Radio is a medium that has been around for nearly 100 years. With something so old, its only natural to wonder: Does radio advertising still work?

The concept of a commercial “radio station” was developed to be just that: commercial. One giant commercial to be exact.

In many cities, the first radio stations were owned by large local businesses such as car dealerships or banks that would play music or air shows to please the masses, while promoting their products or services between the “entertainment” content.

This is a formula that still works great to this day.

Even though consumers are presented with more options than ever to get information or be entertained, studies show that radio audiences have actually been rising over the last 5 years.

Radio advertising is a medium that can not be “skimmed over” such as cable TV and keeps a captive audience for hours (especially in the car or workplace). Because of its “non-invasive” nature, it is a medium that often times sparks “word-of-mouth” viral information to flow from one person to another.

For example: A new seafood restaurant comes to town. They want to get people excited and into seats for the grand opening. They place a series of radio ads announcing the opening and FREE crab cakes for everyone who comes in. Judy hears this in her office and tells the woman in the office next to hers about the free crab cakes (as she knows, this co-worker loves sea food). Judy is excited about the opening and makes plans to go there, and her co-worker does to. The co-worker, then posts on Facebook how much she is looking forward to the “free crab cakes at the restaurant”, in turn her 1,300 friends hear about this offer and more than 20 of them plan on going to the restaurant. So do many of them… and so on.. and so on… All this… from the viral spark that started with a radio ad.

This is just one example of the power of radio how radio advertising works.