• by Joe Mandese , June 6, 2005

The radio industry Friday reported another soft month in local and national advertising sales, and another mixed signal for the near-term advertising economy. National radio ad spending fell 2 percent and local radio ad spending was flat in April compared with April 2004, according to estimates released by the Radio Advertising Bureau.

It was the worst performance of national radio ad demand so far this year, and mirrors the sluggishness being reported in the national ad economy by other sectors. Last week, competitive ad spending tracker TNS Media Intelligence (formerly CMR) reported that measured media spending rose only 4.4 percent during the first quarter of 2005. The radio picture was even more mixed, with local radio up only 2.2 percent and network radio down 3.2 percent. National spot radio was reported to be roughly even with the overall growth of the ad economy, up 4.7 percent for the quarter.

But some sources believe TNS' data underestimated the growth occurring in some key media sectors, especially the Internet--suggesting that radio is actually lagging the national advertising economy.

In a statement released on Friday, RAB President-CEO Gary Fries acknowledged: "Radio is in an evolutionary phase," but he implied the medium is poised for growth in advertising demand, stemming from new technologies and programming formats.

In fact, the radio industry has been fast to embrace a variety of new delivery systems ranging from Internet and satellite radio to digital radio broadcasting. Recently, major radio broadcasters have even begun to exploit consumer-generated "podcasts" as a commercial broadcasting feature.

Radio Ad Sales
	April '05	Year-To-Date
Local	NC	+1%
National	-2%	+2%
Local & National	-1%	+1%
"Non-Spot"	+6%	NC
Total	NC	+1%

Source: Radio Advertising Bureau.