Beasley Third Quarter Revenue Rises 10.6%

Revenue Up

BEASLEY BROADCAST GROUP, INC. third quarter net revenue increased 10.6% to $65.1 million, reflecting the station deals that brought Sports WBZ-F (98.5 THE SPORTS HUB)/BOSTON and Country WXTU/PHILADELPHIA into the BEASLEY fold and sent AC WMJX/BOSTON to ENTERCOM.  Operating income fell from $13.2 million to $9.3 million, blamed largely on a $1.7 million expense related to UNITED STATES TRAFFIC NETWORK, $300,000 from modification of long-term debt, and $800,000 in professional expenses for the company's shelf offering, as well as a $2.5 million benefit in 2017's third quarter from the company's GREATER MEDIA acquisition.  Net income fell from $6.1 million to $2.6 million (22 to 10 cents/diluted share).

Net revenue increased year-over-year in BEASLEY’s TAMPA, PHILADELPHIA, FORT MYERS, LAS VEGAS, AUGUSTA, BOCA RATON and BOSTON clusters.

CEO CAROLINE BEASLEY said, “In the third quarter, we continued to execute on our integration strategy focused on premium local programming to support our goals of ratings and market leadership at acquired stations, while remaining opportunistic in further building our scale and revenue diversification to drive growth and SOI margin expansion.

“Third quarter net revenue rose 10.6% in 2018 compared to the prior year period, primarily reflecting the strengthening over the last year of our BOSTON and PHILADELPHIA clusters, as well as the overall revenue outperformance of our leading station clusters in their respective markets. The year-over-year top line growth was partially offset by increased station operating expenses largely attributable to NEASLEY’s expanded scale and $1.7 million in additional bad debt expense related to USTN. Although 2018 third quarter SOI declined 9.9% year-over-year, it would have increased slightly compared to the third quarter of last year, without the one-time bad debt charge.

“BEASLEY’s strong operating cash flows allowed us to continue making strategic investments in our broadcast and technology platforms. During the third quarter, we completed the strategically complementary and accretive acquisition of WXTU-FM in PHILADELPHIA. In addition to being one of the best and most listened-to country music stations in America, WXTU-FM further enhances our revenue and competitive position by creating a full cluster of five FM and two AM stations in a key, top-ten market. We also completed two smaller acquisitions including a TAMPA-based event company and a nationally syndicated Esports podcast in separate transactions that were funded with cash on hand. All three transactions are consistent with BEASLEY’s disciplined approach to growing our platform by identifying and completing transactions where we can drive valuable synergies, leverage content and enhance SOI margins, all with a limited impact to our leverage.

“During the third quarter, we successfully released phase two of our mobile apps and our data attribution initiative, 'BEASLEY Analytics,' was rolled out in all our markets.  Both of these initiatives reflect our commitment to deliver great content to our listeners anywhere, any time, on any device, while further demonstrating to advertisers the incredible value of radio advertising. We believe the attribution data derived from BEASLEY Analytics will emerge as a game changer in our core business given its unrivalled confirmation of how radio provides a significant lift to advertisers’ websites.

“With our disciplined approach to leverage reduction and balance sheet management, Beasley remains committed to enhancing shareholder value through capital returns, capital structure improvements and leverage reductions. During the third quarter, we paid our twentieth consecutive quarterly cash dividend. In addition, interest expense decreased $0.6 million year-over-year, reflecting last year’s refinancing of our senior debt, which reduced our interest rate by 200 basis points.

“Looking ahead, with a strong balance sheet, we believe BEASLEY has a solid foundation to continue pursuing a range of near- and long-term growth opportunities that create new value for our listeners, advertisers and shareholders. Our platform, market position, ratings and content are strong, and we are seeing a continuation of the third quarter’s positive revenue trend in the fourth quarter to date. As the number one reach medium, we remain confident in the radio industry’s future and believe that BEASLEY’s ongoing initiatives to drive sales, productivity and efficiency across our platform, combined with prudent management of our capital structure, is a proven formula for sustained long term financial growth and enhanced returns for our shareholders.”

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