Cumulus Media Inc. (NASDAQ:CMLS) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 27, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Collin Jones - Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development

Mary Berner - President and Chief Executive Officer

Frank Lopez-Balboa - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Dan Day - B. Riley Securities

Michael Kupinski - NOBLE Capital Markets

Avi Steiner - JPMorgan

Operator

Welcome to the Cumulus Media Quarterly Earnings Conference Call. I will now turn it over to Colin Jones, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Development. Sir, you may proceed.

Collin Jones

Thank you, operator. Welcome everyone to our first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. I am joined today by our President and CEO, Mary Berner, and our CFO, Frank Lopez-Balboa.

Before we start, please note that certain statements in today’s press release and discussed on this call may constitute forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current assessments and assumptions and they are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

In addition, we will also use certain non-GAAP financial measures. We believe the supplementary information is useful to investors, although it should not be considered superior to the measures presented in accordance with GAAP. A full description of these risks as well as financial reconciliations to non-GAAP terms are in our press release and SEC filings. The press release can be found in the Investor Relations portion of our website and our Form 10-Q was also filed with the SEC shortly before this call. A recording of the call will be available for about a month via link on our website.

With that, I will now turn it over to our President and CEO, Mary Berner. Mary?

Mary Berner

Thanks, Colin and good morning everyone. In the first quarter, the continued weakness of the national advertising environment to which we have significant exposure drove total revenue declines as reported of 11% year-over-year or more comparably, excluding political and WynnBET, total revenues were down 7%, a result that is consistent with the pacing we provided on our last call.

Despite that challenge, we generated significant growth in our digital marketing services business, increasing revenue 23% year-over-year on a completely organic basis. We executed meaningful non-revenue impacting cost reductions to further enhance our operating leverage, adding approximately $10 million of additional annualized cost reductions to the approximately $90 million that we have already executed since 2019. And during the quarter, we continued to enhance and benefit from our advantageous liquidity position and balance sheet, generating $16 million of free cash flow, completing a highly accretive asset sale for $7.3 million repurchasing $1.5 million of shares and retiring $6.3 million face value of debt at a discount.