For years, broadcasters have been told they have to choose between protecting traditional radio and chasing digital growth, as though believing in one somehow requires abandoning the other. Townsquare Media is increasingly demonstrating that the smarter answer may be neither. Its second-quarter 2026 results show a company using hundreds of local radio brands and the relationships surrounding them as the foundation for a much broader local-media business—one where the transmitter remains important, but the revenue opportunity increasingly extends far beyond it.
Townsquare reported $115.4 million in second-quarter net revenue, essentially holding the line compared with the same period last year, while generating approximately $24.8 million in Adjusted EBITDA. The results landed within the range management had previously established, but the more interesting story isn’t the consolidated number.
It’s what’s happening underneath it.
Digital continues doing the heavy lifting.
That isn’t exactly a new development for Townsquare. In the first quarter, digital already accounted for 59% of company revenue and 63% of segment profit, while its Digital Advertising operation grew nearly 7% year over year. Townsquare has spent years deliberately transforming itself from what many outsiders might identify as a radio company into what management describes as a digital-first local media operation.
And perhaps it’s time for the rest of radio to pay very close attention.
Because Townsquare’s strategy presents an intriguing alternative to the endless debate over terrestrial radio’s future.
What if the radio station isn’t the entire business anymore?
What if it’s the front door?
The local personalities create relationships.
The stations establish credibility.
The websites generate traffic.
The apps extend engagement.
The sales organization already knows the businesses in town.
Then digital advertising, programmatic technology, marketing services, events and additional products give those same advertisers more ways to spend money with the company.
Suddenly, you’re not walking into Joe’s Plumbing asking him to purchase sixty commercials next week.
You’re walking in asking what Joe needs to grow his business.
That’s a dramatically different conversation.
And Townsquare has been building toward it for years.
In 2025, digital represented 55% of the company’s annual revenue and 56% of segment profit, meaning the transformation was already well beyond the experimental stage. Its digital advertising operation has continued growing even while portions of traditional broadcast advertising have faced significant pressure.
That’s where the second-quarter numbers become particularly revealing.
Traditional broadcast advertising remains challenged.
That matters.
Nobody should sugarcoat it.
But Townsquare has built another engine capable of absorbing some of that pressure.
Think about how different this conversation might look without it.
A company dependent almost entirely upon terrestrial spot revenue would have considerably fewer places to turn when local advertising softens. Townsquare can attack the same problem from multiple directions because it spent years diversifying the products its salespeople can put in front of local businesses.
And there’s an important lesson hiding inside that strategy.
Maybe radio doesn’t have a revenue problem as much as it has a definition problem.
If we define ourselves exclusively by the number of commercials we can fit between songs, our ceiling becomes increasingly obvious.
But if radio companies begin defining themselves by the relationships they’ve spent decades building inside their communities, the possibilities become much larger.
Radio owns something enormously valuable.
Local trust.
Local personalities.
Local advertisers.
Local relationships.
Local knowledge.
And in many smaller and midsized markets—the exact markets Townsquare primarily targets—those advantages can be incredibly difficult for a giant national technology platform to reproduce.
Townsquare appears determined to monetize every inch of that advantage.
That doesn’t mean abandoning radio.
Quite the opposite.
Radio becomes the heartbeat of a much larger local-media machine.
And perhaps that’s the real headline buried inside another quarterly earnings report.
The company’s broadcast advertising business still has work to do. The advertising environment remains difficult, and digital growth doesn’t magically eliminate every challenge facing terrestrial broadcasting.
But Townsquare has created options.
In this business right now, options are enormously valuable.
So while Wall Street examines $115.4 million in revenue and $24.8 million in Adjusted EBITDA, broadcasters should be looking at something else entirely.
The blueprint.
Build extraordinary local brands.
Own relationships in the community.
Sell more than spots.
Follow the audience everywhere.
Give local businesses solutions instead of packages.
And stop treating digital like the department down the hallway that handles Facebook.
Townsquare isn’t betting its future on radio disappearing.
It’s betting that radio can become the foundation for something much bigger.
That may ultimately prove to be one of the smartest bets in broadcasting.
On The Dial covers the people, companies, strategies and ideas reshaping American broadcasting. Townsquare’s second-quarter results reinforce a transformation that has been developing for years, and we’ll continue watching whether its digital-first local model provides a roadmap other radio operators can successfully follow.
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