• by Erik Sass , November 10, 2009

The radio industry has hit a sour note. The latest blues are sung by Westwood One, showing an 18.5% decline in the third quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008 -- from $96.3 million to $78.5 million.

Westwood One attributed the third-quarter decline to reductions in its two main ad revenue sources: network radio, down 16% from $48.1 million to $40.4 million, and Metro Traffic, down 21% from $48.2 million to $38 million.

The company has implemented a stringent cost-cutting program, but so far, these savings have been more than outweighed by the continuing steep revenue declines.

Saga Communications also posted third-quarter earnings results, showing a 13.7% drop in overall revenues from $36.2 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $31.3 million this year. This resulted in a 21.6% drop in operating income in the third quarter, to $5.8 million.

Westwood and Saga's results are in line with the rest of the radio industry, which suffered another round of double-digit declines in the last quarter.

Revenues declined 17% at Clear Channel Radio, to $703.3 million; CBS Radio revenues tumbled 19% to $318.9 million; Citadel Broadcasting fell 14% to $214 million; Cumulus tumbled 18.5% to $65.1 million; Beasley said its total revenues fell 20% to $24.4 million; Entercom's revenues decreased 14% to just under $100 million; Emmis Radio fell 26.5% to $53.4 million; Radio One slipped 12% to $75.5 million; and Salem Communications fell 10.2% to $48.8 million.

The eleven radio groups mentioned experienced an average percentage revenue decline of 16.7% in the third quarter of 2009.