• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, September 14, 2012

While it didn’t match the growth rates for Internet or TV advertising, radio managed to post a modest 1% increase in total advertising revenues in the second quarter, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Recently released RAB figures show that revenues increased to $4.36 billion in the second quarter of 2012 year-over-year. For the first half of the year, revenues were also up 1% to $7.89 billion.
 
Spot ad revenue increased 1% to $3.76 billion in the second quarter, while off-air grew 4% to $409 million and digital rose 3% to $191 million. The second-quarter figures don’t include network radio data because Miller Kaplan, which collects it, was unable to obtain information from participants representing at least 90% of total market revenues.
 
In terms of categories, the biggest increases were seen in health care, where spending was up 23%; automotive, up 17%; home furnishings, up 10%; insurance, up 10%; concerts, theaters, and movies, up 9%, and professional services, up 4%.

As expected, political advertising is also giving radio a boost, with $15.2 million of political spending in the second quarter and $22.5 million in the first half of the year.   
 
However, the digital advertising figures are disappointing, following 10% growth in the first quarter and 15% growth in 2011. This is especially true given they remain a fairly small part of the overall business, at just 4.4% of total radio ad revenues in the second quarter.

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