Figures released by Commercial Radio Australia boast that the industry raked in $58.4 million in the last month, with Perth topping the tally for percentage growth. The rise over the last two months bucks the sub–inflation growth rate experienced in March of just 0.3 percent.

Perth grew 9.63% to a total of $7.60 million; Adelaide grew by 7.46% to a total of $5.75 million; Sydney grew by 4.85% a total of $18.5 million; Brisbane grew 3.69% to a total of $9.30 million and Melbourne grew 0.33% to $17.24 million.

The May Deloitte figures show growth in revenue of 6.39% for the eleven months year to date financial year (10/11) for the five major metropolitan markets to a total of $621.44 million, compared to the same time last year.

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner tells Marketing magazine that the radio industry’s outlook seems a lot more positive than other businesses.

“I was talking to someone from Deutsche Bank today, and they were feeling gloomy about the whole sector, and a lot of industries are feeling this way,” Warner says. “With a lot of doomsday theories about the economy, marketing spends aren’t what they once were, so marketers are going for what they know, so we rebounded well. We didn’t go down as much as the other traditional media. We have come back pretty slowly [from the GFC], but have seen pretty healthy increases this year that a lot of people weren’t predicting.”

Warner says forecasting industry advertising trends is difficult, and there seems to be no real rule.

"It’s pretty hard to pick the growth month to month," Warner explains. "It’s got a lot to do with business and consumer confidence and what people are thinking of the economy, but also even politics sometimes. We had a terrible 18 months in Sydney, but then the state government changed and we have seen growth.

“Perth has had a boom for the long time, but got a bit shaky around the time miner’s tax was being discussed. Even  during the global financial crisis, the Perth radio revenue always did okay.”

Warner also says digital radio's early uptake has been encouraging. 

“Going pretty well, after a short time. We’ve got to keep up the promotion, within a few years, we think we’ll see them everywhere. 6.6 percent of Australians have a digital radio after only 18 months, and that’s with little promotion.