By Friday we’ll know if the positive revenue momentum is continuing for radio as the country gets back to normal, states open back up and more people receive the coronavirus vaccine. It’s one of the busiest weeks in recent memory for earnings calls from the radio industry.
It all kicks off today with Beasley Media Group reporting Q1 earnings at 11AM. Beasley’s Q4 2020 revenue was down only 5% from Q4 2019. That was good news when compared to 2020’s third quarter which was down 25% and 2nd quarter, down over 50%.
Coming out of the coronavirus revenue catastrophe of 2020, Radio was helped by strong political revenue, which will not be a factor in Q1, growing digital revenue, including podcasting, and weak comps.
On Wednesday Cumulus will report its first quarter earnings. in 2020 Cumulus revenue declined 26.7% thanks to the pandemic. Q4 was down 13.1% despite record political revenue of $14.3 million and an 11.3% increase in digital where podcasting makes up 40% of the company’s digital revenue.
The report card gets even busier on Thursday with Saga, Salem, Entravision and iHeartmedia all reporting. Radio’s largest company saw revenue decline 8.8% in Q4 of 2020 from 1.026 billion to $935.53 million.
