Cumulus Media is preparing to move forward without one of its marquee hosts as Dan Bongino will depart for his role as Deputy Director of the FBI in mid-March. Bongino’s appointment will end, for now, the dual radio program and podcast “The Dan Bongino Show,” distributed by the company’s Westwood One network.
“We congratulate Dan on his new position, but his appointment will, of course, mean that while he is serving in the administration, he will be unable to perform his radio show or podcast,” Mary Berner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cumulus Media, said on the company’s Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings report call. “In the meantime, we are working on programming to fill the void, although we do anticipate that this will be an additional headwind.”
This week, while announcing his new media venture Silverloch, Bongino hinted on his show that it would continue with guest hosts. Berner did leave the door open for his return, saying, “We look forward to welcoming him back in the future.”
Bongino is a key part of Cumulus Media’s broadcast and digital business. On Thursday, the company acknowledged the highlights and challenges it faced in 2024 in both divisions.
Digital Approaches 20% Of Total Ad Revenue
Digital now accounts for 19% of the company’s total revenue, increasing 1.9% in the fourth quarter to $40.3 million. Digital revenue for the year was $154.2 million, an increase of 5.3% year-over-year.
The digital marketing service (DMS) business “continues to be an area of outsized growth on a revenue increase of 27% year over year,” Berner said. The sector was the smallest of Cumulus Media’s digital businesses in 2023 and last year was the largest.
Berner said Cumulus’ DMS “expanded capabilities,” and allowed the company “to upsell our existing customers, as demonstrated by the 30% year over year increase in legacy radio only customers who now also buy DMS.” Berner said half the DMS customers are digital only accounts. Since the third quarter, Cumulus Media has nearly doubled the size of its centralized digital agency team, “the group responsible for driving improvements in campaign performance, customer satisfaction, and campaign efficacy, leading to better customer retention and same store sales.”
While the Bongino podcast will cease production, the company added new programs including “The Benny Show” and “The Bongino Report Early Edition,” hosted by Evita Duffy-Alfonso, which will continue after Bongino joins the Trump Administration.
The loss of The Daily Wire, which took its ad sales in-house, dragged down podcast revenue last year. Excluding the loss of $15 million in Daily Wire billings, Berner said podcast revenues grew more than 35% last year for the company. “In Q1, we expect the growth from existing podcasts and new content additions will come close to fully offsetting the loss of Daily Wire,” Berner continued.
Political And Live Sports Drive Broadcast Revenue
Total broadcast radio revenue for the three months ending Dec. 31, 2024, was $149.3 million, down 2.7% year-over-year from $153.5 million. Total broadcast revenue was down 5.1% from 2023 to $564 million.
The Presidential campaign, along with ad dollars allotted to down-ballot political races for the 2024 Election, amounted to $19 million of political advertising for 2024 for Cumulus’ broadcast business. The fourth quarter accounted for $10.1 in political revenue.
Another revenue generator for the year was Westwood One’s longtime association with the NFL. “Advertiser interest in live sports remains robust, allowing us to capitalize on our exclusive audio relationship with the NFL to book all-time highs in revenue for the Super Bowl in 2024,” Berner said. “Drafting off that success, we bested that mark to achieve another new all-time high in this year's Super Bowl.”
A local advertising bright spot for the company was its multiplatform business, Beyond Home Market (BHM). The sector was up 35% year-over-year, “and we continue to see that growth trend accelerate in these early days of 2025,” Berner said.
Overall, Cumulus Media reported net revenue of $218.6 million in Q4 2024, a decrease of 1.2% from the same period last year. For the full year 2024, the company posted a total net revenue of $827.1 million, a decline of 2.1% year-over-year.
“The continuing national advertising headwinds were aggravated by a pullback in local advertising post-election, with many small and medium-sized business citing ongoing macro-economic concerns as an impediment to spending,” CFO Frank Lopez-Balboa explained. “As a result, revenue declined across most major ad categories.”
Before releasing the earnings report, Cumulus Media’s Board of Directors allowed its limited-duration stock rights plan to expire. To thwart a potential takeover by a Singapore-based shareholder group, Cumulus adopted the so-called poison pill last February.