• by July 4, 2001

Radio advertising sales once again reflected the overall state of the national economy in May with combined local and national revenues dropping 9% for the month. When compared to the same month a year ago, local dollars were down only 5% while national sales declined 22%. May of 2000 proved to be a difficult act to follow when combined local and national revenues jumped 25%, making it the toughest comparison for the year.

From a year-to-date perspective, local ad revenues were 4% behind the first five months of 2000, while national sales were down 21%. On a combined basis, local and national year-to-date numbers trailed 2000 by 8%.

These monthly totals are based on the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) Radio revenue index of more than 100 markets.

To put the intermediate and long-term growth of the Radio industry into better perspective, RAB has introduced an index that equates base year 1998 to 100. The index works similar to the Gross Pricing Index so that the information can be monitored on a monthly basis.

The local index for May is 131.5, the national is 120.5, and the combined total for the month is 129.1. The year-to-date index for local is 132.4, national is 123.3 and the combined total is 130.3.

"Radio will withstand the effects of the current economic slowdown because of its localism," stated Gary Fries, President & CEO of the RAB. "Radio stations across the country serve the needs and tastes of their local communities and generate ad sales from within their marketplace. This will keep Radio solvent through the tough national economy and when the turnaround comes, Radio will be well positioned for growth."

The accounting firms of Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. and Hungerford, Aldrin, Nichols and Carter provide the local and national revenue data on the more than 100 markets RAB uses to calculate its revenue index.