Cumulus Media Inc. (NASDAQ:CMLS) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 2, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Collin Jones – Executive Vice President-Strategy and Development and President-Westwood One
Mary Berner – President and Chief Executive Officer
Frank Lopez-Balboa – Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Michael Kupinski – Noble Capital Markets
Patrick Sholl – Barrington Research

Operator

Welcome to the Cumulus Media Quarterly Earnings Conference Call. I'll now turn the call over to Collin Jones, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Development and President of Westwood One. Sir, you may proceed.

Collin Jones

Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, to our second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. I'm 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 as discussed in our filings with the SEC.

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 today's call will be available for about a month via a link in the Investors portion of our website.

Now with that, I'll turn it over to our President and CEO, Mary Berner. Mary?

Mary Berner

Thanks, Collin, and good morning, everyone. As anticipated during our last earnings call, the second quarter advertising environment continued to be challenging. Consistent with the pacing guidance we provided, Q2 revenue finished 2.5% below last year. However, our unrelenting focus on areas of the business that are in our control, helped us mitigate the impact of soft demand to deliver $25.2 million of EBITDA and excluding costs related to the exchange offer, generated $8.3 million of cash from operations.

We also made meaningful progress in key priority areas during the quarter, specifically, toward our goal of driving outsized growth from digital revenue streams. We grew revenue in our strategically critical digital marketing services, or DMS business by 24%. In the area of expense management, we reduced fixed costs by $4 million, further improving our operating leverage. And with respect to fortifying our balance sheet, we completed the previously announced exchange offer and ABL upsizing actions that importantly extended our maturities to 2029 at attractive terms, and we bought back a small portion of our sub debt, which expires in 2026.