Beasley Broadcast Group Q4 Earnings Rises to $3.3M

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, February 12, 2016

Beasley Broadcast Group reported fourth quarter net revenue from continuing operations grew to $28.4 million from $18.6 million in 2014. Station operating income (SOI) was up to $9 million from $6.3 million, while operating income (OI) increased to $6.1 million from $1.8 million. The company posted a net income of $3.3 million (14 cents per diluted share) as compared to $1.8 million (8 cents) in the year-ago period.

Net income totals included a $0.6 million charge for a loss on modification of long term debt as the company refinanced its debt and a pre-tax $3.5 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge involving AC WJBR-FM/Wilmington, DE.

"Throughout 2015 we implemented a broad range of operating, programming, sales and local strategies intended to extract operating and financial synergies from the stations acquired in the 2014 Asset Exchange. I am pleased to report that we achieved our goal of our clusters outperforming the markets that report to Miller Kaplan for the first time in December 2015 and expect this trend to continue in 2016," said Chairman/CEO George G. Beasley.

He added, "Combined fourth quarter pro forma revenue from our clusters in Charlotte and Tampa-St. Petersburg, the new markets we entered as a result of the Asset Exchange, declined by a negligible amount. However, we successfully lowered station operating expenses in these markets resulting in a moderate quarter-over-quarter rise in SOI from these clusters despite the benefit in the year ago period of almost $1 million in political revenue.

"On November 30, 2015, the Company entered into a new credit agreement which extended our debt maturity and provided added flexibility under the credit agreement. We also made credit facility net repayments totaling $1.2 million, reduced borrowings to $89 million at year-end 2015 and declared our ninth consecutive quarterly cash dividend," said Beasley.