Beasley Q2 Rises 8.8%. Cuts Being Made

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With revenue of $64.8 million for the months of April, May and June, Beasley Media Group increased revenue over the same three months in 2021 by just under 9%. Here’s how much money the company lost in the quarter.

Overall, the company reported a loss of $4.5 million in the quarter, compared to operating income of $5.8 million in the same three months of 2021. The loss was blamed on an $8.6 million non-cash impairment loss “due to an increase in the discount rate used in the analyses to estimate the fair value of FCC licenses and goodwill in a rising interest rate environment.”

For the comparable three months of 2021, Beasley recorded $1.5 million of other operating income, net from life insurance proceeds related to the death of company chairman. As a result of these factors, Beasley reported a net loss of $14.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022.

Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley said digital revenue jumped 34.3% and made up about 16.5% of the company’s revenue in Q2. “Digital remains a central component of our revenue diversification strategy, and the momentum we are seeing in our digital business is further underpinned by our ability to grow digital revenue 37% on a quarterly sequential basis, while also improving our digital margin. Our new business performance was robust this quarter, as we recorded $7.8 million in new business revenue, representing a 60% increase from the first quarter of 2022 and 16% growth over the comparable prior year period. In addition, we acquired a small white label digital agency at the end of June, which will immediately contribute positive cash flow and synergies. We believe these results continue to demonstrate the inaccuracy of the perception that radio is more challenged than other segments of the technology, media, and telecom sectors.”

Beasley’s total debt as of June 30, 2022 was $295.0 million, with $45.9 million of cash in the bank.

Beasley added that cuts were being made to deal with the “declining economic environment. “We initiated cost reductions beginning in the second quarter. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on controlling what we can control, maximizing our growth opportunities, managing our expenses and capital structure, serving our audiences and advertisers and delivering results for our stockholders.”

9 COMMENTS

  1. How do these people get into so much debt? Owing 295 million with only 45 million in the bank? Letting employees go isn’t going to fix that. Downsizing your number of properties is your issue or claiming bankruptcy and having hedge fund guys own you is your other option. I looked at those numbers and said to myself at the level most of us are at, we’d owe 295 dollars in bills with 45 dollars in the bank. I was there in my younger days and vowed not to let that happen again. Yet these alleged professionals in suits made these obvious bad choices. And lenders helped them do it. Amazing.

  2. “We haven’t even mentioned about the absurdly cluttered and long commercial breaks.”

    So let me get this straight: Companies shouldn’t cut staffs, but they should cut spots. How do you propose they pay the staff when their only revenue source is advertising?

    “Maybe, just maybe, in bankruptcy the Federal Judge/Trustee will allow local operators to buy stations for pennies on the dollar.”

    That would be counter to the judge’s purpose, to get the most money for the lenders. That’s what happened to Cumulus, and they sold the former ABC stations to EMF.

    • Bob, it’s called RAISE THE RATES. With less commercial inventory, less supply, that’s a no brainer.
      Talented human salespeople can s-e-l-l, sell value, and raise the rates.
      Programmatic cannot do that.
      And huge debt servicing is not a justification for intolerably long commercial breaks.

      When your company iHeart goes back into bankruptcy, yes the judge will force the sale of your stations for pennies on the dollar. “The dollar” meaning what iHeart values the stations at, which is unrealistically high compared to what the station(s) will sell at. That’s what we mean by pennies on the dollar.

      • “RAISE THE RATES.”

        Less inventory only works in a business with no competition. Not the situation in radio. Bankruptcy judges work for the lenders. They don’t give away assets for pennies on the dollar. They grant equity in the assets to the lenders who don’t care about radio, but just care about getting their investment back. That’s how bankruptcy court works. So keep rooting for bankruptcy. It’s what EMF and VCY want to see. In a few years, the entire radio dial will be nothing but religious radio. They’re the only ones with money.

  3. The sooner that Beasley, Audacy, iHeart (again), and Cumulus all rip off the band aid, and file for bankruptcy, the better. They are all drowning in debt, and debt servicing and “expense (people) cutting” is not a business plan. It is survival mode. All of them tell The Big Lie about how local programming is so important to them, yet they have voice-tracked most of their stations’ dayparts. And they have fired most of the professional personalities, replacing them with $18 an hour announcers.
    We haven’t even mentioned about the absurdly cluttered and long commercial breaks. Those are a train wreck, and literally repel away the audience. Plus these groups don’t have any money to seriously promote themselves.
    Maybe, just maybe, in bankruptcy the Federal Judge/Trustee will allow local operators to buy stations for pennies on the dollar. That might help many stations to survive…local owners with money, who can invest in the stations and deliver compelling content.

  4. Beasley’s statement in the very last paragraph, sounds like she copied it right out of an MBA business school manual lol.

    • The fact that they had to mention the death of a company chairman as a major impact to their financial health is a red flag for advertisers. Also, I will say the voice-tracking is out of control at Beasley. Why pay local people, a full-time salary just to VT? Do the PD’s just ignore everything that Caroline says? Or does she not care? Nearly every afternoon show is voice-tracked, especially on Country stations, and then Beasley rolls into a syndicated night show. It’s essentially all a recording. No way advertisers want to waste their money on that crap. And, can’t they force their local markets to actually do their jobs? It’s like the company has no control. What does that Justin guy really do? Is he even allowed to do anything?

  5. Beasley will continue to cuts jobs because they’ve mostly hired folks that I Heart has fired. It should be called Re-Tread broadcasting. Their podcast venture was a massive failure and the PD’s all voice-track their shows and then rely on their “digital PD’s” to run their radio stations. This poor business model has yielded disappointing business results for their employees and clients.

    This is a good lesson for other small broadcasters to avoid trying to pretend being a large broadcaster.

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