There was growth in every segment, the RAB said. But, “Local advertising revenue, long the mainstay of the radio business, increased a relatively modest 3 percent to $2.97 billion in the third quarter, while national jumped 10 percent to $700 million,” Media Daily News said Friday.

It’s not much though. “The predicted turnaround will be slight, leaving radio revenue in 2014 still shy of its 2008 level,” the magazine says.

BIA/Kelsey, a consulting firm specializing in local media, says radio ad revenue is likely to see a 1.5 percent gain this year.

“The industry will continue to grow its online revenues in 2010 as increasingly more progressive radio groups recognize they are more than just over-the-air transmitters and begin to integrate cross-platform promotions with their broadcast and Web operations,” Mark R. Fratrik, VP at BIA/Kelsey, says in the report, according to Ad Age.

“Ad spending in 2009 came in at $125.3 billion, a drop of 12.3 percent compared to the prior year,” the report says, according to Crain’s New York Business.

“The good news was that fourth-quarter ad spending fell by only 6 percent. In addition, preliminary numbers for the first quarter of 2010 show most media categories doing better than they were a year ago, said Jon Swallen, a senior vice president at Kantar Media.”

This is worse than a previous report from Medill Reports that said overall U.S. advertising spending was down 9 percent for the year last year. (Kantar isn’t limiting its number to the U.S., perhaps.)

According to Kantar Media, “radio fell 20.3 percent, local television plunged 23.7 percent, magazines dropped 17.4 percent and newspapers 19.7 percent.” Network television was down 7.6 percent for the year but turned around in the fourth quarter to rise 4.1 percent. Cable TV was  down just 1.4 percent.

Internet display advertising rose 7.3 percent.

“The biggest turnaround may be taking place among newspapers,” Crain’s says. “According to Mr. Swallen, advertising is flat so far this year, which puts the category on track to record its best quarter in two-and-a-half years.”

Campbell Soup monitors weather patterns and pulls out its chicken soup radio ads whenever a region trips the bar on the firm’s “misery index.” Zappos has added more winter apparel to its Web page, along with the headline “Cold Weather Outfits Are Hot!”

“As marketers take advantage of the cold front sweeping the nation, they turn to media that can be swiftly adjusted such as spot radio, e-mail marketing and search advertising,” the article says. “Dan Schock, a retail industry director at Google, said that, for companies looking to buy against newly popular search terms such as ‘hot chocolate,’ ‘weather forecast’ or ‘long underwear,’ his team can launch new search campaigns in just a few hours.”

FreeAllMusic.com is in testing stages, but has “two of the four major labels” and six advertisers on board.

“For each download users will select from about a dozen ads to view, and if, say, they choose Coca-Cola, then the company pays for that song in what the site calls a microsponsorship,” the article says.

The company also hopes users will post the fact that they’ve downloaded their latest favorite to their Facebook or Twitter pages, where if friends choose to download the same song they’ll have to watch the same commercial.

Free music surrounded by commercials. Hey, what if we add announcers who introduce the songs? Maybe they can throw in a little local news and weather …

“Together with some positive macroeconomic indicators and glimmers of a turnaround in magazine ad sales, the radio rebound holds out hope for a broader media recovery in the New Year,” Media Daily News said Friday in its Clear Channel report.

“‘The ongoing weakness in the economy and advertising spending, compounded by rising debt and leverage’ have left Citadel with an ‘unsustainable capital structure,’ Neil Begley, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, said December 11 in a report,” according to Bloomberg.

“Sales ‘will continue to decline’ this quarter, Citadel said in a November 6 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,” Bloomberg continues. “The company didn’t expect to meet January financial covenants, leading to a default and possibly forcing a bankruptcy filing, Citadel said at the time.”

At Clear Channel, “national spot ad sales increased 13.2 percent in December compared to last year; January 2010 is on track to deliver a 17.4 percent increase over January 2009’s dismal results.”

According to Bloomberg: “Citadel owns and operates 224 radio stations and produces programming for more than 4,000 affiliates. It is the third-largest U.S. radio company broadcasting from land-based antennas, behind Clear Channel and CBS Corp. Sirius XM Radio Inc., which charges subscribers for programming transmitted by satellites, is the second-largest radio broadcaster by revenue.”

More men listen to soft rock than radio executives thought, and fewer people listen to classical music stations. Mainstream formats like oldies, news and country have larger audiences, but smooth jazz really is a bore.

“Talk radio, a largely conservative format, turns out to have fewer fans than previously thought,” the newspaper says.

The radio industry’s conversion over the past year from measuring ratings through surveys to monitoring listeners electronically has resulted in stations changing their formats and advertisers shifting their money, the report says.

The television industry switched from diary entries to metered ratings in 1987 and saw similarly surprising changes.