Radio One Has an Awful 4th Quarter, Radio Revenue Down in Major Markets

TV One and internet Interactive One websites are bright spots for the company, but he's not happy with Clear Channel at all 

Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins reported via conference call:

"We had an awful 4th quarter. We dropped millions of dollars in cash flow off our radio division and 60% of it came in Q4. It was shocking to me." Radio One reported radio revenue dropped 9.4% in Q4 with Baltimore, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C taking the biggest hits. D.C. dropped nearly 17%.

 Liggins also said, I've been a bear on the radio industry. I've been saying it's going to be flat to slightly up over the next five years and I'm being proven right." At the same time, Liggins sounded very excited about his other two businesses, TV One and the Internet. "We're in a good space with these two businesses." Liggins expects ad dollars to shift from broadcast TV to cable TV and also expects the shift to digital to continue. Finallly, Liggins expressed concern with Clear Channel Radio's sales tactics from a bunch of guys in San Antonio called "Best Rate."

Here's the Radio One press release on their 4th quarter results


WASHINGTON - Radio One, Inc. reported its results for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Giving effect to the consolidation of TV One, net revenue was approximately $98.1 million, an increase of 37.8% from the same period in 2010.  Also giving effect to the consolidation of TV One, station operating income (1) was approximately $35.3 million, an increase of 25.6% from the same period in 2010. The company recorded a non-cash impairment charge against its goodwill and other intangible assets of approximately $22.3 million, which led to a net operating loss of approximately $9.0 million. Net loss was approximately $19.1 million or a loss of $0.38 per share, a decrease from the reported net loss of approximately $27.2 million or $0.52 per share for the same period in 2010.

Alfred C. Liggins, III, Radio One's CEO and President stated, "Our fourth quarter radio revenue was impacted by a combination of tough political comps, non-recurring national accounts and certain format changes that we effected during the quarter. Normalizing for political and issue money, our underlying core radio revenue was down approximately 4.2%. While this is disappointing, I believe our radio group is poised to rebound strongly in 2012, with mid to high single digit revenue growth in both the first and second quarters. TV One continues its strong performance with fourth quarter revenue growth of 8.7% and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) growth of approximately 102% compared to fourth quarter 2010. We expect TV One's full year EBITDA to increase to approximately $40 million for 2012. Before intercompany management charges, our internet business generated positive adjusted EBITDA(2) for the second sequential quarter, and we expect that division to be cash-flow positive for 2012."