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Here is a public service announcement - there will be no more public service announcements.  Spending on those ads for paying your tax or getting a flu jab fell by 52% last year (2010) the COI -'The Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications.' (Their words not mine) plan to make 40% of their staff redundant.

So what the hell does this have to do with Commercial Radio?  Well for years the COI paid-for ads propped up revenues and now that COI revenue stream has run pretty much dry. Local commercial radio could also rely on a bit of council spending, this year we will see local councils financially squeezed by national government and as a consequence yet another stream of revenue will also run dry.

So where does that leave commercial radio? Well not completely grounded on the river bed because there are still the 'real' commercial radio advertisers.  The government (OFCOM) has also started to deregulate the industry a bit more and allow consolidation to take place and there could be more of that to come.

But 2011 will be a tough year for the industry.  For more on this story visit Grant Goddard's blog click here