Clear Channel Q4 Revs Down 6%, Radio Drops 10%

RADIO ONLINE | , , | :am CT

CC Media Holdings, parent of Clear Channel Radio, reported a 6% decline in consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter to $1.51 billion from $1.6 billion in 2008, a decline of 17% as compared to 2008. The company's radio unit posted a 10% drop in Q4 revenues to $712 million from $788.8 million. The company saw net earnings of $147.3 million compared to a loss of $499 million in the year-ago period.

Clear Channel said that local and national revenues were down across markets and advertising categories as a result of an overall weakness in advertising and the economy. The decline led to drops in total minutes sold and yield per minute in 2009 compared to 2008.

President/CEO Mark Mays commented: "We began to see encouraging trends in the global advertising environment during the fourth quarter, as our overall revenues demonstrated sequential improvement in the final three months of the year."

He continued, "During the past year, we have implemented a concerted plan to achieve significant cost efficiencies across our operations. We have also strengthened our management team and sales organization and made considerable progress in developing our content distribution and advertising capabilities. These efforts will continue in 2010 as we seek to maximize our performance."