February 20, 2012

Radio Ads Are Coming Back, and the Presidential Run Will Help 

By BEN SISARIO

Radio advertising, badly hit by the recession, is bouncing back.

According to a report released Friday by the Radio Advertising Bureau, revenue from radio advertising last year was $17.4 billion, up 1 percent from the year before. Automotive companies, the largest category of sponsors, made up 26 percent of spending.

It was the second year of growth for the industry, after three down years. Spending in 2010 was $17.3 billion, up 6 percent from the year before. But the market is still down 18 percent from 2007, when ad revenue was $21.3 billion, according to the advertising bureau, whose data is collected by the accounting firm Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Company.