Sacramento’s Capital Public Radio, home to news/talk KXJZ (90.9) and classical KXPR (88.9), has had its share of drama in the past year, dealing with mounting debt related to construction costs associated with leases signed for two new downtown properties.
CapRadio’s just-released financial statement shows the company is still $10 million in debt after cutting nearly $11 million in expenses, including more than $5 million from programming and production and almost $4 million from management and general expenses.
An auxiliary of Sacramento State University, the company began laying off more than 12% of its staff and cutting programming in August 2023, following an audit by the California State University system and an independent forensic examination commissioned by the university, which found financial mismanagement at CapRadio. The stations negotiated with the university to offset debt by forgoing construction costs on the downtown buildings and cutting staff and other expenses.
Since CapRadio first signed leases for the stations’ new headquarters and for a live entertainment center, having outgrown its space on the Sacramento State campus, the company racked up nearly $13 million in debt, primarily from construction costs from an estimated $15 to $18 million in improvements associated with the properties. According to financial statements, the university backed a loan of more than $8 million for those payments.
The financial statement shows how the stations have been moving toward financial stability, with the university paying off more than $200,000 in debt per month through a university-approved 15-second advertisement at the top of every hour for stations across the Sacramento region.
“We now have... effective financial management, including (for) donations, oversight and accountability in place,” CapRadio Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer Chris Bruno tells the Sacramento Bee, “so internal controls are all in place.”
CapRadio paid off more than $3 million in accounts payable by July 2024 and will pay off the remaining $2 million primarily to Sacramento State and its parent, National Public Radio. “Sacramento State is not giving us money, bailing us out in that kind of capacity,” Bruno says. “They cannot do that. They cannot give a gift of state funds.”
The company’s just-released report also noted the weekly listenership to KXJZ saw a 25% lift by the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year vs. the previous 14-month average, according to Nielsen.
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