• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 29, 2012

Entercom Communications, which owns about 100 radio stations nationwide, reported that total revenues decreased 7% to $95.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. For the full year, revenues slipped 2% from to $382.7 million.

Like other big radio groups, Entercom attributed the fourth-quarter declines to the absence of political advertising associated with the 2010 midterm elections; excluding political ad revenue, fourth-quarter revenues would have been flat.

By the same token, CEO David Field cited the presence of political advertising this year as a reason for optimism going forward, along with improving economic conditions and better performance from newly reformatted stations. However, he conceded that first-quarter revenues have shown modest declines so far.

The radio business as a whole had a mixed 2011. In Q4, total ad revenues declined 2% to $4.5 billion, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau, following earlier year-over-year increases of 3%, 1%, and 2% in the first, second, and third quarters, respectively. For the full year, total revenues grew 1% to $17.4 billion.

Overall, spot revenue declined 4% in the fourth quarter to $3.6 billion, while network increased 5% to $312 million, digital revenues jumped 8% to $185 million, and off-air revenues grew 6% to $397 million.

For the full year, spot revenue was down 1% to $14.06 billion, network increased 3% to $1.14 billion, digital was up 15% to $709 million, and off-air grew 7% to $1.49 billion.