The company posted turnover of £125.6m for the year ending March 31, a rise of 8.8% on last year's figure.
The rise in advertising revenue at the company beat the figure of 7.8% for the radio industry as a whole, and was bolstered by a strong performance in the second half of the year at Classic FM, which saw advertising revenues rise 16% during the six months ending March 31.
GWR said that April advertising revenue for the UK was up by 10.5% and May was set to be up by 2.5%. In an upbeat results announcement, the company said that it expected continued improvement in revenue and profit performance over the year.
Ralph Bernard, executive chairman of GWR, said: "The disciplined concentration on implementing structural changes and on introducing systems improvements during the difficult times of the advertising recession is paying off as the market recovers, and GWR has outperformed the industry."
The company was also positive on the growth of digital radio, saying that it was generating advertising revenue from digital stations for the first time. At the last set of Rajars, GWR's classic rock network Planet Rock was included for the first time with a reach of 242,000.
GWR has invested £5.5m over the past year in digital radio and says that there are now 500,000 sets in the country, a figure that is expected to rise to 1m by the end of the year.
"We have continued to focus attention on digital radio with some 20% of our operating profits being invested in exploiting our prime assets in this critical area," Bernard said.
Shares in GWR rose nearly 3% when the market opened, trading at 252p, an increase of 7p.
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