2010 Commercial Revenue Figures

From Friday Morning Quarterback, 2010's revenue figures are in from both Entercom Communications and Beasley Broadcast Group, who own 150+ stations combined nationwide.  While these figures do not represent solely radio-based revenue, both companies have posted impressive increases during 2010 (and in the last quarter of the year as well).  Entercom improved yearly net revenue by 5% from 2009, and Beasley 1.3%.  Perhaps a bit more interesting is Entercom's report that "station operating income" was up 11%, not only because of its specificity in commercial station operations, but also that it own more than double the stations that the Beasley Group owns.  Obviously having more stations is a better opportunity to earn more money, but it seems that Entercom is getting it more right than others, because that is an impressive percentage.

It seems that big commercial radio owners are back on the rise, with Clear Channel Radio reporting (also at Friday Morning Quarterback) a 6% net revenue.  I guess advertisers are starting to feel comfortable again in the radio market, and the sometimes vicious cycle of the modern economy is feeling forgiving for the moment.  I do think that everything fluctuates, usually in less-than-predictable patterns, but could this be a slow rise on the way towards stasis in the area of commercial radio?

I am optimistic that commercial radio is going to survive the current state of flux, but is this a result of improved management, programming, or simply an economic symbol of investors anxiety being replaced with hopefulness?  Arbitron seems to think that radio listener-ship is up, featuring (estimated) highlight figures below:

• Increase of weekly listeners aged 12+ by 3.3 million in 2010 
• Estimated 239.8 million of those aged 12+ are now listening to radio every week (about 93.2% of the national demographic)
• Nearly 1 million new weekly listeners aged 18-34, and 365,000 of teenagers 12-17
• Percentage of demographic listening to radio on a weekly basis
• 12-17: 92%
• 18-34: 94%

So while some think that it is the younger generations leaving radio behind, clearly the medium can't quite be shook.  What does this mean for programming?  Are big corporations actually alienating listeners?  Or are they able to retain such a big percentage of the nation without really changing their methods?  Or could it just be a matter of time before our parents' and grandparents' medium of choice is left in the dust?  I think it makes more sense for stations and owners to try to diversify more, but we will certainly have to look at how programming has changed in the last few years in my next post.