Radio One (NASDAQ:UONE), referred to as Urban One during its second-quarter earnings call, reported lower revenue and adjusted EBITDA as advertising conditions remained challenging across its radio, digital and cable television businesses. Management said results improved sequentially from the first quarter and expects political advertising and a newly acquired Dallas radio operation to support the second half of 2026.
For the quarter ended June 30, Urban One reported consolidated net revenue of $85.8 million, down 6.4% from the prior-year period. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA declined 16% to $11.7 million. The company recorded a net loss of $7 million, or $1.58 per share, compared with a net loss of $77.9 million, or $17.41 per share, a year earlier.
Advertising Trends Remain Mixed
Radio broadcasting revenue totaled $35.3 million, down 3.9% year over year. Excluding political advertising, radio revenue declined 6.6%. Chief Financial Officer Peter Thompson said local advertising sales fell 10.1%, compared with a 7.8% decline for the market tracked by Miller Kaplan, while national advertising declined 1.5%, outperforming a 4.6% market decrease.
The services category, Urban One’s largest radio advertising category, declined about 0.7%, primarily due to legal services. Government and public advertising rose 14.5% due to political spending, while telecommunications advertising increased 16.9%. Other major advertising categories declined during the quarter.
Thompson said second-quarter radio performance came in somewhat below prior expectations, with the shortfall concentrated in local advertising. Looking to the third quarter, Liggins said radio should benefit from improved performance in Washington, D.C., following format changes, as well as better-than-expected trends in Atlanta. However, he noted continued weakness in Indianapolis and said Houston’s second-quarter momentum was affected as advertisers shifted spending toward the World Cup.
Reach Media revenue fell 10.6% to $4.8 million, and the segment posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1 million. Digital revenue declined 8.4% to $9.4 million, which Thompson attributed to lower national direct revenue, reduced DEI-focused spending and broader client caution tied to macroeconomic concerns.
Cable Revenue Pressured by Linear-TV Trends
Cable television revenue was $37.1 million, down 7.4% year over year. Advertising sales in the segment declined 9.6%, as competition from the NBA playoffs contributed to a 21% year-over-year decline in prime-time delivery among viewers ages 25 to 54.
Liggins said the cable business faces an inventory and pricing challenge, including fewer advertisers participating in linear television upfronts, more connected-TV impressions from platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, and a weak scatter market. Those conditions have led more commercial inventory to be allocated to direct-response advertising at lower rates, he said.
Affiliate revenue declined 4.5%, reflecting subscriber churn in traditional linear cable, partly offset by higher subscriber rates. TV One ended the quarter with 27.3 million traditional linear Nielsen subscribers, down from 34.3 million a year earlier. Including virtual subscribers, TV One had 30.5 million subscribers, compared with 35.4 million in the prior-year quarter. Thompson said TV One’s prime-time delivery among adults 25 to 54 was up 4% in the first four weeks of the third quarter versus the second quarter and down 3% from the same period of 2025.
Debt Repurchases and Dallas Transactions
Urban One continued to repurchase debt during the quarter, spending approximately $23.5 million to buy back its 2031 second-lien notes at an average price of 42% of par. Thompson said year-to-date debt repurchases reduced long-term debt by $60.2 million and are expected to generate annualized interest savings of $4.6 million.
Long-term debt stood at $303.2 million following the second-quarter debt repurchase. Including outstanding borrowings under the company’s asset-backed facility, total debt was approximately $323.2 million at June 30. Unrestricted cash was $15.4 million, resulting in net debt of about $307.9 million and a leverage ratio of 6.66 times last-12-month adjusted EBITDA.
The company also recognized a $13.9 million goodwill impairment charge and a roughly $300,000 long-lived asset impairment charge related to Reach Media. Thompson said Urban One has written down all goodwill at Reach and has shifted radio FCC licenses to amortization, which he said should reduce the likelihood of similarly large non-cash impairment charges going forward.
Urban One completed the sales of Charlotte radio licenses WMXG and WLNK on June 1, recognizing a $4.7 million gain. It sold Dallas station KZMJ on July 6 for $6 million and recognized a $3.2 million gain in the third quarter. The company also completed its $22 million acquisition of Service Broadcasting Group, including Dallas stations KKDA and KRNB, on July 17.
Political Advertising Could Aid Second Half
Liggins said radio has budgeted approximately $11.1 million of political advertising revenue for 2026, compared with roughly $13 million in 2022. He said the company sees potentially competitive races in Ohio, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Indiana, though the ultimate level of spending and media allocation remains uncertain.
Dallas could provide an additional benefit because Urban One now has a stronger position serving African American audiences in the market, Liggins said. He added that digital advertising could receive some political spending because it can be geographically targeted, while television generally receives meaningful political advertising primarily during presidential-election cycles.
Beyond the election cycle, Liggins said the company remains open to expanding outside its core African American-targeted demographic in radio markets where it already operates, while emphasizing that any acquisitions must be deleveraging and accretive rather than consolidation for its own sake.
About Radio One (NASDAQ:UONE)
Urban One, Inc, formerly known as Radio One, Inc, is a media company primarily serving African-American and urban audiences across the United States. The company’s core business activities center on radio broadcasting, operating a portfolio of urban-format radio stations that deliver music, news, and community-focused programming. Urban One’s radio network spans key metropolitan markets including Washington, DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis, among others.
In addition to its terrestrial radio operations, Urban One has expanded into digital media to engage listeners online.
