Acme Communications, whose roster of stations is dwindling, announced financial results this week for the fourth quarter as well as the full year of 2010, emphasizing that management is in the process of essentially righting the ship.
LIN Media recently took over Acme’s stations in Dayton and Green Bay while Lockwood Broadcast Group is set to purchase Knoxville’s WBXX. Acme excluded these stations from its financial results, stressing to shareholders that it was working to quell losses and cut costs.
“During this past year we made significant progress on our overarching goal of monetizing our assets for the benefit of our shareholders,” Doug Gealy, ACME’s President and CEO, said in a news release. “With our stations in Knoxville, Dayton and Green Bay expected to be sold in the current quarter, we expect to begin returning a meaningful portion of the cash component of those proceeds to our shareholders and will work to reduce corporate costs to reflect the reduced scale of our operations.”
Acme’s net loss for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $5.3 million, compared to a $4.5 million net loss for the same period of 2009, but the company’s operating costs decreased 25% to $6.5 million.
Acme’s syndicated morning show “The Daily Buzz” was a bright spot for the company, bringing in 22% more in the final quarter of 2010 than it did in Q4 of ’09. Revenue for Acme’s remaining stations increased 7% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year.