CEO Farid Suleman says "with any merger, it creates uncertainty, it affects the mindset", and he admits the company has lost people. But "the good news is, all of our managers are still in place." He says the smallest markets fared the best, revenue-wise, in the first quarter, followed by medium markets. In Citadel's largest markets, it was roughly half and half. Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Minneapolis and Providence were up, year over year. Atlanta, San Francisco and Detroit were off. New York was down, "predominantly due to WPLJ", which is in a tight ratings battle. Suleman says its ratings "have stabilized" and the Hot AC should have easier comps in the second half of the year. Also recovering: Citadel's two country stations in Dallas.

Automotive business, mainly from the Japanese carmakers, is softening, because of the supply problem with new cars. Citadel is seeing some pickup from local direct dealer business.

Topline revenue for the radio stations dropped 1.3%, to $136.4 million. It would have been roughly unchanged, if you exclude last year's political spending. Station operating income for the stations rose 1.2%, to $47 million. At the Citadel Media "Network" syndication division, revenue dropped 11.4% to $24.9 million, and station operating income decreased nearly 65%, to $1.2 million.

Combining both radio stations and the Network division, Citadel revenue fell 3% to $160 million. At the Network syndication unit, the company cites "lower sales representation revenues, and lower revenue from our urban and news-related RADAR networks, as well as the elimination of certain unprofitable programs in 2010." On the station side, there was the non-recurrence of political dollars compared to 2010, and the loss of a five-year LMA of a talk station in Knoxville.