Here’s something that’s clearly an anomaly in COVID-19 times: A media company focused on radio broadcasting swung to net income from a net loss in the third quarter of 2020.
Believe it or not, that’s exactly what transpired for the purveyor of Christian-themed and conservative Talk radio stations commonly known as Salem Media Group.
For the three month period ending September 30, Salem eked out net income of $329,000 ($0.01 per share), moving from a net loss of $20 million ($0.75) in Q3 2019.
The net income is in line with analyst expectations.
The accomplishment came as total revenue slipped to $60.64 million from $64.12 million, despite a gain in digital revenue to $9.81 million from $9.15 million. However, that easily beat analysts’ estimates of Q3 revenue of $59.66 million.
On a same-station basis, net broadcast revenue wasn’t down much, slipping to $44.6 million from $45.7 million. And, same-station broadcast expenses were cut to $33.49 million from $34.86 million.
More importantly, the non-GAAP Station Operating Income measure is absolutely smashing for Salem, as it grew to $11.11 million from $10.37 million in Q3.
And, EBITDA of $8.18 million was achieved, versus negative EBITDA of $10.6 million in Q3 2019
So how did Salem do it? Lower expenses, namely in the publishing division it operates, was a factor.
Company executives did not comment on the results ahead of a 5pm Eastern earnings call conducted after RBR+TVBR’s Thursday news deadline.
Salem shares finished Thursday’s trading at $0.96.
