Radio One Sees Revenues Fall 8.9% For Q4

Q4 Revs Down

RADIO ONE fourth-quarter 2009 net revenue fell 8.9% year-to-year to $67.3 million. Net loss widened from $6.3 million to $14.9 million (7 to 30 cents/share).

The company also announced that it entered a Third Amendment to its Credit Agreement on MARCH 30th, adding a $100 million revolver commitment reduction, a 1% interest floor, additional collateral requirements, limitations on the use of proceeds from the revolving loan commitments, the addition of INTERACTIVE ONE, LLC as a guarantor, the waiver of technical cross-defaults as of DECEMBER 31st,, 2009, and payment of lenders' fees and expenses.  After the amendment, the company believes it is currently in compliance with all of its debt covenants and says it is "probable" that it will be in compliance through the end of the year.

CEO/Pres. ALFRED C. LIGGINS, III said, "Our fourth quarter again demonstrated the sequential improvement that we had hoped for in our core radio business. Adjusting for 2008 political activity, our fourth quarter core radio revenues were down 4.2%.  Looking ahead to first quarter, we are currently pacing up mid-single digits, with the recovery most apparent in our larger markets, where national business is performing strongly.

"Our investment in TV ONE continues to perform well, and we were proud to surpass the 50 million homes mark as measured by NIELSEN in February 2010. We expect TV ONE to continue its robust cash flow growth over the next few years.

"REACH MEDIA has made the transition to selling inventory inside the TOM JOYNER MORNING SHOW with its internal sales force, and CITADEL's Radio Networks group continues to sell the out of show inventory. I expect it will take a few months for this new arrangement to settle in, but I believe the long-term effect will be to strengthen pricing and improve margins.

"Our digital strategy is now fully operational, and our traffic growth exceeded our expectations. According to COMSCORE, as of FEBRUARY 2010, our websites now garner 3.3 million unique monthly visitors, and 260 million monthly page views. Our emphasis has now changed towards improving our sales effort and monetizing the traffic growth more effectively.

"Overall, I am pleased with both the strategic and operational progress that we made in 2009 in the face of an incredibly challenging marketplace."

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