Beasley Broadcast Group Q2 2026 Earnings Call: Complete Transcript

Beasley Broadcast Group (NASDAQ: BBGI ) held its second-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call. APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit to learn more.

1 million. 8 million. 5 million in annualized savings, with a partial benefit of $5 million expected in 2026. Digital revenue showed growth, with same-station digital revenue increasing by approximately 7%, accounting for 26% of total revenue, although profitability was below expectations.

The company launched successful sales programs, generating nearly $6 million in new revenue, and reported early political ad revenue bookings, capturing 25% of the full-year budget early in the cycle. 7 million in the prior year. Future strategic priorities include improving local direct sales, increasing digital revenue and margins, converting cost savings into EBITDA and free cash flow, and continuing debt reduction efforts. The company expressed cautious optimism for the second half of 2026, with fourth-quarter pacing looking strong and expense reductions expected to benefit future results.

Full Transcript OPERATOR Hello everyone and welcome. I will now turn the call over to Ilana Goldstein. Ilana Goldstein, Director, Corporate Development and Investor Relations Good morning and welcome to Beasley Broadcast Group's second quarter 2026 earnings call. Before proceeding, I would like to emphasize that today's conference call and webcast will contain forward-looking statements about our future performance and results of operations that involve risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as supplemented by our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Today's webcast will also include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of Item 10 of Regulation S-K. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP can be found in this morning's news announcement and on the company's website. I would also remind listeners that following its completion, a replay of today's call can be accessed for five days on the company's website at A copy of today's press release is also available in the Investors and Press Room section of the site.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Beasley Broadcast Group Chief Executive Officer Caroline Beasley. Caroline Beasley, CEO Thank you, Ilana, and good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us. My apologies for the delay in our earnings release, but we still had an outstanding item regarding the tax accounting treatment resulting from the restructure that has since been resolved.

So when we spoke with you last quarter, we described Beasley as a company in transition with three priorities: stabilizing and rebuilding our core revenue base, scaling a higher-margin and more controllable digital business, and strengthening our balance sheet through disciplined deleveraging. During the second quarter, we made meaningful progress against two of those priorities, materially improving our cost structure and transforming our balance sheet. At the same time, the advertising environment remained challenging and our revenue performance makes clear that we still have work ahead of us.

Ilana will cover the detailed revenue and EBITDA results shortly, but at a high level, the quarter showed year-over-year adjusted EBITDA improvement, reflecting the early impact of our cost actions even as revenue remains below where it needs to be. In May, we executed an expense reduction program spanning voluntary retirement, market-level operating changes, digital restructuring, technology cost, and vendor expenses. 5 million of annualized run-rate savings with an estimated benefit of approximately 5 million during 2026. Because the majority of these actions were implemented during May, the second quarter includes only a partial benefit.

We expect the impact to become more visible during the second half of the year and to be fully reflected in our ongoing cost structure as we move into 2027. Our objective is not simply to reduce expenses, it's to establish a more efficient operating model that can convert revenue into EBITDA and free cash flow at a higher rate. As a result of this, we are protecting investment in the areas where we see the greatest opportunity for growth, particularly local direct advertising, owned-and-operated digital products, integrated client solutions, and the tools and talent required to support those priorities.

The most consequential financial event of the quarter was the completion of our balance sheet restructuring on May 1. The transaction meaningfully reduced our debt burden and lowered near-term cash interest, creating a stronger financial foundation while we continue to pursue additional deleveraging actions. While the restructuring represents a significant step forward, it does not complete our deleveraging strategy. We remain focused on refinancing or retiring the remaining obligations well ahead of their maturity.

Our operating plan, portfolio strategies, liquidity management, and capital allocation decisions are all being managed with that objective in mind. We continue to evaluate deleveraging sales and non-core assets while focusing our resources on the highest value components of the portfolio. With this in mind, I'm pleased to announce that we entered into an APA with EMF on July 31st to sell two radio stations, one in Charlotte and one in Las Vegas, for a total of $8 million. We expect closing on these stations within the next 60 to 90 days.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce debt from our 1L lenders. We do not expect these sales to impact our EBITDA on a go-forward basis. In June, we set up an at-the-market equity program. We view the ATM as a supplemental capital management tool, not as a substitute for operating performance or free cash flow generation.

The program gives us the flexibility to access capital opportunistically and in measured amounts when market conditions are constructive. Our intention is to use the program selectively and responsibly, with a focus on actions that we believe improve long-term value for shareholders. In early June, prior to entering into our quarterly blackout period, we began utilizing our ATM and raised approximately 635,000 in gross proceeds. And as for operations, the quarter reinforced the urgency of our revenue transformation.

Traditional agency revenue remained under pressure, but local direct spot revenue showed signs of stabilization during the quarter. We remain focused on rebuilding direct client relationships, improving sales activity, and strengthening the pipeline required to return the business to sustainable growth. At the same time, the expense actions we've taken are beginning to improve the underlying economics of the business. While audio revenue remains under pressure during the quarter, the reduction in our operating cost base helps preserve station operating income and mitigate the impact of the revenue decline.

This gives us a more efficient foundation from which to rebuild. Digital remains central to our strategy. While same-station digital revenue grew approximately 7% during the quarter and digital accounted for approximately 26% of total company revenue, profitability was below our expectations. Ilana will discuss the reasons why we incurred additional costs in the second quarter and Kevin will review the actions underway to close that monetization gap.

So let me reiterate that our work is not complete. Revenue remains below where it needs to be. The traditional agency environment continues to be difficult and performance remains inconsistent across our market. However, we ended the quarter with a substantially stronger balance sheet, a meaningfully lower cost base, and a clearer operating structure.

The next phase of the turnaround is execution: improving the productivity of our in-market sellers, rebuilding local direct revenue, developing a stronger pipeline of sales talent, and capturing more value from the digital audience and inventory we already own. Now I'm going to hand it over to Kevin to discuss the actions we're taking across the sales org and digital business to address these opportunities. Kevin LeGrett, Chief Business Officer Kevin, thank you Caroline. Last quarter I told you we were building the machine.

Common processes, pipeline, visibility, accountability in every market. Those foundational pieces are now largely in place. The machine is built. This quarter we started producing the work.

This quarter has been much less about building infrastructure and more about, as Caroline spoke of, improving execution. We run this business with brutal objectivity, which is the easiest thing to say and the hardest thing to do. We know exactly where we're winning and where we're falling short and where we have to change. That objectivity means naming the headwinds plainly.

National agency demand remains under pressure and during the quarter we saw reduced advertising spend from diversity, equity and inclusion focused campaigns across several categories. We don't control those currents, we control how we sell into them, which is why we build our own demand. And I'll come back to that in a minute. Let's talk about our brands and our audience.

Beasley Broadcast Group's brands continue to dominate their leadership position in second quarter across audience growth, digital engagement and community impact. And the quarter marked an important milestone in this company's digital transformation. During the second quarter, Beasley Broadcast Group's total audience increased 1% year over year, driven by continued growth across our digital platforms. Over the trailing 12 months, our digital audience grew 7% while traditional over-the-air audience declined 5%.

As a result, digital now represents more than half of Beasley Broadcast Group's total audience footprint. The first time in this company's history that digital has surpassed broadcast. A year ago digital was 47% of our total audience. Digital transformation is no longer an aspiration at Beasley Broadcast Group, it is simply who we are.

Radio will be our core and digital is the driver of our future. Website traffic and podcast consumption delivered the strongest year over year growth, a direct return on our continued investment in those platforms. According to the latest Nielsen data, our combined PPM market rating share declined 5% quarter over quarter in average quarter hour among adults 25—54, primarily reflecting a deliberate decision to optimize investment in ratings-supported initiatives while improving operating efficiency.

As the advertising marketplace continues to shift to digital platforms, integrated marketing solutions, endorsements and other performance-driven opportunities, we believe our investment strategy should evolve accordingly while continuing to protect the competitive strength of our brands and in the marketplace that matters. According to Edison's latest Share of Ear study, AM/FM radio still commands 62% of all ad-supported audio, nearly three times podcasting at 22% and roughly eight times Spotify at 8%. Radio is not a decline medium fighting for relevance. It is a dominant platform in ad-supported audio and we pair it with the fastest-growing one: digital.

Our strategic actions at Beasley Broadcast Group remained a strong position in all of our key markets with top 3 rated stations in Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and Tampa and at least one top five station in Charlotte and Las Vegas. The biggest opportunity in that audience is not growing it further, it is monetizing it. As Caroline spoke of earlier, our digital audience continues to perform well. Engagement remains healthy across streaming, podcasting, websites, newsletters and our own digital platform.

The issue is not that we are not growing those audiences, it's that we're not monetizing these as efficiently as we can. I'm going to give you three proof points—revenue created that didn't exist a year ago across political cycle, across digital business and across our value chain that is deliberately helping us fill the gap between agency business and direct business. Proof point number one: we created demand. We didn't wait for it.

In the second quarter we launched two enterprise sales programs across nine markets simultaneously: Summer of Influence, a talent-led endorsement campaign spanning broadcast, streaming, digital and social; and America 250, a premium sponsorship product capped at five sponsors per market and sold at full rate, no discounting. When each market sells its five, that inventory is gone. Those two programs have generated nearly $6 million in closed business. None of that revenue existed a year ago.

We didn't inherit it. We didn't wait for an agency to send it. We built the product, priced it with discipline and our sellers closed it direct. That is the operating model going forward.

Productize, package, price, sell direct and hold the rate. Proof point number two: we got to political first. I ran political revenue operations on a national scale and I'll tell you how the market works. The money goes to whoever is organized earliest.

We organized early. We dedicated agency, issue advertising and PAC coverage. We had rate and inventory discipline locked in before the demand arrived and direct outreach across our battleground footprint. The result?

We've already booked more than 25% of our full-year political budget and our booking cadence is tracking with the last presidential cycle of 2024 in a midterm year. One concrete example is in Detroit. We identified and won a major PAC weeks before conventional buying started. And that account is still placing weekly orders.

As a reminder, political builds through third quarter and peaks in fourth. And we are capturing the digital and streaming dollars, not just over-the-air dollars. We anticipate and have planned for robust opportunities in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida, which align perfectly with our portfolio. We didn't wait for the cycle to come to us.

We went and took our share early and we will continue through Election Day. Proof point number three: we didn't have an audience problem. We had a monetization gap and we're closing it. Our digital audience is large and engaged in the majority of our footprint.

The work is converting that audience into higher-quality revenue. Here's the scoreboard on that conversion. Owned-and-operated digital on a same-station basis—our highest-margin digital revenue—grew approximately 10% in second quarter and approximately 18% in the first half of 2026. It is now our largest digital revenue line.

Third-party resold products declined by design. We are pulling seller efforts out of low-margin resale and pointing it at inventory we own, where economics are structurally better. And we fixed a real problem. Our programmatic sell-through was underperforming.

We restructured our demand relationships, signed a significant bulk deal with a major audio platform and rebuilt sell-through to above 80%. Programmatic is now growing at double digits on the same audience we already had. Same audience, better monetization. It's not a strategy document.

It's what happened in the quarter. Every market now runs one operating framework, one CRM standard, one pipeline review, one performance bar. We coach from data, not on platitudes. And this quarter we launched an internal sales development program so we build our own sellers instead of running the industries.

It's early and I'll report back on its contributions as it ramps up. All of this is organized around one purpose every person in this company understands: serve our clients with return on advertising spend a little better each and every day. Lastly, beyond the numbers, the second quarter showed that Beasley Broadcast Group brands mean a ton in their local communities. Our stations executed numerous charity events across our nine markets, raising over $700,000 for local charities.

That community connection is not a side story. It is why our brands command the local relationships with listeners and advertisers that everything else I've described is built upon. Looking ahead, we are seeing early signs of stabilization and growth in September and fourth quarter pacing independent of political demand. We are cautiously optimistic about the back half of the year.

The first half was about building the machine, the second half is about what the machine produces. Enterprise programs are already generating closed revenue, a political cycle we got in front of and we will continue to execute against, a digital business shifting towards the revenue we can control at margins we keep, a brand footprint that is now the majority of it coming from digital for the first time in our history. Transformation is hard, change is hard, but irrelevance is worse and this company chose transformation. And we will execute leading into the back half of the year, and with that I will turn it over to Alana.

Ilana Goldstein, Director, Corporate Development and Investor Relations Thanks, Kevin.