Frank Robinson, whose radio advertising production business is closing in on $18 million this year, started his business in 2004, working out of his home. “My office was my den,” he told John Reid Blackwell, who profiled Robinson's company in today’s Metro Business. “I had just one other part-time person who did the books.” (R’Biz highlighted Robinson back in July. See “TV Infomercials for the Radio.”)

Robinson was perfectly happy working at home -- there was no commute. But a couple of his larger customers told him that if he didn’t add capacity, they might outgrow him. So, grow he did. The company now has 27 employees working in an 11,000-square-foot office in Innsbrook. Last year, Robinson Radio logged revenues of $6 million. Robinson hopes to triple that number this year, and then double it again, to $35 million, in 2009.

Turbo-charged growth comes from taking Robinson Radio in a direction its early customers never contemplated: branching out from traditional 30- and 60-second radio spots into production of three-hour, infomercial-like radio shows in which clients pitch their products.

The trick is adapting a concept that originated in television to the all-talk, no-visual format of radio. “Television is more demonstration driven,” Robinson explains. “What we do in radio is more explanation-driven. We are working in the theater of the mind.”

Almost 80 stations have signed on to the Robinson Radio Networks, which will produce shows in a conversational format hosted by radio personalities. The company hasn’t identified any of the clients or radio stations, but it won’t be long before it does -- the first shows are expected to roll out Nov. 1. Networks President Phil Armas said his goal is to have the programming available in the Richmond market.