What is driving radio growth at Journal?

0

Look for Q2 to look a lot like Q1 was the word from Journal Communications, which is pretty good on the broadcasting side, particularly for radio, which led the company in Q1. So what is behind the radio growth?


“If you look at auto in the first quarter we were up 7%,” noted CEO Steve Smith in his quarterly conference call with Wall Street analysts. “We were up 3% in television and 9% in radio. We had a bit of a stronger quarter in radio in automobiles,” he said, but added that looking at Q2 pacings “we should be cautious right now.”

One thing that has been changing is where the auto money is coming from. “Last year in automobile we saw national dollars that were larger. This year we’re seeing more and more local, which is probably why that radio number is stronger,” Smith said of the current year’s heavy spending by local dealers.

As reported by Journal, radio revenues were up 3.4% in Q1, while TV was down 3.4%. However, if you exclude last year’s Olympics, TV was up 4.6%.