Much to the chagrin of the 'big' media - TV and press - which have lost share of media spend during the thin years, radio has continued to pile on the advertiser pounds to reach a record high of 7.1% for 2003.
Some of that money has come radio's way due to pressure on client budgets and the consequent quest for more cost-effective advertising solutions, but to attempt to rain on radio's parade would be both a mean-spirited and fruitless endeavour.
There is no sense that the radio industry is trying to grab the revenues before they disappear - quite the opposite. There is an air of inexorable confidence to radio's coup de theatre; just as you convince yourself the medium couldn't possibly pull another rabbit out of its hat, it does just that, followed by another, and then a digital one that might just take the kids to Disneyland if you press the red button.
One of the medium's most recent tricks has been to attract more money from Procter & Gamble and Unilever - both top-ten users of radio in 2003.
These FMCG giants have found an integral role for radio in their brands' strategies.
Don't expect radio's confidence to dissipate any time soon - and certainly not this week. The arrival of Johnny Vaughan as Capital Radio's breakfast show presenter has created another explosion of interest around the medium.
Not for the first time, the breakfast DJ showdown is creating noise across all media - helped by a frenzy of marketing activity by the rival stations.
Breakfast radio, of course, is about much more than the few hours of airtime it actually fills. Get it right, and you can expect audience gains across the day; get it wrong, and your revenues will take a disproportionate hit.
Radio's real triumph is that despite these peaks of intense rivalry - or indeed perhaps because of them - the medium as a whole manages to keep its lustre, a trick that rival media have failed to replicate.
Even the audience measurement dispute between Rajar and The Wireless Group/GfK has failed to dent the appeal of radio for some of the UK's leading advertisers. If that is the worst of the growing pains with which radio must contend, then it can truly count itself as a medium of good fortune.
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