Posted by john kim on April 19, 2011 at 00:42:18:
It's been a bad few weeks for the radio-is-dead crowd. After years of predicting the imminent demise of radio, they are having to cope with a flood of new evidence that it is not only alive, but seems to be doing pretty well. First there was the announcement that after a couple of rough years, local revenue increased in 2010. Going into 2010 the consensus view was that radio revenues would continue to decline. As late as January 2010, Optimedia was still projecting a 2% decline. BIA/Kelsey thought that revenue might increase 1%. As it turned out, spot radio was up over 7% and digital was up 28%. The consensus (including Optimedia) now sees revenue continuing to grow for the foreseeable future, at least through 2015.