The second quarter 2026 earnings season has officially started, following last week’s release of dollar-generation details from Graham Media Group’s parent. Kicking off the publicly traded audio-and-video companies sharing their Q2 fiscal report card is the Washington, D.C.-founded organization led by CEO Alfred Liggins III.
How did Urban One fare in the three-month period ending June 30? The company’s net loss was much less, despite a nearly $6 million decline in net revenue.
There’s one main reason for the results.
The lowered net loss is tied to a massive Q2 2025 impairment charge of $130.08 million. In the most recent quarter, Urban One took a $14.16 million impairment charge.
That made all of the difference, as programming and technical expenses rose to $29.78 million, from $28.65 million; selling, general and administrative expenses were trimmed to $45.2 million, from $49.5 million.
Overall, net revenue fell to $85.76 million, from $91.63 million, as the Adjusted EBITDA came in at $11.72 million, falling from $13.96 million.
Yet, Urban One’s net loss attributable to common shareholders was lowered to $7.07 million (-$1.58 per share) from $77.9 million (-$17.41) during the third quarter.
Liggins shared some of the top-line results ahead of a conference call for analysts and investors scheduled for 10am Eastern on August 4.
“We saw some sequential improvement in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, with lower rates of revenue decline,” he noted.
Still, the revenue is still down — just not as severely as was seen between April and June 2025.
- Urban One’s Radio segment, the largest revenue-generating segment, suffered a 10.1% year-over-year decline, coming in at $34.73 million (from $38.63 million). According to Miller Kaplan local Radio revenue data, the markets in which Urban One has stations were down 7.8% year-over-year. One bright note: National advertising was down 1.5% for Urban One, while the markets Urban One is in were down 4.6%. Meanwhile, political advertising is on the rise, with $1.24 million in electorate-focused ad dollars contributing to Q2. Alas, it could not offset the overall declines.
- Cable Television advertising, the second-largest dollar generation engine for Urban One, was down by 9.6% to $20.77 million, from $22.98 million. And, in a sign that “cord cutting” continues for MVPDs, Cable TV affiliate fees declined to $16.29 million, from $17.06 million.
- Including local digital, second quarter Radio revenue was down 4.9%.
Taking a closer look at Urban One’s Q2 2026 finish, Digital advertising as a whole was down by 8.3%, to $9.39 million from $10.24 million.
DOWNBEAT VISIBILITY
Liggins further shared ahead of the Urban One Q2 2026 earnings call that Radio is pacing down 2.8% in the third quarter and that the company remains “in a turnaround situation” at its Reach Media national audio arm, “where we continue to be impacted by a weak marketplace, key client attrition and sales team re-building.”
As such, Urban One’s management team, which includes CFO Peter D. Thompson, continues to “closely manage cash flows from operations, with concerted efforts to collect receivables and manage discretionary vendor spend.”
There’s also a concerted effort to slice a way Urban One’s long-term debt.
During the quarter, Urban One repurchased approximately $23.5 million of its 2031 Second Lien Notes at a weighted average price of approximately 42% of par, Liggins said. Year-to-date, that is a total reduction in long-term debt of $60.2 million for an annual interest savings of $4.6 million and an increase in short-term debt of $10 million.
That said, Urban One disclosed in its Q2 ’26 report that it made two additional draws of $5 million each during the quarter, payable at an interest rate of approximately 6.75% and 6.01%, respectively.
There’s more: Urban One made an additional draw of $7 million in the third quarter, payable at an interest rate of approximately 6.12%. However, Urban One quickly repaid the May 2026 draw of $5 million on August 2. This puts the company’s borrowing capacity at approximately $24.1 million.
Lastly, Urban One revised its adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2026. It is now in the mid-$50 million range, “given the realities of the current marketplace.” That’s down from about $60 million, Liggins noted as he opened the company’s earnings call.
More at RadioInk.com on August 5: On the Q2 2026 earnings call, Liggins responded to a question from RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson about long-term revenue plans and post-political year dollar generation for Urban One. Would it include the continued operation of radio stations that are total market and not superserving the core African American consumer that is woven into Urban One’s heritage? Yes, Liggins said.
