Beasley Media Group may have ended 2025 with a going concern from its auditors, a debt exchange in motion, and a $196.5 million net loss, but Wednesday’s Q4 earnings call came with a unified message that the best is yet to come as the company begins its 65th year.
“2025 was a year of significant challenge for the company,” CEO Caroline Beasley said on Wednesday morning’s earnings call. “But more importantly, it was a year of decisive action and meaningful transformation across every part of our business.”
Beasley recorded a net loss of $190.1 million in the fourth quarter and $196.5 million for the full year 2025, both figures driven almost entirely by a $224.8 million non-cash impairment charge against its FCC licenses.
Full-year net revenue fell to $205.9 million from $240.3 million in 2024, a decline the company attributed to accelerating agency weakness and the absence of $13.6 million in political advertising that had padded the prior year. Stripping out political, same-station revenue was down 7% for the year. Fourth quarter net revenue dropped 21.1% to $53.1 million.
As the traditional broadcaster now embraces “digital-first,” digital was the one area of consistent growth. Full-year digital revenue reached $49.5 million, up 5.9% year-over-year and 21% on a same-station basis, representing 24% of total revenue compared to roughly 19% in 2024. Fourth quarter digital revenue rose 9.7% to $12.6 million, or 33.6% on a same-station basis, with a segment operating margin of 29.4%.
Much of the call was devoted to Kevin LeGrett, who left iHeartMedia to become Beasley’s Chief Business Officer in February. He outlined a three-pillar turnaround plan centered on sales accountability, digital acceleration, and rebuilding local direct revenue. LeGrett said the company has moved its sales organization to a five-day in-office structure and introduced what he called a “war room operating cadence” at quarter end with direct leadership engagement on deal flow and closing activity.
“We had the ears,” LeGrett said. “Now we need to put money against those ears.”
LeGrett said national and agency channels are likely to remain under pressure and that the plan is not built around a recovery there. He identified Tampa, Boston, and Augusta as markets pacing above prior year levels, with others receiving what he called “more targeted surgical support.”
National revenue declined approximately 34% for the full year and 50% in the fourth quarter, though Director of Finance & Strategy Ilana Goldstein noted the comparisons were heavily distorted by $13.6 million in political revenue in 2024, including $8.2 million in Q4 alone. Excluding political, national revenue declined approximately 13% for the full year and 10% in the fourth quarter.
As for the company’s going concern opinion from its auditors, Beasley has faith that it, “should be eliminated once our debt restructure is closed.”
Beasley is executing a debt exchange with second lien bondholders that would cut second lien debt by approximately 50% and repay roughly $15 million of first lien notes, reducing total outstanding debt from approximately $220 million to $110 million. Bondholders have until April 20 to participate, with closing expected by the end of the month. Beasley said the company is also in discussions with an ABL lender to provide go-forward liquidity. “This is not just about reducing debt,” she commented. “It’s about resetting the financial foundation of the company.”
The company offered early 2026 pacing data as evidence of stabilization, saying same-station revenue was down 8% in January, down 6% in February, and up 3% in March. She projected same-station revenue to be down in the mid-single digits for the first quarter overall. On an actual basis, including Fort Myers and Digital Direct, revenue would be down double digits for the quarter.
At what point can we call this what it is: Another profound example of leadership incompetence.
Well managed companies have cultures of excellence, core best practices with a constant focus on improvement, high quality training and support for the sales team, effective processes in place and a long term goal of building lifetime partnerships with clients.
Is this what you see at ANY large radio group today? If it was, they would be making enormous sums of money instead of losing it at an astonishing rate and firing people along the way.
Instead, you see more ridiculous explanations and more multi point lame plans to correct it.
Radio is suffering from a lack of high quality leaders who are clearly not up to the challenge and repeatedly getting wiped off the playing field. It’s time to say it out loud as the first step toward correcting it. The industry doesn’t need more people mailing it in and serving up ridiculous explanations for their failure. It needs capable, effective, competent leaders.
Radio remains the most powerful way to convey a value statement for any company or brand on the face of the earth. If you can’t make money with that insanely powerful advantage , you should step aside.