“Despite the difficult environment, we continue to make progress in areas under our control,” says Cumulus Media President and CEO Mary Berner, who focused on operational discipline and diversification in the broadcaster’s Q3 2025 earnings call.
Cumulus Media closed the third quarter of 2025 with total net revenue of $180.3 million, an 11.5% decline from $203.6 million in the same period last year, or 5% excluding the impact of political advertising and the exits of The Daily Wire and The Dan Bongino Show.
The company reported a net loss of $20.5 million, nearly double the $10.3 million loss recorded in Q3 2024, as industry-wide advertising weakness continued to weigh on results.
Berner stated, “We’ve been acutely focused on gaining revenue and ratings market share, resulting in our outperformance versus our peers across numerous key metrics.”
Alongside discipline and diversification, there was a third “D” that occupied much of the earnings talk: digital.
Digital Marketing Services revenue jumped 34% year-over-year, marking the third straight quarter above 30% growth. The success was attributed to an 88% increase in new accounts and an 8% rise in average campaign size. Total digital revenue, excluding The Daily Wire and Dan Bongino, rose 8%. Podcasting revenue increased 15% under the same normalization.
Without that stipulation, digital revenue slipped 2.6% to $39.0 million, compared to $40.0 million in Q3 2024.
Even so, Berner remains bullish on Cumulus’s digital trajectory, pointing to DMS’s strong ROI performance and expanding customer adoption. “Our competitiveness is further reinforced by the fact that our DMS solutions deliver ROI for our clients that outperform industry benchmarks by an average of more than 25%,” she said.
Broadcast radio remained the largest revenue segment but saw steep declines. Combined broadcast radio revenue dropped 17.2% to $115.0 million, down from $139.0 million last year. Within that category, spot revenue decreased 13.1% to $83.7 million. Network revenue fell 26.5% to $31.3 million, a decline attributed to a “depressed general market environment” despite strong sports demand.
Cumulus plans to strengthen its sports and network portfolio with the launch of the Westwood One Sports 24/7 Network, debuting at the start of 2026.
The quest to right national revenue is also a factor in the company’s other big headline: its ongoing antitrust dispute with Nielsen. While not taking questions on the call, Berner addressed the lawsuit, which the company plans to take to trial as soon as possible. “We feel strongly about the merits of our claim,” she said, noting that an expedited discovery schedule is underway with a preliminary injunction hearing set for early December.
Berner said the company is taking aggressive steps to manage expenses and increase efficiency. Cumulus cut $7 million in annualized fixed costs during Q3, bringing total savings to $20 million for the year and $182 million since 2019 – a reduction of its fixed cost base by more than 30%.
Cumulus ended the quarter with $90 million in cash and $109 million in total liquidity. The company expects to add another $12 million in Q4 proceeds from property sales in Nashville and New Mexico. CFO Frank Lopez-Balboa reported EBITDA of $16.7 million for the quarter and reiterated that total operating expenses were down roughly $12 million year-over-year.
Artificial intelligence continues to play a growing role in those efforts. Berner said the company has more than 100 AI-related projects in progress, including tools for sales prospecting, customer support automation, and real-time audio content clipping to extend audience engagement.
Looking ahead, Cumulus expects Q4 revenue to decline mid-single digits excluding political, The Daily Wire, and Dan Bongino. Including those factors, the company projects a mid- to high-teens drop, partially offset by continued digital momentum.
