The Business of Radio

5/14/2018

 

by Jeff McKay & Tom Gordon

 

Shares of Entercom lost 20% of their value in one day following a plunge after reporting quarterly earnings and a 4% drop in revenue & a $14 million loss, plunging to a more than three year low, blaming the loss on a soft advertising market.  Entercom CEO David Field said in his report they will “capitalize on compelling brands” and better days are ahead.  Townsquare however surprised many with revenue up 6% in the 1st quarter – but that didn’t do much for shareholders with Townsquare stock dropping over 5% as overall numbers were flat.  Despite a slight uptick in revenue of just under 1%, shares of Saga Communications also fell about 4% following their report on quarterly earnings.   Also reporting earnings was Emmis Communications down 1%, but excluding the proceeds of the Emmis station sales in Los Angeles & Indiana the loss was far worse.  Despite being in bankruptcy, the leaders of iHeart Media could be in the money thanks to hefty quarterly bonuses – CEO Robert Pittman could get $2.32 million in each of the next three quarters, and COO/CFO Richard Bressler is in line for quarterly bonuses of $1.325 million – but the bonuses must be approved by a bankruptcy court judge