Pre-tax profits fell from £2.2m last year to £300,000 as turnover from the group's radio, book and music business dropped to £78.4m for the six months ended February 28. This compares with £82.4m turnover for the corresponding period last year.
The period was a difficult one for the radio division, which saw revenue fall from £33.3m to £32.6m, and earnings before interest and taxes down from £5.7m to £5.3m.
The performance was blamed on poor Rajar results for Heart 106.2 in London, with lower listening hours impacting on trading.
Just as Heart has been turned around, with the latest Rajars giving it leadership of the London market, Chrysalis has run into deteriorating advertising demand.
The company said that revenues for March and April declined by a 12.5% on a like-for-like basis, and it "would expect that full-year revenues for Chrysalis Radio may show a decline in the region of 5%-6%".
Yesterday, rival radio company GCap hinted that May and June would probably be as bad as March and April.
Aside from trading, Chrysalis revealed that it was to run an advertising campaign in June to back its London speech radio station LBC's FM frequency.
Having acquired 106 Century FM from Capital Radio yesterday, the company is also likely to spend a significant amount on rebranding the station as Heart East Midlands.
It continued its investment in digital radio, spending £1.5m during the period.
The profitable aspects of its Chrysalis Mobile division will be absorbed within its radio division from September. The division made revenues of £200,000 and a loss before interest and taxes of £600,000, in line with budget.
The board also said that it would continue to look at partnerships and opportunities in the ongoing consolidation of the radio sector.
Chrysalis' books division had a difficult first half, making a £2.6m loss before interest and taxes, compared with a £1.1m loss in the same period last year.
Its music division performed better, making a £1.5m profit before interest and taxes, compared with £1.9m in the same period last year.
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