• by June 1, 2001

Up against tremendous double-digit comparisons from 2000, Radio advertising sales for 2001 continue to trail last year's blistering pace, as combined local and national revenues fell 9% for the month of April. Local dollars were off 5%, while national sales dropped 22% when matched against April of 2000 when local numbers were up 19% and national figures enjoyed a 32% increase, resulting in a combined gain of 22% for the month. These monthly totals are based on the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) Radio revenue index of more than 100 markets.

Through the first four months of 2001, local ad revenues were trending 3% behind the previous year, while national sales were down 20%. On a combined basis, local and national year-to-date numbers lagged 2000 by 7%.

As a way of putting 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 Sales Index numbers for March reflect overall growth from base year 1998. Local is 131.3, national is 117.6 and the combined total is 128. On a year-to-date basis, local is 132.6, national is 124.1 and combined is 130.7.

"We are nearing the end of the tremendous comparisons from 2000," noted Gary Fries, President & CEO, RAB. "While we still have May ahead of us with the biggest and toughest comparison, we are seeing a resurgence in specific categories and the outlook for the second half of 2001 remains positive."

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.