For the third quarter of 2009, Urban radio specialist Radio One posted net revenue of $75.5M, a loss of -12% from Q3 2008; station operating income came home at $32.7M, or -6%; and net income was $14.2M, a huge improvement over a loss of $266.1M reported last time around.
Radio One President/CEO Alfred C. Liggins III still sees plenty of room for improvement. He stated, “Our third quarter results contain mixed signals. The sequential improvement in radio revenue that we have been seeing since Q1 continued, but not as strongly as I would have liked. While certain of our larger categories are showing signs of recovery (food and beverage -1.6% year-to-year, retail -2.5%, healthcare -4.4%, government/public was flat), others continue to display significant weakness (automotive -37.6% year-to-year, financial -22.9%, telecoms -10.2%, entertainment -10.0%). The efforts we have made to cut costs and streamline the business have positively impacted the income statement, and I believe position us well for the future. I was pleased that our radio division outperformed their markets once again, this time by 390 basis points.”
Wachovia analyst Marci Ryvicker noted that Radio One is enjoying sequential improvement from one quarter to the next and suggests it is a positive signs that the worst of it is over in hard hit large radio markets.
RBR-TVBR observation: Not bad, not bad. Business isn’t going to turn on a dime, but we are finally starting to see some clotting in place of the free bloodletting that has marked the last few quarterly seasons. Radio One’s Q3 may be a way station on the road to a positive quarter sometime soon.
