National is the treat, local tricked
October radio revenues, as reported by the Radio Advertising Bureau, managed a 1% increase during the month of October, and for a change, it was the national side of the business doing the heavy lifting. A 6% surge there overcame a 1% loss suffered by the local troops on the ground.
YTD, local is still king, if you can attach a title of royalty to a 3% gain. National's good month still didn't quite pull it up to the break even point. All in all, revenues are up 2% on the year
We can also add in another 1% based on an 11% gain in non-spot revenue. Add that in and the year is up 3% over all.
As for the year in general, a revenue resurgence seemingly was kick-started back in the spring, but sputtered out largely due to prolonged weakness in national results combined with generally lackluster local performance.
Here are the local numbers month-by-month: 0%, +3, +11, +4, +1, +5, +1, 0, +5, -1. March is the only real high-water point.
National: 0, -4, +5, +6, -1, -3, -15, -5, +1, +6. The entire summer was rugged, with a bottom-out in July.
Total, not counting non-spot: 0, +1, +10, +4, +1, +3, -3, -1, +4, +1. Negative months are July and August, when essentially flat local was dragged down by national. In all, not much to write home about. But easy comps for 2005. Can radio top this performance?
RBR observation:
The next time they hold an election, radio needs to make sure it is asked to participate. Perhaps it's understandable that TV gets the bulk of the cash, but with races getting more and more focused, you'd think that the precise targeting ability offered by radio, combined with its comparatively reasonable rates, would be attractive to more politicians than is seemingly the case. Quick, somebody call Karl Rove. And don't forget James Carville.
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
