The Wireless Group, owner of sports radio station talkSPORT, shrugged off the gloom surrounding the media sector by announcing an increase in advertising revenues.

The radio specialist owns a number of local stations and chairman and chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie said they had performed exceptionally well in difficult market conditions.

Stations include Wave 102 FM and Wish FM.

But the main driver for the growth came from talkSPORT after the World Cup bolstered revenues.

Listener numbers rose as fans tuned in to catch the tournament's progress. New advertisers included Ginsters, the "unofficial meat pie of the World Cup".

That helped like-for-like advertising revenues across the group for the six months to June 30 to rise by 7.6 per cent.

Turnover on continuing operations rose from £13.2 million to £14.2 million, while on the same basis, operating losses were cut from £11.3 million to £8.1 million.

Mr MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun, said he was pleased with the interim figures and remained confident for the group's future performance.

He said: "Despite the fact it has become a cliche to talk about low visibility, I am pleased to report that talkSPORT's July revenues were up 11 per cent year-on-year and August will be at least ten per cent ahead.

"I look forward to a continuing improvement in performance."

The media sector has been rocked during the past year as advertisers slashed budgets in the face of the weak global economy.

The group reported a seven per cent decline in national advertising revenues in 2001 but this was offset by growth of nine per cent in local markets, which have fared better under the downturn.