WESTWOOD ONE DRIVES CUMULUS' Q2

A strong second quarter for Westwood One helped push up total revenue for Cumulus Media to $290.5 million in the quarter, a 1.2% rise from 2016.

The company also delivered an increase in adjusted EBITDA—it was up 6.7% to $67.4m— for the first time in over three years.

The growth, CEO Mary Berner said in announcing the results, “is further evidence we’ve turned the corner. We achieved these results despite both a weak industry environment and political headwinds.”

Revenue at programming arm Westwood One increased by 6.1% to $81.3m, driven by core ad sales, digital and podcasts. It saw an EBITDA growth of 30% year-over-year to $16.9m.

“The entirety of our 6% revenue growth in Q2 the entirety was driven by this new business development effort which was virtually nonexistent a year ago,” Berner said. “And importantly Westwood One is now leading the industry with its recent exclusive, big data partnerships that for the first time ever allow us to connect over the air radio listening directly with product purchasing behavior which of course is the Holy Grail for advertisers.”

Cumulus has now had seven straight quarters of PPM ratings share growth. On the diary side, after two consecutive quarters of share growth, six markets out of 27 drove a ratings decline for Cumulus overall.

Berner said overall the third quarter is looking soft.