Tampa Bay, Charlotte Push Beasley To Gains In First Quarter

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BEASLEY BROADCAST GROUP, INC. first-quarter net revenue increased 13.2% to $27.5 million, credited to higher revenue in TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG and CHARLOTTE  Net income jumped 40.2% to $18. million (8 cents/diluted share), aided by higher net revenue offset by an increase of bonuses paid out and in event and concert expenses. The company also added $400,000 in  insurance proceeds from a damaged radio tower in AUGUSTA, GA in 2015's totals.

Interim CEO/EVP/CFO CAROLINE BEASLEY said, “Our strong first-quarter operating results highlight the solid revenue growth at the Company’s TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG and CHARLOTTE market clusters which combined with the success of our integration and profitability initiatives generated double digit growth in key financial metrics. While 2016 first quarter revenue included the cyclical return of political advertising, we generated organic revenue growth even without the political spending. In addition, we achieved our goal of our clusters, on a combined basis, outperforming the markets that report to MILLER KAPLAN for the full quarter and expect this trend to continue in 2016.

“At the time we announced the station exchange with CBS in 2014, we indicated that we expected the transaction to be accretive to the Company’s station operating income in the first eighteen months of ownership. As reflected by the first-quarter results, we exceeded our goal as the transaction is accretive after approximately sixteen months of ownership.

“During the first quarter, we continued to allocate operating cash flow to debt reduction and made credit facility repayments totaling $3.0 million, reducing borrowings to $86 million at MARCH 31st, 2016. We intend to continue our use of cash from operations to further reduce debt, pay quarterly cash dividends and to pursue other opportunities to enhance shareholder value and during the first quarter declared our tenth consecutive quarterly cash dividend.

“Our strategic priorities remain focused on leveraging our local content and the strong ratings in all of our clusters through the further development of our digital and event marketing/NTR activities. We've worked hard to maintain strong community involvement and an intimate connection with our listeners and advertisers in all of our markets. We also remain focused on our station clusters matching or exceeding their market’s revenue performance and further strengthening our balance sheet as means of enhancing shareholder value. In 2016, we expect to benefit from the changes put in place over the last year as well as the cyclical return of political advertising.”

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