The radio stations in the Radio One portfolio didn’t have a bad quarter, nor did they have a great one – in terms of net revenue, they were just to the north and south of flat depending on how you look at it. But the opportunity to go cruising with Tom Joyner, reported in Radio One’s Reach Media unit, moved to Q2 and created a double digit net revenue increase.
Net revenue improved 13% to $119.6M, and station operating income improved 10.4% to $45.7M, not making any adjustments for changes in Radio One’s overall operational parameters, which also included a change in reporting syndicated programming, which moved from the station column to the Reach column.
Alfred C. Liggins, III, Radio One’s CEO and President stated, “Overall I am pleased with our Adjusted EBITDA2 growth of 19.5% for the quarter, which demonstrates the benefits of our diversification strategy. Radio advertising markets have been choppy, with a slowdown in June that took our core radio revenues from low single digit positive to a –0.6% finish. July core radio station net revenue was +5.0% and Q3 is currently pacing up low single digits. TV One posted robust revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth, up approximately 17.0% and 22.3% respectively, and Household ratings in prime were up 15%. Our Interactive One business performed well, with positive Adjusted EBITDA of $507,000 compared to a loss of $475,000 for the same period last year, and remains on target to hit break-even for the year. The Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage was a success, and helped propel Reach Media to a positive Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $1.9 million, which was a welcome turn-around from last year’s comparable loss of $89,000.”
Radio pulled in $58.8M. It was up 0.4% adjusting for the move of the syndicated programming to Reach. However, if adjusted for the timing change on the Joyner cruise, it was down 0.6%.
Reach Media received the benefit of the cruise, which brought in $7.2M, and was part of the package of syndicated income that moved from radio to Reach. Reach net revenue rose 54.1% adjusted; but if you adjust for the change in quarterly timing for the event, Reach lost 7.2%.
Cable net revenue was up 16.7% to $37.7M, and internet was up 45.5% to $6.4M.
