At the bottom of the Great Recession, radio had lost $5 billion of revenue, from over $20 billion in 2007 to $15 billion in 2009. Broadcasters had little choice but to make deep spending cuts to mitigate the ocean of red ink. We all know how painful that period was for owners, investors and lenders. Since then, revenue has recovered, albeit modestly. It looks like 2013 will end up around $16.5 billion and 2014, with political, might be $17 billion. So we will have added between $1-$2 billion back to the ledger by the end of this year. With a much compressed expense structure, that could mean that most of this revenue is pure profit. Which brings us to the point of this article.
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At the bottom of the Great Recession, radio had lost $5 billion of revenue, from over $20 billion in 2007 to $15 billion in 2009. Broadcasters had little choice but to make deep spending cuts to mitigate the ocean of red ink. We all know how painful that period was for owners, investors and lenders. Since then, revenue has recovered, albeit modestly. It looks like 2013 will end up around $16.5 billion and 2014, with political, might be $17 billion. So we will have added between $1-$2 billion back to the ledger by the end of this year. With a much compressed expense structure, that could mean that most of this revenue is pure profit. Which brings us to the point of this article.
