Radio revenues were up in Q1 for Radio One, reversing the decline in Q4. With TV One consolidated, now that Radio One is the majority owner, Q1 revenues shot up 58.5% to $103 million.
“Our core radio business was up 6.4% and out-performed the markets in which we operate by 480 basis points, led by a recovery in our mid-west markets, continued strong ratings related growth inAtlantaand our newly revampedDetroitcluster. National revenues in larger markets continue to be weak, and I expect that trend to continue until we see some lift from political revenues later in the year. Second quarter core radio revenue is currently pacing up double digits, and we anticipate high single digit revenue growth for the quarter. The growth in our Internet Division revenue and EBITDA is particularly pleasing, and represents a significant improvement from the same period last year. TV One continues to provide robust EBITDA growth and our move towards increased original programming hours should favorably impact ratings in the second half of the year,” said CEO Alfred Liggins in a statement ahead of his conference call with Wall Street analysts.
The strongest revenue growth markets were Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit and Raleigh.
Net revenues for Reach Media declined 8%, but Internet revenues jumped 64.6%.
