Beasley Broadcast Q1 Net Revenue Up 4.6% to $57.7 Million

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, April 29, 2019

Beasley Broadcast Group

Beasley Broadcast Group reported first quarter net revenue increased 4.6% to $57.7 million from $55.2 million in 2018. The year-over-year rise reflects growth in the company's Philadelphia cluster primarily related to the September, 2018 acquisition of WXTU-FM and growth in the company's Tampa cluster. Operating income climbed to $6.8 million from $0.4 million, while station operating income (SOI) rose 6.2% to $10.2 million. Beasley posted a net revenue of $1.4 million (5 cents per diluted share) as compared to a net loss of $3.2 million (11 cents) in the year-ago period.

CEO Caroline Beasley said, "The ongoing execution of our strategies to expand our scale, diversify our revenue mix and leverage the value of our premium local brands and content continued to serve Beasley well in the first quarter of 2019. The strength of our station clusters in three of our top five largest revenue markets as well as contributions from recent acquisitions and station swaps resulted in a 4.6% revenue increase and more than offset the $0.8 million year-over-year decline in revenue from our prior relationship with United States Traffic Network, which was discontinued in the third quarter of 2018. As a result, Beasley's first quarter net income rose to $1.4 million, we generated a 6.2% year-over-year increase in SOI and generated an overall margin improvement."

"During the first quarter, we continued to advance our initiatives focused on premium local programming to support ratings and market leadership, while aggressively rolling out our digital offerings and distribution capabilities to create new value for consumers and advertisers. In this regard, we made significant progress in expanding our local and national digital content production to reinforce and grow Beasley's leadership position and distribution across all audio platforms in our markets, including the development of new podcasts featuring our biggest local franchises."

"In the first quarter, we used cash from operations to pay our twenty-second consecutive quarterly cash dividend and made voluntary debt repayments of approximately $2.5 million, ending March 31, 2019 with total outstanding debt of $249.5 million. In the second quarter to date, we have reduced our total outstanding debt by an additional $1.5 million, and we intend to use our free cash flow to continue to make voluntary prepayments throughout the remainder of the second quarter and the balance of 2019."