Radio Income Improves in Q4

But that ain’t saying too much – it improved all the way to flat, and it wasn’t good enough to pull the bottom line for the year out of the red. But according to the RAB and Miller Kaplan Arase LLP, radio companies did make a heroic effort to make up spot shortfalls on the off-air side.

National results produced the biggest results pothole.

Radio companies did manage to rake in better than $3.5B in spot sales during the quarter, but the results were 2% short of Q4 2013 results. The category fell 3% short on a full-year basis to about $13.6B.

“Radio held its own in 2014 with Radio revenue remaining steady despite an economic climate which saw some businesses tightening their spending in Q4 due to reduced consumer confidence,” said RAB’s President and CEO Erica Farber.

Farber praised the industry for building new revenue streams. She said, “Digital revenue growth indicates that Radio is meeting marketers’ growing commitment to reach consumers via all digital ad channels, and this continued growth confirms Radio’s position as a true marketing partner.”

Here are the full results for the quarter and year:

Radio’s Top 10 Spot categories in 2014 were (in rank order):
Auto Dealers/Dealer Groups/Manufacturers/Rentals
Communications/Cellular
Financial Services
Health Care
Professional Services
Restaurants
Television/Networks/Cable Providers
Insurance Companies
Grocery/Convenience Stores
Education

RBR-TVBR observation: That was a bit of a tough quarter. And we know that Q1 has been a tough slog too.

However, we have also been seeing nothing but rosy confidence reports both among executives and consumers. It seems that people are ready to spend, and companies are ready to hire more people who will then be able to spend.

Radio has to continue to work diligently to get back lost ground in the spot categories while continue to build momentum in digital and off-air.

Good luck!