Cumulus sees no-growth Q1

0

After reporting that Q4 revenues were down 7.3%, Cumulus Media is looking for Q1 to be better – but Cumulus is not reporting matching the positive pacings of some other radio groups.


“We believe that advertising revenue in our markets will not have any significant growth at least through the first quarter of 2010, with modest growth in certain categories throughout the remainder of 2010. We believe two areas of potentially strong growth for radio advertising in 2010 could be cyclical political advertising and automotive advertising fueled by a general recovery in that sector. However, despite recent indications of a return to a more normalized marketplace, specific projections remain extremely difficult to provide as traditional advertising buying patterns have been noticeably disrupted as a result of the recent economic recession,” Cumulus said in a financial press release late Wednesday. The company will conduct a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Thursday morning.

Net revenues were down 7.3% in Q4 to $69.6 million. Cash revenue was down 12.8% to $61.7 million, but barter was up 84.2% to $7.9 million. Station operating income declined 4.3% to $25.6 million.