• by Paul Gough , May 27, 2004

Buoyed by an uptick in political advertising and a generally better economy, local TV and radio saw strong gains in the first quarter that seem to have carried into April.

This week, both the Television Bureau of Advertising and the Radio Advertising Bureau reported strong year-over-year comparisons to the year before. A year ago, both local media were struggling with up-and-down ad revenues and--for radio in particular--a tough March and April, as the war in Iraq chilled advertisers. While both recovered for a time, the fourth quarter wasn't anything to write home about, and the first quarter was predicted to be weaker than the rest of 2004.

Local broadcast television's ad revenues rose 8.7 percent--from $3.7 billion in the first quarter of 2003 to $4.06 billion this year, according to CMR data of spot data in 100 markets released by the TVB. CMR said that television was strong overall, with a 10.4 percent rise in network TV and a 16.7 percent increase in syndicated TV ad revenues.

While there's no doubt that spot television has--and will continue to--benefit from advertising connected to this year's political campaigns, TVB President Christopher Rohrs says that it's not the whole story. CMR estimated that campaign-ad spending accounted for only $64 million of the $323 million of the first-quarter increase.

"We love the political dollars, of course--and they're definitely part of the story in this year's growth--but it's [only] 20 percent," Rohrs says.

That's an important distinction, since local TV is susceptible to a two-year cycle in which stations roll in the dough almost every second year, when there's plenty of election- and Olympic-related advertising. The highs of those years become incredibly difficult comps in the odd-numbered years like 2003--and, looking ahead, 2005. But the non-political strength this year might make it easier next year.

In local television, the automotive category remains strong. That's not only factory, but also dealer associations and individual dealers, where total spending was up 14.8 percent. During the quarter, three big automakers increased their spot advertising, increasing market share at the same time.

Things continued to flow positively for the radio industry, which had seen its share of knocks last year and even into this year. But April's revenues rose 4 percent overall, with a 4 percent increase in local revenues and a 6 percent rise in national sales as well.

Year-to-date, radio's revenues are up 4 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Local revenues are up 4 percent, while national ad revenues--which are about 20 percent of the total--were up 2 percent.