With its NYSE-traded shares facing a delisting as they have not been over $1 since June 28 and widespread reports of payroll trimming impacting air personalities at many of its broadcast radio stations, Audacy Corp. is once again under the industry’s microscope as upper management seeks to return the audio content creation and distribution company to profitability.
One way it hopes to do so sees the arrival from SiriusXM of an individual taking the role of Brand Manager for Audacy’s network of sports betting content.
Now serving in the post at the BetQL Network is Andrew Williams.
Williams joins Audacy after serving as Senior Producer for SiriusXM in Washington, D.C., where he will continue to be based.
At SiriusXM, Williams provided strategic direction in developing program concepts and content for various radio segments. He also spent the last year as Executive Podcast Producer for Chicago Fire FC, the Major League Soccer franchise serving the third-largest market in the U.S.. In this role, Williams worked with hosts and the senior programming team to lead production and distribution of programming while shaping and integrating content for listeners.
In his new role, Williams will oversee all producers, talent and audio content for the BetQL Network’s 100 hours of original content per week.
“Andrew possesses a proven track record of creatively reaching audiences through the creation and development of rich multimedia content, and we’re thrilled to welcome him to BetQL Network as that is one of the core principles of the network,” said Matthew Volk, Senior Vice President of Sports at Audacy. “We look forward to welcoming him and his leadership to our brand, which has seen rapid growth across all platforms over the last year, and watching his experience and expertise help continue to grow the network.”
Williams added, “I am delighted and honored to join the BetQL Network and the Audacy family. The opportunity to join the leaders in Wagertainment is something that I could not pass up. My family and I are extremely excited about this next chapter.”
As a company, “sports betting and the future of audio” is a “historic opportunity” Audacy has been promoting since February 2021 through its corporate website. It followed the November 2020 announcement that it was acquiring QL Gaming Group, parent of BetQL. “BetQL separates itself from other sports betting sites with its state-of-the-art algorithm, which analyzes over 350,000 unique bets every year in real-time and tells you which side professional bettors are picking and provides real-time line movement and historical betting results,” Audacy explained at the time of the acquisition.
To help build the BetQL brand, Audacy in June 2021 rebranded six Sports Talk stations as “The Bet,” with Audacy EVP/Programming Jeff Sottolano explaining, “This expansion is the next step in that goal and we’re pleased to bring new and dynamic ‘BetQL Network’ programming to nine additional markets and new digital platforms. We are proud to build on our local and national sports audio leadership position with this expanded commitment to production and distribution of entertaining sports betting content to audiences across the country.”
Two days ago, local programming was eliminated at one of those six stations branded as “The Bet” — KXST-AM in Las Vegas. There, “The Playmakers,” which aired from 3pm-5pm and featured Lindsay Brown and Adrian Hernandez, was cut as part of widespread air personality reduction efforts at Audacy Corp.
Meanwhile, WSSP-AM “1250 The Fan” in Milwaukee has opted to become a 24/7 CBS Sports Radio affiliate, dropping local programming as it competes against Good Karma Brands’ WKTI-FM “94.5 ESPN” and iHeartMedia’s WRNW “97.3 The Game.”
Elsewhere, various air personalities were let go in Washington, D.C., and in Austin, Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, St. Louis and Pittsburgh. In Sacramento, Operations Manager Joe Calgaro joined KRXQ “98 Rock” afternoon host Ian Massengale in exiting Audacy.
In response to the reduction-in-force initiative impacting Audacy Corp. air personalities, a company spokesperson commented, “Over the past few years, Audacy has been on a transformational journey, investing in our capabilities to serve our listeners and customers and accelerate our growth through a number of strategic acquisitions, enhancements to our platform, and the addition of hundreds of team members to our workforce. We remain committed to this exciting transformation which has made us a much stronger organization, but in light of current macroeconomic headwinds, like so many other companies, we have been proactively taking actions to mitigate against the impact of any downturn. These include evaluating budgets, reducing expenses, and also reducing our workforce.”
The comments are not wholly surprising, as job cuts were hinted at during Audacy’s second quarter 2022 earnings call on August 5. With tackling expenses a priority, President/CEO David Field said on the call that the company is working to enact “substantial sustainable savings through a number of measures to improve margins and profitability across the business.” The company’s C-Suite leaders believe it will be able to deliver “meaningful cost reductions” without hindering its strategic priorities and growth plans.
These cost reductions come as forecasts for the three-month period ending September 30 aren’t so great. According to CFO Rich Schmaeling, “Based on where we are today, we projected revenues for the quarter will come in flat to down low single digits.”
Participating in the Q&A session on the call was analyst Steven Cahall of Wells Fargo, who recently downgraded Audacy’s target price down to zero. He asked about cash generation, before any debt reduction. And, in perhaps the biggest questions investors have today, posed the following query to Field: “When you think about the capital structure, do you think that it is possible to maintain it at this level or is the business better off in some way, shape, or form with a different capital structure and being prepared for an environment where just the run rate earnings even in a more normalized environment are a little bit lower?”
Field referred Cahall back to the “six key drivers” positively impacting Audacy in the long-term, shared earlier in the call. But Schmaeling’s comments were perhaps the most poignant.
“We think this is a good company,” he said. “We think we have a lot of opportunity for growth. And we’ve all had some tough knocks. And but we think we can muscle our way through what looks to be a slowdown. And, on the other side, we think there’s a lot of things that give us confidence that the company is going to see accelerated growth. No doubt, we are making meaningful progress, building the capabilities that will enable us to more fully participate in the growth in digital audio advertising. We have not had all of the bricks in place, but we’re getting there. And so we’re focused on execution and we’re sure, of course, hopeful that, the economic outlook starts to turn and that’s how we see it.
