Radio groups Beasley and Saga report lower third-quarter revenue and write down FCC licenses

Two U.S. radio companies that reported this week both marked down the value of their broadcast licenses, and both reported lower revenue. Beasley Broadcast Group, which owns 47 AM and FM stations in markets including Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Las Vegas, said on November 13, 2026, that net revenue fell 16.1% to $42.8 million in the three months to September 30. On a same-station basis, which leaves out stations and operations it exited in the previous 12 months, the decline was 10.2%. Saga Communications, whose stations are mainly in small and midsize markets, said a day earlier that its net revenue fell 5.4% to $26.7 million.

Beasley booked $13.1 million in FCC license impairment losses for the quarter and Saga $9.2 million, about $22.3 million between them (our calculation). The charges reduce the value at which the companies carry the station licenses they hold from the Federal Communications Commission; Saga books its charge as an impairment of intangible assets. Both companies' operating losses widened sharply: $12.8 million at Beasley, against $0.5 million a year earlier, and $9.8 million at Saga, against $0.6 million. Without the charge, Saga says, its operating loss would have been $563,000.

Why Saga cut its license values

Saga's 10-Q says it ran an interim impairment test after weighing higher interest rates and operating margins below projections, both for its own stations and for the radio industry. The charge covers licenses in eight markets, from Bellingham, Washington, to Springfield, Illinois. Saga attributes it mainly to lower projected revenue and margins and to a higher discount rate, the rate it applies to expected future cash flows: 9.5%, against 8.5% in its test in the fourth quarter of 2025. Its assumption for long-term revenue growth in its markets stayed at minus 0.5% a year. Saga warns that further charges could follow if market conditions turn out worse than it estimates. Beasley's release lists the impairment in its income statement but does not discuss its cause.

Digital does not fill the gap

Both groups sell online advertising alongside airtime, with mixed results in the quarter. Beasley's digital revenue fell 24% to $9.8 million, or 12% on a same-station basis, and made up 23% of net revenue. It says the digital segment's operating margin rose to 32% from 21%. The company attributes the overall revenue drop to continued weakness in national and local advertising placed through agencies, partly offset by a 7% same-station rise in local advertising sold directly to businesses and by political spending. Its audio net revenue fell to $32.9 million from $38.0 million, a 13.4% decline (our calculation).

At Saga, broadcast advertising revenue fell to $19.7 million from $20.9 million, down 5.7% (our calculation), while digital advertising revenue rose to $4.9 million from $4.6 million. Over the first nine months, digital was about 18% of its radio stations' gross revenue, up from 15% a year earlier. Political advertising helped: Saga's gross political revenue was $1.2 million in the quarter, against $73,000 a year earlier, and it says it has about $3.6 million more sold for the fourth quarter.

Lower music license fees, asset sales and a dividend

Saga's station operating expenses fell 1.7% to $24.2 million, helped by a $2.0 million drop in music license fees, which it attributes to one-time retroactive adjustments booked a year earlier. It declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 a share, payable on December 11, 2026.

Beasley cut operating expenses, excluding corporate costs, depreciation and amortization, by about $7.0 million, or 15.1%. After the quarter it sold two radio stations and two parcels of real estate for more than $10 million in net proceeds. It says these sales, together with about $4.6 million in gross proceeds from a registered direct offering and private placement in September, brought the principal of its first-lien notes down to about $3.6 million. Among the risks its release lists is its ability to continue as a going concern for at least one year from the date of its third-quarter financial statements. Chief executive Caroline Beasley said the advertising environment “remains challenging” but that cost cuts were helping to protect profitability. iHeartMedia's quarter is covered in our earlier report.