• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, November 6, 2009

One of the nation's leading radio broadcasters took another big hit in the third quarter, with the announcement by CBS Corp. that revenues at its radio division fell from $392.5 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $318.9 million in the third quarter of 2009 -- a 19% drop.

The weak CBS Radio revenues round out a spate of discouraging third-quarter revenue results from big radio broadcast groups.

Within its corporate parent, CBS Radio wasn't alone in posting a revenue decline this quarter: CBS Outdoor revenues also tumbled from $549.3 million last year to $424.9 million this year -- a 23% drop.

However, the weak performance at CBS Radio and CBS Outdoor was more than offset by increases in TV revenues, which climbed from $2.08 billion in 2008 to $2.27 billion this year -- a 9% increase -- due mostly to an increase in revenues from licensing and affiliates.

As far as the radio business is concerned, the third quarter has been little better than those preceding. Beasley said its total revenues fell from $30.6 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $24.4 million in the same period in 2009, a 20% drop.

Entercom said net revenues decreased 14% to just under $100 million, driving a 25% drop in earnings before taxes to $29.7 million. In the third quarter, total revenues at Emmis Radio fell 26.5%, from $72.7 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $53.4 million in the third quarter of 2009. This contributed to an overall revenue decline of 27.4%, from $92.7 million to $68 million.

Radio One's revenues fell 12% to $75.5 million.