Wednesday marked Beasley Media Group’s turn to reveal its third-quarter financial results for 2023. The unveiling showed a disappointing return, coming in under analyst projections and sinking 5.79% year over year. CEO Caroline Beasley and CFO Marie Tedesco discussed the decline in net revenue, which fell to $60.12 million from the previous year’s $63.82 million.
National revenue decreased by 8%, with political considerations bringing it down by 20%, and local revenue saw a 6% drop. On a same-station metric, revenue declined by 4.7%, with Station Operating Income reducing by 9.3% in Q3. Consumer services continued as Beasley’s largest revenue category, though it decreased by 1.8%, as noted by Tedesco.
However, digital advertising did see some growth, offering a silver lining in the overall downturn. Despite these setbacks, digital revenue managed to grow by 9.1% in Q3. Caroline Beasley stressed the importance of digital revenue and set the aim of having it contribute between 20% and 30% of the company’s total revenue. She also highlighted a 22% boost in new local business revenue for the quarter.
A sharp $59.1 million rise in total operating expenses to $145.6 million was attributed to a non-cash FCC license impairment loss of $78.2 million and an additional $10.58 million in goodwill impairment losses.
Beasley’s eSports division also hit a string of bad luck in Q3 – after buying the Houston Outlaws, one of twenty teams in the professional Overwatch League, Activision-Blizzard announced it would be shuttering the league due to internal restructuring. The silver lining for Beasley is that the league will pay out to team owners for the loss, which Caroline Beasley said would be put toward company debt.
This all comes as Beasley is under the pressure of a Nasdaq delisting warning, with the share price not rising above the $1 threshold since August 30. However, the sale of WJBR-FM fetched $5 million, aiding in repurchasing another $10 million of senior secured notes at a discount. Caroline Beasley confirmed a year-to-date debt reduction of $13 million.
For the fourth quarter of 2023, a downturn is expected, largely due to the absence of cyclical political advertising in a non-election year, with a slight upturn expected in December.
The company stated the goal is to get free cash flow positive in 2024, with political revenue forecasted to be around $11 million in the year ahead. Caroline Beasley closed the call with an overall sense of cautious optimistic, hoping for an improvement in advertising and economic conditions.
Bob sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee.
Beasley is doing better than most others in the industry.
Q4 will be solidly profitable for them. They’re already making a huge dent in their debt, which isn’t due until 2026.
Lol. Not disgruntled at all. Don’t disparage me because my observations made you defensive.
The problem with these big companies like iHeart, Beasley, Audacy, and others…is that they’ve long forgotten what the radio “product” was…live, local programming, actual professional personalities, short commercial breaks, and strong station promotions.
Now, it’s all about debt servicing and executive compensation. These groups “talk the talk” about the importance of local— while they put voice-tracking in even key dayparts, and pay their announcers peanuts. They’re not “personalities”…they’re just low-paid announcers.
And forgot about promotions. Corporate looks at everything short term— promotions to them are just a needless “expense.”
And forget about sales. Years ago, MBA’s came up with the sick phrase “cost of sale.” No!! How about the “cost of non sales” ??
That’s what we’re seeing today. There are no true talented sales professionals running these companies or in management. How could there be?? Radio was an “order taking” business until about 13 years ago. And the good order takers got promoted to management.
Add the fact that most 12-24’s don’t even listen to AM/FM anymore… and you’ve got the perfect storm for extinction.
Finally, dressing up nice, and going to parochial industry schmoozing events, does absolutely nothing to help the industry. The “experts” are just talking to themselves. There is ZERO input from listeners or local advertisers at these radio conferences. They are just political schmooze events.
It would be like the car manufacturers putting in an auto show…and only inviting auto executives to the show!!
When you’re tone deaf to your customers (listeners and advertisers) and you disrespect your salespeople, and you dumb down your on-air product…you can eventually expect stock de-listings.
Hey Bob, FYI: Beasley is fully staffed with live & local people. It’s a second generation family-run company, not typical corporate radio. You need to come up with a better excuse.
Hey BigA…your statement “is fully staffed with live and local people” is disingenuous. Man of the Beasley stations voicetrack in some dayparts. And yes, Beasley is corporate radio.
I’m actually uncomfortable that BigA shifted the discourse towards Beasley. Beasley certainly is a respected company, and the word is that they treat their people well.
My comments were a macro overview of the state of radio.