Beasley Same Station Revenue In Q1 Was Flat

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National outperformed local in the quarter, according to CEO Caroline Beasley, with national increasing double digits in the quarter despite an overall flat performance on a same station basis. Beasley said revenue growth was strongest in Augusta, Boston (with help from the Superbowl Champion New England Patriots), Philadelphia, Tampa and Wilmington. Beasley’s first quarter was hampered a bit by the loss of $825,000 in traffic ad revenue which was lost due to the demise of United States Traffic network.

In Philadelphia, Beasley said while the integration of Country station WXTU-FM, which the company picked up from Entercom in the Summer of 2018, is exceeding internal projections revenue was down in the quarter, compared to 2018. She attributed the decline to “corporate push down revenue by Entercom.” Overall in Philadelphia, the Beasley cluster grew revenue 2%, and now takes in nearly 30% of the radio revenue in that market.

Total Q1 revenue for Beasley, including revenue from WXTU-FM in Philadelphia was $57.7 million

Top performing categories were Consumer Services, Retail, Entertainment and Auto. Consumer services made up 26% of Beasley’s overall revenue in the quarter. The Consumer Services category includes medical, dental, real estate, construction, insurance and education and was up 6% in the quarter. Retail was up 8%, entertainment was up 1% and Auto was up 1%. These four categories make up about 70% of Beasley’s overall revenue.

Beasley’s first quarter Free Chas Flow declined $2.9 million. The company says that was due to a $1.0 million gain due to a pension plan termination in the prior year period, as well as an approximate $1.0 million increase in interest expense related to the WXTU-FM acquisition and an approximate $0.7 million increase in capital expenses.

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