June puts the slug in sluggish

2007 has been a lack-luster year, and the results for June have taken the lack of luster to a new low. The Radio Advertising Bureau/Miller Kaplan Arase & Co. revenue results for the month came in 3% lower than June 2006. A 3% decline in local and an 8% decline in national resulted in an over 4% overall drop in spot revenue. A 14% gain in the burgeoning non-spot category salvaged 1% of that back to bring the industry to -3% total for the month.

So far the year has stayed within shouting distance on either side of par with 2006 results, improving by no more than 3% (that happened in February) and swinging the same distance under par this month. It did set a new low for the year in combined local/national revenue, which had lost no more than 2% in any one month prior to this one. Marci Ryvicker at Wachovia piled on a little extra bad news, noting that May and June tend to produce 20% of annual radio revenue and serve as a fairly reliable bellwether for the rest of the year. She said that the weakness was not a surprise, and that there is "no end to declines in sight." She knocked Q3 predictions down from a 1% gain to a 1% loss, and the full year from an 0.2% gain to an 0.3% loss.

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