BUSINESS DECLINE FOR RADIO CONTINUES-----RBR.com and RICK'S OBSERVATION--(September '08)

RADIO NEWS---9-17-08
August continues the parade of potholes (9-17-08)

CL King analyst Jim Boyle thinks that when the Radio Advertising Bureau releases its revenue results for month of August, it'll be talking about a decline of -8% or -9%. That actually would come in at or better than the Wall Street consensus for the beleaguered industry which Boyle says is caught in the grip of simultaneous secular and cyclical challenges. It'll certainly be the 16th red month in a row. Boyle expects publicly-traded groups will beat these numbers by 3%-4%. The pace for Q3 seems to be -6%, matching Q2 results. He notes that small market groups are still doing much better than their large-market colleagues, which he attributes to their old-time business values. "When we listen to radio veterans, they often describe the small market successes as simply 'old radio,'" said Boyle. "Before the groups built unwieldy giant platforms that had corporate/regional management too far removed from the local pulse, distant from local audience and Main Street clients, there was local 'Old Radio' and it used to grow sales 6%-8%.

RADIO NEWS --- 9-18-08
Radio's red plague continues
Who woulda thunk that CL King's Jim Boyle was overly optimistic the other day when he predicted that radio was going to drop 8%-9% year-over-year for August? Well, he was. The gruesome numbers from the Radio Advertising Bureau and Miller Kaplan Arase & Co. included double digits in all categories. Local was down -11%. National was down -14%, for a total spot loss of -12%. Off air, the category formerly known as non-spot, enjoyed a positive double digit gain of +10%, but due to its relatively low volume, it was only able to shave 1% off of radio's total loss, bringing the month home at -11%.

RBR observation:
We remember back when we were just children. In the market where we grew up, Washington DC, WMAL-AM owned our dad. Owned him. From Harden and Weaver during AM drive through Bill Mayhugh overnight, and in every daypart in between - and he was awake at one time or another through all these dayparts - the radio was tuned to WMAL. Us kids were probably around for enough of this to qualify as very young P1s ourselves. You'd think Washington would be one of the toughest places to do this, with so many people coming in and out of town with the ever shifting political winds. Is anybody out there building this kind of a radio community anywhere these days? Or is it a relic to be put in the museum next to the town crier?

RICK'S OBSERVATION:
Jim Boyle continues to hit the problem squarely on the head with his brilliant observations. Let's read between the lines when he says, "...small market groups are doing much better..." and "...listen to radio veterans, they often describe the small market successes as simply 'old radio," and ..."groups built unwieldy giant platforms that had corporate/regional management too far removed from the local pulse, distant from local audience and Main Street clients, there was local 'Old Radio' and it used to grow sales 6%-8%."

Is Mr. Boyle saying history repeats itself? If anything, we can learn from history and the history of broadcasting certainly took a turn for the worse when huge corporate entities took the local out of local radio!

So what now, fellow broadcasters? Are we going to wring our hands and wonder how low it will go or shall we take some local steps to find new ways to bring in those local dollars. The DollarSaver Program is working for those stations that have taken on this promotion. Selling certificates to your audience from your local merchants at a discount through the station's website is bringing in new money, getting new clients to believe that radio works, and turning those "no's" into a close! What would $100,000 per year mean to your bottom line? What could you do with an extra $5-10,000 per month? Just imagine that money coming in, through your website, with no extra work or time spent! Yeah, I know, sounds too good to be true. Any of our stations will tell you how quickly money came in the first day! Let your counterparts from Maine to Arizona tell you their success stories. The DollarSaver Program is a Dollar Maker from the day you launch. Email me for more information.


Rick Snyder
General Manager, Florida
The DollarSaver Program
www.dollarsaverprogram.com
561-635-0413
rickdollarsaver@bellsouth.net