“We had warned, inferred and other people had also reported already that the first quarter was a very tough quarter,” Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins III said as the company superserving Black consumers opened the first quarter 2026 earnings call for investors and financial analysts.
However, declines in the traditional ad marketplace fueled dollar dips that went beyond Urban One’s own forecasts, with Digital revenue sliding by 33.6% due to a variety of factors — including marketer “DEI”-influenced pullbacks.
In his opening remarks, Liggins pointed to balance sheet management, and a mix of deleveraging opportunities and accretive acquisitions all designed to address the company’s debt.
On that note, $25 million was applied to debt reduction, lowering the balance to just over $300 million in gross debt.
The long-term net debt declined to $412.11 million from $429.74 million.
The recent $22 million acquisition of Service Broadcasting’s KKDA-FM “K104” and KRNB-FM, combined with the $6 sale of KZMJ-FM in the Sherman-Denison, Tex., area; the $700,000 divestment of WMXG Radio in the Charlotte market; and the $4.2 million sale of WLNK-FM 100.9 in the Charlotte DMA to Bible Broadcast Network is key to future growth that Liggins and CFO Peter D. Thompson believe will come.
That growth may not materialize until late in 2026, however, given Thompson’s explanation as to why Digital advertising declined to $6.78 million from $10.2 million in Q1. Speaking on the earnings call, he said a decrease in national direct revenue streams and “reduction in DEI-focused spending,” along with macroeconomic concerns and ad commitment pushbacks to the second half of 2026, impacted Digital in a negative way.
This was not forecast, nor was a 17% decline in dollars at the Reach Media national radio arm.
On a positive note, Digital growth is being seen in Q2, Thompson and Liggins confirmed when queried by a particularly colorful participant in the earnings call’s Q&A session.
Cable TV advertising was down to $19.1 million from $25.46 million as Cable TV affiliate fees slumped to $16.88 million from $18.72 million. “The integration of Nielsen DASH data gave a boost to linear cable TV inventory, but combined with a weak scatter market, led to more commercial units being allocated to Direct Response advertising, at a lower average unit rate,” Liggins said in prepared comments ahead of the 10am Eastern earnings call on Thursday.
Combating this is the pickup of the Service Broadcasting duo of FMs in Dallas — an “upgrade” in the market — that will push Urban One’s year-end leverage to a range “expected to be below 5x.”
Furthermore, Urban One anticipates $40 million of Free Cash Flow generation “with these numbers” expected for the full year of 2026.
URBAN ONE Q1: BY THE NUMBERS
In Q1 2026, net revenue fell by 15.8%, to $77.65 million from $92.24 million. The good news: an income tax benefit and the elimination of a $6.44 million impairment charge helped Urban One lower its net loss attributable to common stockholders to $3.08 million ($0.69 per share), from $11.74 million ($2.64).
Broadcast and digital operating income fell to $14.86 million, from $23.02 million, as Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 careened to $4.66 million from $12.86 million.
Radio advertising declined by 11.3% to $32.12 million, from $36.22 million, as a 14.5% rise in Service category advertising — led by legal services — and a jump in political ad spending (with $900,000 in Q1 and “another $1 million” in the current quarter) could not offset declines in every other major ad category, Thompson shared.
Radio second quarter is pacing down 2.6%.
At Reach Media, Urban One “is in a turnaround situation, where we continue to be impacted by a weak marketplace, key client attrition and sales team re-building.”
