The very harsh Winter of 2015, especially as experienced on the eastern side of America, had a deleterious effect on many businesses, which suppressed advertising, which suppressed broadcast results, which… Oh well, there were big exceptions, but in general, it was a tough half year.
Most of the damage was sustained by mainstream companies, by which we mean that Hispanic focused SBS and Entravision, and African-American focused Radio One, posted absolutely fabulous results.
After SBS and Radio One, there was no more good news on the radio side.
Television had its share of success stories, however, led by Gray, which has by far been the most active company in the station trading market this year.
Here then is the sad chart for the first half of 2015. We can only hope that a still-improving economy and the approaching political season will help turn things around soon.
| RBR Radio Index | |||||
| Stock Market | 12/31/2014 | 6/30/2015 | |||
| Company | Symbol | Close | Close | Net Chg | Pct Chg |
| Beasley | BBGI | 5.11 | 4.63 | -0.480 | -9.39% |
| Cumulus | CMLS | 4.23 | 2.03 | -2.200 | -52.01% |
| Emmis | EMMS | 1.87 | 1 | -0.870 | -46.52% |
| Entercom | ETM | 12.16 | 11.44 | -0.720 | -5.92% |
| iHeart Media | IHRT | 7.35 | 7.25 | -0.100 | -1.36% |
| Radio One, Cl. D | ROIAK | 1.67 | 3.17 | 1.500 | 89.82% |
| Salem Comm. | SALM | 7.82 | 6.33 | -1.490 | -19.05% |
| Saga Commun. | SGA | 43.48 | 37.85 | -5.630 | -12.95% |
| SBS | SBSA | 2.9 | 6.75 | 3.850 | 132.76% |
| TVBR TV Index | |||||
| Stock Market | 12/31/2014 | 6/30/2015 | |||
| Company | Symbol | Close | Close | Net Chg | Pct Chg |
| CBS | CBS | 55.34 | 55.47 | 0.130 | 0.23% |
| Entravision | EVC | 6.48 | 8.23 | 1.750 | 27.01% |
| Fox | FOXA | 38.405 | 32.545 | -5.860 | -15.26% |
| Gray | GTN | 11.2 | 15.68 | 4.480 | 40.00% |
| Media General | MEG | 16.75 | 16.51 | -0.240 | -1.43% |
| Nexstar | NXST | 51.79 | 56 | 4.210 | 8.13% |
| Sinclair | SBGI | 27.36 | 27.91 | 0.550 | 2.01% |
| Tribune Media | TRCO | 59.77 | 53.4 | -6.370 | -10.66% |
