In contrast to Beasley Media Group, Cumulus Media's challenges and "National headwinds" hurt the company in the first quarter of 2023. Local businesses were flat for the quarter, but fueled by local digital. Still, operating income shrunk to $1.04 million from $14.8 million.

What does this mean for Cumulus, and where is the second quarter heading? Some "greenshoots" in local are being seen amid the gloomy financial portrait at the company led by President/CEO Mary Berner. Meanwhile, CFO Frank López-Balboa detailed the top ad categories for Cumulus in Q1 and answered an analyst's question as to whether there were more non-essential assets Cumulus could sell.

Berner and López-Balboa detailed the state of Cumulus on the company's Q1 2023 earnings call, conducted bright and early Thursday. We've taken excerpts from their comments, and are pleased to present them in this latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.fm.