• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 10, 2012

Cumulus Media, the nation’s second-largest broadcast radio group, revealed that total revenues were basically flat in the second quarter, decreasing 1.7% from $290 million in 2011 to $285.2 million in 2012, when the company’s acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting and other transactions are taken into account.

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey hastened to point out that this decline was due almost entirely to weak performances at ten out of Cumulus’ 570 radio stations, including stations with talk and news formats located in the top ten DMAs. These stations accounted for roughly $10 million in revenue declines, with three out of the ten accounting for $5.5 million of that amount. Excluding these ten stations, the rest of the company’s stations saw total revenues increase about 2%, according to Dickey.

Looking to the near future, Dickey said the news and talk format stations which suffered revenue declines in the second quarter would probably continue to be a drag on the company’s results in the third quarter, although he assured investors that the company is moving to remedy the problem. As a result, the third quarter will probably be flat with the previous year.

Looking a bit further ahead, however, Dickey said the outlook for the fourth quarter is considerably brighter, with fourth-quarter sales to date pacing up 8.4% -- and that doesn’t include political advertising, which is usually a bonanza for radio, and seems certain to contribute significantly to the bottom line in this hotly contested election year.

Cumulus still carries a substantial amount of debt -- $2.8 billion -- most of which it assumed as part of its $2.4 billion acquisition of Citadel in 2011.