The July pothole was not very deep, but it was still a pothole. Radio revenues were down 1% as expected for the month. Local and national revenues remained in the red, and even the monthly shot in the arm from non-spot revenue was not as robust as it’s been of late. But at least it wasn’t as red as June, which came in 3% on the wrong side of par.
The July numbers, from research by Miller Kaplan Arase & Co.: Local was down 1%, national was down 4%, and non-spot was up 6%, just enough to counter the national drop and produce the 1% loss in total revenue. CL King & Associates analyst Jim Boyle labeled July the third lightest month of the year in terms of historic revenue levels, in part because its lone holiday, the Fourth of July, tends to fuel advertising that gets placed in June, and for that reason is not very useful in identifying trends. Nevertheless, Boyle said early pacing numbers from August are weak and another red ink month appears to be in the works.
