• by John Gaffney , June 24, 2002

After a tough week for radio by publicity standards, the Radio Advertising Bureau reported today that total revenue grew 4% in April when compared to the same month a year ago.

This comes on the heels of former AMFM executive Jimmy Decastro’s trashing of the business in front of a Radio & Records gathering, and a survey that showed consumers want more variety in radio content.

“Radio continues to be successful,” says RAB president Gary Fries, “and when you become a bright target you get on a lot of people’s radar screens. Jimmy DeCastro was a great cheerleader for this business, now he’s moving on. Seems to me that the business hasn’t changed much since he left.”

According to the new revenue report, local dollars for the month rose 2% and national figures climbed 6%. The first four months of 2002 show national up 2%, while local ad sales and the combined total figures remained flat.

RAB has introduced a Sales Index that equates base year 1998 to 100. The Index works similar to the Consumer Price Index so that information can be monitored on a monthly basis. The local sales index for April was 134.2; the national index was 125.0 and the combined total was 132.1. On a year-to-date basis, the local sales index was 132.7; the national index was 131.5 and the combined total was 132.3.

“I think the general environment is such that we will see slow, strong, steady growth for the rest of the year,” Fries says. “It will not be a boom recovery.”

Fries add that preliminary sales for Q3 show signs of being significantly stronger than 2001 data.

Addressing a survey issued last week by the Future of Music Coalition, which showed consumers want more diversity in music on radio, and less formatting, Fries says some of that is already in process. He cautioned that today’s radio business has a very disciplined infrastructure that calls for close coordination between the announcer and the format. “Interpretation within the discipline” is already evolving among some formats, he said.

“I think interpretation happens quite often,” he says. “Each format is different. Some formats can carry more creativity. Some need the announcer to enhance the discipline. We have seen that free-form music programming does not work over the long term."