2022 Billing

[dcowboy7]

1. WTOP (FM) ... All-News ... Washington ... Hubbard ... $70 million
2. KIIS (FM) ... Top 40 ... Los Angeles ... iHeart ... $44.1 million
3. WLTW (FM) ... Adult Contemporary ... New York ... iHeart ... $35.1 million
4. WBZ-FM ... All Sports ... Boston ... Beasley ...$34.75 million
5. WHTZ (FM) ... Top 40 ... New York ... iHeart ... $33.5 million
6. KBIG (FM) ... Hot AC ... Los Angeles ... iHeart ... $32.2 million
7. WINS-AM-FM ... All-News ... New York ... Audacy ... $32.1 million
8. WFAN-AM-FM ... All-Sports ... New York ... Audacy ... $32 million
8. WBBM (AM)/WCFS (FM) ... All-News ... Chicago ... Audacy ... $32 million
10. WSB (AM)/WSBB (FM) ... Talk ... Atlanta ... Cox ... $31.75 million

Z100 #2 in NY !!!!

WTOP Makes It Eight Years In A Row As Nation’s Top Biller As Overall Revenue Rises

BIA Advisory Services has released its annual listing of the top ten billing stations in the country as part of

radioinsight.com

 

[dcowboy7]

Im shocked shocked nobody posted.
Not because i started it 😜 but because ratings are nice but $$ billings is where its at.

 

[BarryATL]

WTOP, WINS, WBBM and WSB are all expensive formats. I wonder what is the actual profit? WSB is listed as talk, but they are live and local 4:30 AM - 10 PM with staffed local news every 30 minutes. Traffic every 6-10 minutes and a staff radio meteorologist (not a service). Some of their local talk shows are 3-5 people. I start adding up those expenses in my head and wonder about the profit.

WBZ and WFAN probably have a higher profit margin, although I do not know much about sports stations as a profit center.

 

[BJSteigner]

1. WTOP (FM) ... All-News ... Washington ... Hubbard ... $70 million
2. KIIS (FM) ... Top 40 ... Los Angeles ... iHeart ... $44.1 million
3. WLTW (FM) ... Adult Contemporary ... New York ... iHeart ... $35.1 million
4. WBZ-FM ... All Sports ... Boston ... Beasley ...$34.75 million
5. WHTZ (FM) ... Top 40 ... New York ... iHeart ... $33.5 million
6. KBIG (FM) ... Hot AC ... Los Angeles ... iHeart ... $32.2 million
7. WINS-AM-FM ... All-News ... New York ... Audacy ... $32.1 million
8. WFAN-AM-FM ... All-Sports ... New York ... Audacy ... $32 million
8. WBBM (AM)/WCFS (FM) ... All-News ... Chicago ... Audacy ... $32 million
10. WSB (AM)/WSBB (FM) ... Talk ... Atlanta ... Cox ... $31.75 million

Z100 #2 in NY !!!!

WTOP Makes It Eight Years In A Row As Nation’s Top Biller As Overall Revenue Rises

BIA Advisory Services has released its annual listing of the top ten billing stations in the country as part of

radioinsight.com

Is that revenue or profits??

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Neither. It is billing, which is revenue before accounting for bad debt, i.e. customers who do not pay.

 

[davideduardo]

Is that revenue or profits??

Gross revenue before expenses.

Nobody except insiders know the profit of each station. And in clusters, even the owners and managers may not even know how much each station individually makes.

 

[davideduardo]

Neither. It is billing, which is revenue before accounting for bad debt, i.e. customers who do not pay.

"Billing" is gross revenue. Before all expenses, including agency and sales commissions, salaries, utilities, salaries, benefits, maintenance, licenses, permits, rent, property taxes, and so on.

Billing is what others pay to you. Ad sales, talent fees charged by the station, website inclusion, ads on streams, station sponsored concerts, rental of an SCA or HD channel, lease of owned tower space, and anything else a station can produce income from.

There is specific language in the accounting principles material your auditors follow. Basically, all accounts are booked as income (unless you are on a "cash basis" which few businesses are) and then booked again as an expense if deemed noncollectable. Often a sale may be booked in one year as income, and not determined to be a bad debt until the next year, so the noncollectable amount is expensed only when you "give up" on recovery.

To avoid "income in one year and expense in another" we usually have an account called "Reserve for bad debts" and we use the last few year's experience to set aside a percentage of income, against which we "draw" for actual bad debt. That levels the expense over different years, and we adjust it based on experience every so often, particularly if our outside CPA recommends such a change.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

"Billing" is gross revenue. Before all expenses, including agency and sales commissions, salaries, utilities, salaries, benefits, maintenance, licenses, permits, rent, property taxes, and so on.

Ah. If it isn't our old friend accrual accounting. I didn't realize until just now, but accrual accounting is required for public corporations in the United States.

What I said would be the case under a cash accounting system, where revenue is only booked when the check clears. Many small companies (but not all!) use cash accounting.

 

[davideduardo]

Ah. If it isn't our old friend accrual accounting. I didn't realize until just now, but accrual accounting is required for public corporations in the United States.

If you read on that fact, you likely could continue to read about why this is preferred.

What I said would be the case under a cash accounting system, where revenue is only booked when the check clears. Many small companies (but not all!) use cash accounting.

The reason we don't use cash accounting for larger companies should be obvious to you.

 

[secondchoice]

I had to hire a forensic accountant once. Big fees found less than the fees.