Radio Advertising

Radio stations have been selling radio advertising spots to companies and businesses for many years and it is very uncommon to hear a radio station whose programs are not interspersed with radio advertising. The earliest recorded example of radio advertising occurred in 1922 on a commercial radio station broadcasting from New York, the advert was for a real estate company.

If your company or business is interested in radio advertising then there a re a number of commercial radio stations that will be more than willing to sell you a radio advertising slot. Stations that broadcast nationally will typically be more expensive to advertise on than smaller local stations and much like television adverts the price will depend on what time the ad is aired and how long it lasts for. Most radio stations sell their radio advertising slots according to the duration of the advert; the shortest and cheapest slots are usually ten seconds long, although this can vary from station to station.

In the USA radio advertising often takes the form of announcements read out by a radio show’s host, these are known as ‘live reads’. However in the UK this is a very rare form of radio advertising as it is considered to be a very low quality type of advert. In the UK radio programs are frequently interspersed with commercial breaks of radio advertising, much like the programs shown on commercial television channels. However these radio advertising breaks are typically much shorter.