No Growth for Radio Revenue in 2005

Quick: what is the significance of this sequence of numbers: 0, 2, 1, 5.7 and -7.5?
That’s U.S. commercial radio’s five-year sales record, stated in percentage increases over the prior year.
As industry sales execs meet for the RAB convention in Dallas today, they learned what they pretty much knew already: sales in 2005 didn’t set the world on fire, and the fourth quarter acted as a drag on the year.
Radio revenue was flat – the 0% increase – in 2005 compared to the year before, totaling $21.4 billion in spot and non-spot dollars, according to the RAB.
It said local sales grew 1%, national dollars fell 2%, network revenue dropped 2.6% and non-spot dollars decreased by 1%.
In the fourth quarter, overall radio revenue was down 3% over the same quarter the prior year. National ad dollars fell 9% in the quarter.
By comparison, 2004 was up 2% over the year prior. (A chart of past years’ performance appears on page 32 of the Feb. 1 issue of the U.S. edition of Radio World.)