• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 4, 2010

A handful of fourth-quarter results from broadcast radio groups confirmed that the rate of decline in ad revenues slowed in the fourth quarter of 2009, holding out hope that the medium has finally hit bottom after a precipitous decline over the preceding two years.

However executives from Cumulus Media, Salem Communications and Saga Communications were very cautious in their optimism, foreshadowing a slow, uneven recovery in 2010-2011.

Cumulus Media reported that total revenues slipped 7.3% from $75.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $69.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, which execs attributed to the economic downturn, compounded by the absence of political advertising.

This is a considerable improvement over previous quarters: full-year revenues fell 17.8% from $311.5 million in 2008 to $256 million in 2009. Looking to the future, Cumulus was quite guarded in its official forecast. "We believe that advertising revenue in our markets will not have any significant growth at least through the first quarter of 2010, with modest growth in certain categories throughout the remainder of 2010."

Salem Communications reported a comparable decline of 7.9% from $55.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $50.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, attributable mostly to an 8.8% decline in broadcast revenues, which slumped from $45.5 million to $43.3 million.

Full-year revenues fell 10.5% from $222.5 million in 2008 to $199.2 million in 2009. Looking ahead, Salem saw more declines in the near future: "For the first quarter of 2010, Salem is projecting total revenue to decrease 1% to 3% over first quarter 2009 total revenue of $48.7 million."

Finally, Saga Communications rounded out the trio with revenues decreasing 8.9% from $34.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $31.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. Full-year revenues declined 13.7% from $140 million in 2008 to $120.9 million in 2009. Saga didn't provide any guidance in its fourth-quarter earnings release.