“The news is good, and the news is positive moving forward.” That what Saga Communications interim CEO Warren Lada had to say as he opened the radio broadcasting company’s third quarter 2022 earnings call on Thursday.
It was Lada’s first call in four years, and comes after the untimely August 2022 passing of Saga’s founder, Ed Christian.
Lada shared his thoughts on Christian’s legacy and how it will continue, and how strong Saga is today, as CFO Sam Bush reviewed the Q3 financials and SVP/Operations Chris Forgy offered additional thoughts on Christian and how the company’s future looks.
Their comments have been consolidated and can be heard in the latest RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
In Q3, Saga saw its net operating revenue climb to $29.98 million from $28.85 million. But, operating income shrank due to higher corporate general and administrative expenses largely associated with the passing of Ed Christian.
Saga explains, “As a result of Ed Christian’s passing, the company is required to make several payments to his estate as outlined in his employment agreement. These expenses were accrued as of September 30, increasing the reported corporate general and administrative expense line item by $3.8 million for both the quarter and nine-month period ended September 30. Without these expenses operating income would have increased 5.8% to $4.9 million, free cash flow would have increased 36.5% to $5.4 million and net income would have increased 7.9% to $3.7 million. Net income per share would have been $0.62 per share as compared to $0.58 per share for the same period last year.”
That impacted the income, as Saga swung to a net loss of $104,000 (-$0.01) from net income of $3.45 million ($0.58) on an unadjusted basis.
Looking at the non-GAAP measure of Station Operating Income (SOI), dollars improved to $8.9 million from $8.55 million.
Listen to “Saga Communications Q3 2022 Earnings Review” on Spreaker.
