“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.
