BIA Finds Local Radio Topped $13.6 Billion in 2022

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, May 4, 2023 | 11:07am CT

BIA Advisory Services

In the first edition of its Investing In Radio Market Report for 2023, BIA Advisory Services reports that total local radio over-the-air and digital revenue for 2022 topped $13.6 billion in 2022, growing 7.4 percent from $12.6 billion in 2021. Over-the-air advertising grew 2.2 percent to $11 billion (up from $10.7 billion in 2021) and digital income rose 35 percent to $2.6 billion (up from $1.9 billion in 2021).

"Looking at last year's ad revenue results, it shows that radio is maintaining an important position in their local markets, particularly as it expands and improves its online digital presence," said BIA VP of Forecasting Nicole Ovadia. "This year, we are making a particular effort to track the digital revenue of local radio stations and believe this breakout in our forecast will be valuable to everyone in the industry."

For 2023, Ovadia forecasts that the bump in revenue experienced in 2022 will be harder this year without significant political spending but expects that 2024 political advertising will start earlier in the cycle than usual, potentially bleeding into late Q4 of 2023.

For the top 10 radio stations by OTA revenue, a few adjustments in rankings occurred in 2022. While all-News WTOP-FM/Washington, DC maintained its long-time leading spot with $69 million in advertising revenue, other all-News stations struggled. Compared to last year's list, all-News WBBM-AM/Chicago, IL dropped to the number nine position and all-News WCBS-AM/New York fell to the eleventh position. New to the list is News/Talk WSB-AM/Atlanta with $31.6 million in 2022 revenues.

In radio station sale transactions, BIA's VP of Media Valuations, Lauren Ross said, "The radio deal market can best be described as sluggish in the past three years. Although deal volume[1] increased by two-thirds in 2022 to $300 million from $190 million in 2021, total radio station sales have been very low since 2018. All totaled, there were just seven radio buys of $10.0 million or more in 2022."