“This transformation is hard, really hard. It’s taxing. And it’s working,” said Saga CEO Chris Forgy on the broadcaster’s journey into what it calls “blended advertising.” The company’s Q3 was also a story of what might have been, if not for a retroactive royalty rate rise.
“Over the past several months, Saga’s elite group of leaders and employees, Saga’s corporate team, and Saga’s board of directors have been extremely busy in the Saga-verse,” Forgy remarked, discussing the company’s shift to digital and traditional radio revenue.
“We have been diligently installing Saga’s blended digital strategy… in order to achieve our objective of 2X gross revenue, most of it digital, in 18 to 24 months by capturing just 5% of the available search and display dollars available in our 27 Saga markets.”
Saga’s third-quarter 2025 revenue declined 1.8% to $28.2 million, while operating expenses rose by $2 million to $24.7 million. The company attributed the increase to an industry-wide music licensing settlement negotiated by the Radio Music License Committee with ASCAP and BMI, which set new rates retroactive to 2022 and extending through 2029.
The retroactive fees totaled more than $2 million and flipped Saga’s bottom line. “We reported an operating loss of $626,000 for the quarter,” said Executive Vice President and CFO Sam Bush, “which without the settlement would have been an operating income of $1.5 million compared to $1.6 million for the same period last year.”
Altogether, Saga posted a net loss of $532,000 for the quarter, compared to $1.3 million in net income during Q3 2024.
Still, the quarter wasn’t without bright spots. “For the third quarter this year, the increase in our interactive revenue made up almost the entire decrease in our broadcast revenue when adjusted for political,” Bush commented. “Interactive revenue was up 32.6% for the quarter and up 17.1% for the nine-month period with a 54% profit margin.”
In Forgy’s view, Saga’s strength lies in its geography and grit. “Saga focuses on small and medium markets,” he said. “Our leaders get involved in city government, raise money for important causes where money raised stays in the local community. We get belly to belly with influencers and decision makers to move local business forward.”
And though the company’s digital shift is far from complete, Forgy insisted the signs are there. “This above all else proves that there are green shoots popping up as it relates to our digital transformation,” he said. “The blend is gaining momentum.”
Saga expects a difficult comparison for the fourth quarter due to $2 million in prior-year political revenue, with overall pacing down 11% including political and 4.7% excluding it. However, interactive revenue is projected to rise 32%. The company touted its $10.7 million sale of 22 telecommunications tower sites and said it remains financially positioned to strengthen profitability as its digital strategy advances.
