Lew Dickey Describes 1Q As "Choppy", "Anemic"

Lew Dickey

During last week's conference call with analysts, Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said first quarter 2015 iws best characterized as continuation of Q4's choppy environment, resulting from the tepid economic recovery.

He said, "Weakness was most prevalent among retail advertisers and we felt it home improvement and auto as well as in the telecom sector. On the revenue side, performance was generally consistent across the three months, January, February and March."

Dickey highlights from the conference call:

• March was anemic with net revenue for the first quarter of 2015 was $271 million, a decrease of $21 million or 7% over the prior year. 
• Radio markets were down 3% driven by 4% declines in both local spot and national spot with digital growth of 21%, offsetting these declines slightly, although at a lower contribution margin.
• Local spot performance was slightly up against the market for the quarter and up pretty dramatically in the month of March, according to Dickey. "We have now gained share locally for five straight quarters in those 54 markets."
• Westwood One, revenue was down 14% for the quarter due to continued sales execution challenges primarily in the New York office. "We're also impacted by a reduction of Rdio user acquisition barter which we will ramp back up with the launch of our Rdio Live in the back half of this year and lastly, by the continued rationalization of unprofitable producer contracts at the network."
• Cumulus launched Mancow in the Morning on the Loop in Chicago, an iconic classic rock station. It sparked immediate growth, according to dickey. "Morning Drive went from 1.5 share in February to a 2.7 share in March. That's a big jump in a very short period of time and the weekly show continued growth with the full day also growing for a 2.4 to a 3.4.
• In Nashville, WKDF is the number one country station in the market backed by America’s Morning Show.
• In Atlanta, Cumulus' Top40 WWWQ Q100 in the winner book came in as number one in its format with three competitors and number two overall of the strong showing from the Bert Show, our marquee Morning Show that is syndicated in a number of markets across the country.
• News talk WMAL in Washington D.C. grew tremendously in the last book, both in adults 25-54 as well as with men. Our new sales management is taking advantage of these ratings where our station is beating the market by 500 basis points in sales growth in the quarter.
• Cincinnati, in the most recent book celebrates three of the top five rated stations.
• Providence where we are 1, 2, and 3. It's the strongest ratings we've had in that cluster on four years since owning it and it's one of our larger cash flowing markets.
• America's Morning Show is now on 31 stations and we just signed Orlando, WOTW, as our first major non-O&O affiliate on in April. NASH Nights and Kickin' It with Kix are both on a 100 plus stations with 50% clearance in the top 25 markets and 50% clearance in the top 50 markets. Our 24/7 NASH Icon is now on over 20 stations nationwide, including the number one country station in Nashville, WSM, which serves as NASH Icon's flagship. Our Country Weekly magazine is the nation's most popular publication targeting country audience. We own that and it will be rebranded NASH Country Weekly in June along with a compelling redesign.