Radio Feels Ad Softness

U.S. radio advertising revenue skidded 6 percent in February versus February 2000, when revenues advance a searing 22 percent from a year earlier, the Radio Advertising Bureau said Tuesday.

Local radio ad revenue was off 2 percent for the period, while national retreated 22 percent as the balloon suddenly deflated in the advertising economy.

Blaming difficult comparisons with the first six months of 2000, when dot-com ad spending fueled strong gains, Gary Fries, ad bureau president, said he expected local radio to pick up momentum in the second half of this year and to deliver a healthy year-end increase.