• by Ken Liebeskind , April 16, 2001

A report issued today by Empower MediaMarketing, a Cincinnati, OH media buying firm, shows that radio advertising clutter has dropped slightly over the past year.

The report, based on Nielsen Monitor Plus data, shows that clutter dropped in 13 of 17 measured markets last year and dropped in all markets during the fourth quarter.

The drop in clutter corresponds with a drop in radio advertising revenue reported by the Radio Advertising Bureau. After huge gains early last year, revenue dropped at the end of the year and has dropped even further in the early part of 2001, says Julie Pahutski, Empower's senior VP.

"While we cannot provide a causal link between revenue slowdown and clutter trends, it stands to reason that as ad revenues decrease so do the number of units being sold," she says.

Empower's clutter study shows that the Los Angeles market had the highest clutter rate, 106 for last year, meaning 6% more 30 second units of advertising were sold. Atlanta and Washington D.C. had the least clutter, with scores of 87.

As far as radio formats go, album oriented rock (AOR) showed the highest clutter (up 3%) while oldies showed the biggest drop (down 4%).

"Over the past few years, clutter has grown as they added more inventory, but now in the fourth quarter especially it declined," Pahutski says.

She says this is good for advertisers, whose commercials can stand out in a less cluttered environment. But radio stations may be suffering from a drop in revenue.

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com