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Source: www.insideradio.com, May 2022


Following a first quarter that saw almost all of radio’s publicly traded radio companies post double-digit year-over-year revenue gains, the second quarter has ushered in a more cautious tone – at least for national advertising. During quarterly earnings calls over the past two weeks, broadcasters delivered mixed signals about the impact on their business from rising inflation, higher interest rates, and global uncertainty over the war in Ukraine.

“We are proud of the strong results we are delivering, even in the face of headwinds including the war in Ukraine, unprecedented inflation, labor challenges, interest rate increases and the continued recovery from the pandemic,” Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley told analysts last week. “It’s too early from an economic perspective to see what impacts high interest rates and inflation may have. But in the past, Beasley Broadcasting Group has operated well in the high interest rate environment,” she added.

With most consumers resuming their lives after two years of COVID exile, Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, believes advertisers will remain in spending mode. “We believe advertising always follows the consumer. And right now, we see a consumer base that wants to spend, to travel, and to lead full lives again. And importantly for us, they’re highly engaged with audio,” Pittman said during the company’s Q1 call. Even as many sectors of the economy are experiencing obstacles, Pittman said “advertisers are choosing to build for and support returning consumer demand.” The proof he added, is found in the company’s first quarter results, where total revenue rose 19% year-over-year. That up-draft is continuing into second quarter where iHeart is calling for 10% to14% growth.

After what CEO Alfred Liggins called an “extraordinarily strong quarter” for Urban One, the company said it expected to exceed its guidance for the remainder of the year but didn’t indicate by how much. “We specifically chose not to give a new guidance number because I don’t know what the effect of the economy is going to be,” Liggins said. Salem Media Group CEO David Santrella, meanwhile, noted that “many national advertisers are being cautious with their ad spending due to concerns about inflation and the state of the economy.”

Audacy saw first quarter revenues jump 14% and President and CEO David Field said the growth persists in second quarter. But disruptions from inflation, the war in Ukraine and other macroeconomic conditions have had an impact on the ad market, he added. “We are still growing – and growing nicely – but the rate of growth has slowed,” Field said. “It has caused less visibility on the second half at this time in terms of where things are going.”

At Townsquare Media, CEO Bill Wilson said they are seeing no impact from the macroeconomic conditions on their business. “We are not seeing that and that gave us the ability to reaffirm our guidance,” Wilson said at last week’s Sidoti Virtual Micro Cap Conference. “And quite honestly, we see our digital advertising actually accelerating its growth in Q2 versus Q1. So we are feeling quite good. Even though we understand there’s some macroeconomic headwinds that we’re navigating, we navigated the recession in 2020 quite well. And we feel very well equipped if a recession were to occur to do so again.”