After stating he was very bummed out that the voters in Richmond voted down Urban One’s plan for a casino in that community this week, CEO Alfred Liggins said the company now has a lot of cash and growing its radio division is an option on the table.
While Liggins stated that it’s too soon to know if there’s any way to salvage the casino plan, he added that the radio business is ripe for consolidation.
While he’s bummed out about the casino being voted down this week, he feels great about the position his company is in. He said he’s open to buying stations, selling stations or swapping stations. “We’re not at a full compliment of stations in most of our markets.” He added that any deal had to create value, reduce leverage, and be at a price that made sense.
If the casino vote passed that would have been $100 million out the door for that project.
For the third quarter Urban One’s net revenue was $111.5 million, an increase of 21.3% from the same period in 2020. Radio revenue came in at $43 million, Digital generated $15 million in revenue and the company took in $711,000 in political revenue.
Again, YOU are thinking old school, lol. People will in fact listen to, and repeatedly listen to, local personalities who ARE compelling. That has been proven. Unfortunately your thinking is ingrained based on today’s state of $15 an hour weekend announcers and voice tracking.
Corporate owners have largely driven out, the talented and professional personalities because they can no longer afford to pay them. Executive comp and debt-servicing are the priorities for the likes of iHeart and Audacy.
If local streaming-only stations hired funny, witty personalities and paid them well, people would listen. And again, the mindset to build and create successful streaming-only stations, will come
from younger people and fresh new thinking.
“If local streaming-only stations hired funny, witty personalities and paid them well, people would listen.”
Let me know when you start it.
Not aimed at Urban One but, Good For Richmond! And, by the way, stick to what you knwo – Radio!
$100 million dollars won’t buy you much of a casino. Circa in Las Vegas cost over a billion dollars to build!
On the other hand, $100 million dollars will now buy you a heckuva lot of radio stations!
But I would not assume by any means that the revenues 5 years from now, will be the same as today. …And 10 years from now, who knows.
I’m not referring to streaming revenues, I’m referring to revenues strictly from AM and FM operations. Come to think of it, Liggins might consider launching the first LOCAL streaming-only radio stations, with no AM or FM station involved. That would be analagous to when the first FM stations launched… huge upside.
And the big corporate players like IHeart and Audacy cannot launch streaming-only stations; their cash has to go to debt-servicing.
It probably wouldn’t cost 100M either (not actually small change)!
“IHeart and Audacy cannot launch streaming-only stations”
Huh? They both already have. They own streaming platforms. Urban One does not.
I’m talking content, not platforms. Neither iHeart not Audacy have any streaming channels that have LOCAL personalities, and love programming…that is totally SEPERATE from their content on AM or FM stations.
Anotherwords, I’m referring to local “radio stations” that would be on the INTERNET only…with far shorter commercial breaks, and where the personalities would not be constrained by FCC and other AM or FM bylaws or restrictions.
“Neither iHeart not Audacy have any streaming channels that have LOCAL personalities”
You realize that streaming isn’t local. So “local personalities” are irrelevant. No local personalities at Spotify either. And it’s not because they have debt.
But both Audacy and iHeart offer stations that are only available as streams, not rebroadcasts of their owned AM or FM stations. They also offer HD stations that are not rebroadcasts of their AM or FM stations. Those stations are also streamed.
A number of former local personalities have tried the idea of doing local internet radio shows, but the cost far exceeds any possible revenue. The music royalties are much higher than broadcast radio. The audiences for these stations are very small.
With all due respect, you are thinking with the mindset of a traditional radio person. Of course we know that streaming is a national platform. And to your point, the track of LOCAL streaming-only with live personalities is fraught with obstacles. But someone will figure it out. And it WON’T be one of the entrenched, heavily in debt traditional radio companies like iHeart or Audacy. …Successful local streaming stations will be a young person’s game.
With all due respect, the reliance on local air personalities is the thinking of a traditional radio person. No one else cares. That’s why all of the popular streaming platforms don’t have any. You don’t see Spotify hiring local DJs.