Beasley 2Q Net Revenue Increases 6.5%

Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. today announced operating results for the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2019.

The $4.0 million, or 6.5%, year-over-year increase in net revenue during the three months ended June 30, 2019, reflects increased revenue in the Company’s Philadelphia market cluster, primarily due to the September 2018 acquisition of WXTU-FM, and increased revenue in the Company’s Boston market cluster. Net revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2019 was comparable to net revenue for the same period in 2018 at the Company’s other market clusters.

Beasley reported operating income of $10.7 million in the second quarter of 2019. Second quarter 2019 interest expense increased by approximately $0.7 million to $4.5 million reflecting additional borrowings related to the WXTU-FM acquisition and a higher overall cost of borrowings.  As a result of these factors, Beasley reported net income of $4.3 million or $0.15 per diluted share in the three months ended June 30, 2019, compared to net income of $4.9 million or $0.18 per diluted share in the three months ended June 30, 2018.

Commenting on the financial results, Caroline Beasley, Chief Executive Officer, said, “The strategic and financial benefits of our initiatives to further expand and diversify Beasley’s broadcast and digital platform are evident in our second quarter financial results and further highlights the progress we are making to reinforce and grow Beasley’s leadership position across all audio platforms in our markets.

"Record second quarter net revenue of $65.7 million was driven by the strength of our station clusters in three of our top five largest revenue markets as well as contributions from recent acquisitions and more than offset approximately $1.0 million in combined political and United States Traffic Network (USTN) revenue recorded in the comparable 2018 period, which was non-recurring in 2019.

Caroline Beasley

"Reflecting the strong operating leverage in Beasley’s business model, second quarter revenue growth of 6.5% drove a 7.5% year-over-year increase in SOI and overall margin improvement.

“During the second quarter, we continued to make significant progress toward transforming Beasley into a fully diversified, local multi-media company through select investments in our existing platform and opportunistic accretive transactions. In June, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WDMK-FM and three translators used to broadcast WDMK’s HD2 signal in Detroit, Michigan from Urban One for $13.5 million.  This transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Beasley’s free cash flow, excluding one-time transaction costs. The acquisition of WDMK-FM and the WDMK-HD2 translators represent a strategically and financially compelling growth opportunity for our shareholders and further enhances our revenue and competitive position in Detroit with a strong cluster of four FM stations in the country’s thirteenth largest market.

“We also continued to advance our initiatives focused on leveraging our premium local programming and brands, while aggressively rolling out our digital offerings and distribution capabilities to create new value for listeners and advertisers. In the second quarter, the early success of our digital sales, digital content development and podcasting strategies resulted in digital revenue growth and higher levels of audience engagement.