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Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. (BBGI)

Q2 2008 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 22, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome everyone for the Beasley Broadcast Group second quarter 2008 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host CFO, Caroline Beasley.

Caroline Beasley

CFO

Welcome to the Beasley Broadcast Group second quarter conference call. Before beginning, I would like to emphasize that this call will contain forward-looking statements about our future performance and results of operations that involve risks and uncertainties that are described in the risk factors section of our most recent Form 10-K. This call will also contain a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of Item 10 of Reg S-K. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures with their most directly comparable financial measures, calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP can be found on the company's website. I would also remind listeners, this call is being webcast live over the Internet and that a replay of the call will be available on our corporate website, BBGI.com, for five days after the call ends. Investors can also find a copy of today's press release on the investors or pressroom sections of the site. Bruce Beasley, our President and COO, is with me this morning as always to keep our remarks focus on the second quarter and operations outlook after which we will open the floor to Q&A. So, moving on for the quarter, our revenue decreased 10.9%. In summary, the quarter-over-quarter revenue decline is attributable to four primary areas, 25% of the 10.9% decline was related to the Las Vegas cluster. Another 25% is related to the Fort Myers cluster, other 25% is related from not having revenue from the Florida Marlins in Q2 and then the final 25% is related to the reduction in revenue at our stations in Coastal Carolina and in Miami. In the six markets that reports to Miller Kaplan, our clusters did not perform in line with our markets on a combined basis. As total revenue in these markets decline 9.4% compared to our…

Bruce Beasley

President

As we have discussed on recent calls, the radio industry and traditional media in general is facing a host of challenges. According to the Radio Advertising Bureau in June, industry revenue was down 9% with May down 8% and April was off about 1%. General economic softness is impacting both national and local businesses with category weakness most pronounced for us in retail, automotive and telecom. Excluding the impact by the lack of the Florida Marlins revenue in Q2 '08, the Beasley clusters that report to Miller, Kaplan form roughly in line with our markets on a combined basis. Our Miami results significantly exceeded the market and a number or all our stations exceeded the industry's performance. Our Philadelphia stations continue above the industry trimming with Augusta cluster with both recording modest revenue gain. In addition, our interactive initiatives continue to gain traction in both revenues however the Las Vegas and Fort Myers markets continue to endure very difficult economies related to the real estate downturn and some clusters specific issues in these markets resulted in our biggest quarterly revenue hits in terms of dollars. I will say it again, it is a challenging time not only in media but in the economy at large. In light of the environment, it probably makes hints to the bulk of this morning's comments to reviewing the general strategic approach we are taking to arrive as we are getting things back on track. Our broadcasters are in the same boat when it comes to the challenges of the general economy. Our advantage comes from a 45 year history of operating in the industry which includes weathering some past very ugly environments. In this regard, the most important thing that we are doing is emphasizing the quality of our stations in terms of broadcast…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Tracy Young - JPMorgan.

Tracy Young - JPMorgan

Analyst

Okay, I have two questions for Bruce and two questions for Caroline. For Bruce, can you tell us what retail, auto and telecom are down for second quarter and also can you talk about the market shares first that you saw in Philadelphia and some of the performance that you have seen and then to Caroline, can you talk about your things in CapEx side and then also on the interest expense. The interest expense guidance you are giving for the third quarter is somewhat to what I was expecting so I am wondering why the decline in second quarter thing.

Bruce Beasley

President

Tracy, I am going to let Caroline take those two questions you post to me because she is going to have some numbers that we are going to have to pull out for you really quick.

Caroline Beasley

CFO

Tracy, I did not hear the second one but the first question was you wanted to know how much retail and auto was down and telecom. Retail in second quarter was down 20% for us although it was down 28% and telecom was down 20%.

Tracy Young - JPMorgan

Analyst

In Philadelphia?

Caroline Beasley

CFO

In Philadelphia…

Bruce Beasley

President

Are you looking for the market share revenue wise, Tracy?

Tracy Young - JPMorgan

Analyst

Yes, I just normally you give some detail in how you perform in different markets in Philadelphia. Obviously you are up from the market so any detail you could give?

Caroline Beasley

CFO

Okay, our share obviously grew. I will have to; I will get that really quickly for you because I do not have it here.

Tracy Young - JPMorgan

Analyst

For Bruce, if you could talk about some station performance?

Bruce Beasley

President

Well, we receive the performance at both Wired and WXTU. They are both contributing well to the overall performance of our cluster there and I think Caroline has these numbers you are looking for.

Caroline Beasley

CFO

Okay, so the shares for the second quarter growth are 9.4% last year to 9.9% this year.

Caroline Beasley

CFO

CapEx, we did reduce at $1.5 million and that is primarily due to just projects moving into next year and it is just for whatever reasons they have been delayed till next year. They are large projects and things are not coming together this year as we have expected but they have to be postponed till next year. And then the interest expense, yes I mean it was down and I think our average interest rate for the quarter was about 4.5% and we are very happy about that.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Lee Westerfield - BMO Capital Markets.

Leland Westerfield - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst

I want to walk through leverage test now and over the next year and half, I think currently 6.75 is drifting on 5.75 and then 5.25, anyway if you could remind us with those leverage condition in government issues and then secondly, Bruce if you can elaborate a little bit on your comments about the PPM concerning this roll out and more importantly, what impact if any that might be having on the short run on…, you believe you had monetized your true lines? Thanks.

Caroline Beasley

CFO

Lee I will be answering your questions regarding leverage. The covenant currently is 6.2 5 times and we came in at 6.2 1 time for the third quarter, 6.25 the covenant will be through December 31 and then on March 31 there is a step down to 5.75 and then there is another step down March 31, 2010 to 5.25 and then another one in 2011 to 4.75.

Bruce Beasley

President

Lee, with PPM in Philadelphia, what we have seen happen is Arbitron did a pretty darn good job with the 25 to 34 initiative and we are seeing our Wired, our room with CHR [ph] doing a whole lot better there but what we cannot quite understand is when that 25 to 34 and other initiatives were put in place back in March or maybe February, we started seeing some other radio stations quite frankly over in radio station started being displaced in their ranking and one of those was our country station, WXTU had been a consistent fifth, sixth, seventh, 25 to 54, all of a sudden when these new initiatives took place, it was down to 10 to 11. So, we are trying to understand what happened there and that is why I say I think Arbitron has done a pretty good job but they have, I think, a long way to go. One thing that PPM does do and I think it shows, is that when they make changes, it will show in the industry. It will show in the marketplace. Now, we got to make sure that the changes they make reflect what the market actually is demo wise, sub-sale wise, gender wise, and so forth and so on. So, those were the same thing we are going through right now and having discussions with Arbitron.

Operator

Operator

There appear to be no further questions at this time.

Caroline Beasley

CFO

Thank you, Nelson and thank you everyone for dialing in today. We look forward in speaking with you next quarter.