Earnings Call Excerpt
Citadel Broadcasting (CDL)
Q4 2005 Earnings Conference Call
February 23rd 2006, 9:00 AM.
Executive:
Patricia Stratford, Acting CFO
Farid Suleman, Chairman and CEO
Judy Ellis, President and COO
Mike, Citadel Broadcasting Corp.
Analysts:
Victor Miller, Bear Stearns
Eileen Furukawa, Citigroup
Jason Helfstein, CIBC
Mark Wings, Goldman Sachs
Lorraine Mancini, Merrill Lynch
Anthony Derementhy, Lyman brother
Joanne Martin, Gramathy Capital
Jason Helfstein, CIBC
Presentation
Operator
Welcome to the Citadel Broadcasting's 2005 Fourth Quarter Earnings Release Teleconference. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Patricia Stratford. Please go ahead.
Patricia Stratford, Chief Financial Officer
Good morning and thank you for joining us for Citadel's 2005 fourth quarter earnings call. Joining me for today's discussion are Farid Suleman, Chairman and CEO; and Judy Ellis, President and COO. I will review the financial results, followed by Farid and Judy. We will then open the call for questions.
Let me note that statements on this conference call relating to matters which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ. Risks and uncertainties are disclosed in Citadel Broadcasting's securities filings and at the end of our press release. This earnings release and other information related to the presentation can be found on Citadel's corporate website on the Internet under the address of www.citadelbroadcasting.com. I will cover our 2005 fourth quarter results and then turn the call over to Farid.
Net revenues for the fourth quarter of 2005 were $108.3 million, a decrease of approximately $1.5 million or 1% compared to the prior year's fourth quarter. The decrease in revenues was principally due to lower revenue from political advertiser in 2005 compared to 2004, which declined by 2.9 million. Net revenues in the fourth quarter of 2005 were also affected by damage sustained at the Company's stations in the New Orleans market as a result of Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005. Revenues were higher in certain of the Company's market including stations in Allentown Pennsylvania, Modesto California and Tucson Arizona.
Our operating income for the fourth quarter was $35 million, compared to $27.1 million for the same period in 2004, an increase of $7.9 million. This increase was primarily due to a decrease in depreciation and amortization expense since the company advertiser base assets were substantially fully amortized as of December 31, 2004.
On a station operating income, which we define as operating income plus depreciation and amortization, local marketing agreement fees, corporate General and Administrative expenses, other net and other non-cash expenses were $45.9 million in Q4 of 2005 compared to $48.2 million in 2004, a decrease of 2.3 million.
Once again if you would like to ask a question please press the ?*
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