Radio giants seal ad agency alliance

By SIMON HENDERY

The country's two radio giants have agreed to continue working together for the next three years through the industry's major marketing arm, The Radio Bureau.

The bureau, a subsidiary of The Radio Network (TRN), handles about 90 per cent of sales between advertising agencies and radio stations.

TRN chief executive Kevin Malone said that although his company's ownership of the bureau had been an issue with competitor CanWest, "thankfully we've been able to convince them that the single-source selling solution to the agencies is of benefit to the stations and the advertisers."

CanWest's New Zealand chief executive, Brent Impey, said the three-year agreement over the running of the bureau was good for agencies and would mean more resources could go towards increasing radio's share of agencies' advertising expenditure.

Meanwhile, The Radio Bureau's acting general manager for the past nine months, Gill Stewart (who was previously Gill Mitchell), has been appointed to the position permanently.