Beasley Q3 Revenues Off 20.1%

Q3 Revs Down $4.3M

BEASLEY BROADCAST GROUP third-quarter net revenue fell 20.1% to $24.4 million, blamed on lower ad spending. The company noted that 66% of its revenue decline was related to the MIAMI-FORT LAUDERDALE, PHILADELPHIA and LAS VEGAS clusters. Net income fell from $2.3 million to $1.4 million (10 to 6 cents/diluted share).

Chairman/CEO GEORGE BEASLEY said, "As anticipated, the radio industry continued to be challenged during the third quarter of 2009 as a result of the economic recession and its ongoing impact on advertising spending. Notwithstanding the current environment, BEASLEY's revenue comparisons improved in the third quarter relative to the 2009 first and second quarters, partially reflecting progress in key BEASLEY markets such as PHILADELPHIA and FORT MYERS. The Company also continued to drive significant high margin revenue growth from our interactive initiatives with third quarter revenue from these sources rising approximately 12% from 2008 third quarter levels.

"Reflecting company-wide cost management and operating efficiency programs, BEASLEY's third-quarter same-station SOI margin only declined by approximately 120 basis points when compared to last year. In addition, 2009 third quarter same station SOI margins represent slight improvements over the actual SOI margins recorded in the first two quarters of this year. Importantly, our cost management efforts reflect the current environment and the markets in which we operate, but do not affect the listener experience or our sales and programming efforts.

"While it is difficult to gauge the pace of an economic recovery, we were pleased to see initial improvements in advertiser activity in the third quarter and are confident that BEASLEY is well positioned to benefit from healthier levels of overall advertiser spending as it occurs as well as political revenue in 2010. Looking forward, with BEASLEY's streamlined cost and operating structure and slight improvements already visible in certain distressed markets, we firmly believe that even modest increases in radio advertising spending can result in an overall gain in our operating results."

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