SBS, Radio One Reveal Exec Compensation Highs & Lows.

Story by Inside Radio

It could be a more intense annual meeting than usual for Spanish Broadcasting System next month after the company defaulted on its loans and announced it’s working on a recapitalization strategy. Ahead of that June 15 meeting in Miami SBS has filed its proxy statement, which shows none of the top executives collected a performance bonus last year at the cash-strapped company. The filing says CEO Raúl Alarcón was paid a total of $2.2 million in salary and other benefits last year. That included $450,000 in retention bonus payments as part of a $1.6 million bonus that was negotiated as part of his 2014 contract renewal. Alarcón could have been eligible for up to $750,000 in an annual performance bonus payments but according to the company he waived his right to receive any. He did however charge back $29,000 to the company for use of his personal yacht on what the filing says were business-related meetings. The SBS filing also shows COO Albert Rodriguez received $317,000 in total compensation while CFO Joe Garcia received $699,000.

While some investors have complained about the company’s financial decisions in recent years, the filing shows they have little power to force changes. Alarcón owns 44% of the equity and 85.4% of the voting power. At the same time the five biggest outside stockholders hold a combined 40.3% of the equity but control just 7% of the total voting power.

Meanwhile at Radio One, the company reports founder and chair Cathy Hughes was paid a total of $2.1 million last year in salary, bonuses and stock options. That’s down from the nearly $2.5 million she receive a year earlier. CEO Alfred Liggins was paid a total of $5.5 million compared to the $5.9 million he pocketed in 2015. Radio One tells shareholders that $1.8 million of Liggins’ total compensation last year was related to his contributions in the founding of the company’s cable network, TV One. That figure equates to about 4% of what Radio One received as part of the company recouping the capital invested in the network prior to buying out TV One partner Comcast.

The annual proxy statement for stock owners also shows radio division chief David Kantor was paid a total of $1.2 million in salary, stock and other benefits during his first full year as head of the unit. And the compensation paid to CFO Peter Thompson and chief administrative officer Linda Vilardo ticked lower slightly last year. Thompson received $1.8 million while Vilardo—who announced she’s retiring the end of this year—received $1.1 million in 2016.

The other noteworthy number from Radio One is 96%. That’s how much voting control is held by both Hughes, who launched the company in 1980 with a single Washington AM station, and her son, Liggins, across four separate classes of shares. That means Radio One easily qualifies as a “controlled company” under NASDAQ listing rules, which put the threshold at more than 50% of voting power. In other words, Radio One isn’t required to have a compensation committee composed solely of independent directors. Even so, the company voluntarily met that goal as its 2016 compensation committee was completely comprised of five independent board members. Radio One’s annual shareholder meeting will be held June 13 in Silver Spring, MD.