Radio revenue continues to look up, though that performance is compared to a down year in 2009. If the trend continues, 2010 would be the best year-to-year performance for U.S. radio in a decade.
When mid-year radio revenue stats came out from the Radio Advertising Bureau Friday, they showed commercial radio up 6% for the year to date compared to the first six months of last year.
National revenue was up a healthy 17% in the first half, while local revenue, the biggest sector of radio’s business, was up 3%. Network business was up 2%, website revenue was up 22% and off-air was up 1%.
Total estimated revenue in the six-month period was $8.2 billion. RAB said national advertisers had added a half-billion dollars to radio revenue in the first half.
RAB head Jeff Haley said in the announcement, “Radio benefitted from strong returns in top advertiser categories in Q2, led by automotive, financial services, and in our largest category, communications, which grew 14%.”