The elections helped Radio One increase its revenue during the final quarter of 2012, but it says its radio stations still would have posted positive results even without the help of the political category.
Total net revenue was up 8% to $105.9M. The cable side was up 7% to $33.5M and the radio side was up 11%. Station operating income was a shade better than flat, up 0.6% to $35.7M, a result pegged to the consolidation of TV One.
Radio One’s Alfred C. Liggins III stated, “I was pleased with our Fourth Quarter radio division performance; core radio revenues were up by 11.0% and we outperformed the markets in which we operate by 820 Bps. Normalizing for political revenues, Q4 was +2.9%. Adjusted EBITDA for the Radio Division increased 33% over prior year.:
Liggins continued, “Forward pacings for radio remain encouraging, with Q1 currently pacing up mid-single digits ahead of prior year. Fourth Quarter revenues from our Cable Television division increased 6.8% from the prior period, and we were able to absorb additional programming amortization expenses and severance costs, while still delivering approximately $40 million of Adjusted EBITDA for the full year. During the quarter, we reorganized our syndicated programming and syndicated programming sales effort under the experienced and capable management of David Kantor at Reach Media, and I look forward to seeing positive results from that initiative in 2013.”
