Radio firm GCap Media said on Thursday it expected first half like for like revenues, excluding its Capital Radio station, to fall around 4 percent against last year's proforma results.

As anticipated, July trading proved to be particularly difficult, however more recent months have shown an improvement on that performance, the firm said in a trading update ahead of interim results on November 28.

Although the market remains weak and visibility poor, we currently expect GCap Media's advertising revenue performance, excluding Capital Radio, to be in line with the radio sector as a whole for September and October.

The firm said Capital Radio had been affected by its decision not to have more than two advertisements in a row in a bid to play more music and draw more listeners.

The company's flagship station 95.8 Capital FM, once the dominant force in London commercial radio, has been struggling in recent months in a difficult advertising market.

GCap said it had streamlined the station's operations, strengthened the on air talent and was now ready to start marketing Capital Radio for the first time since 2005.

We will be starting marketing activity shortly, and expect its impact to begin to be visible in the New Year and to be increasingly evident in 2007 listener figures, the firm said.