Despite Earnings Delay, MediaCo Reports Fourfold Revenue Gain In First Quarter.

The good news for investors of MediaCo Holdings is revenue numbers will be bigger. The bad news is they will have to wait a little longer until they are official. The company, which owns hip-hop “Hot 97” WQHT and adult R&B WBLS (107.5) in New York, has told shareholders that it was unable to meet Friday’s deadline for reporting first quarter earnings without “unreasonable effort or expense.” But while it works to complete its accounting, the company has delivered an early peek at the numbers.

MediaCo estimates net revenues totaled $28 million during the first quarter, with a net loss of $8.3 million. It is a significant year-to-year jump in revenue from a year ago when revenue totaled $6.7 million. The reason for the four-fold increase lies in MediaCo’s deal last April to buy Estrella Broadcasting. Leading the efforts at MediaCo is Albert Rodriguez, who joined MediaCo last September as Chief Revenue Officer and then was named interim CEO in October.

MediaCo is by far radio’s smallest publicly traded company. And while the Estrella Broadcasting acquisition has significantly increased the size of the company’s business, it has also made bookkeeping more complicated. The result is this is the third time in the past 12 months that the company has missed the deadlines set by the Securities and Exchange Commission for reporting results to investors. MediaCo earlier missed the second quarter 2024 deadline, which the company said connected to the Estrella acquisition. But it prompted the Nasdaq exchange to threaten a delisting last year.

MediaCo then missed the deadline for its year-end results. They were due in March under SEC rules, but the company did not release the annual report to shareholders until a month later.

Investors took the latest delay in stride, apparently focusing more on the revenue results as MediaCo’s stock price rose 3% during Friday trading in New York.