Thankfully (ha ha), today’s post is one of those once-in-a-blue moon events.

That’s because you don’t receive an honor like the NAB’s National Radio Award every day.  In fact, you could work hard your entire career and not receive this type of recognition.

So, tonight at the NAB’s Marconi Awards yours truly and brother Paul will take the stage and accept this wonderful honor.  And we’re doing it with a great sense of gratitude and humility.  A look back at past honorees is a bit daunting.  On that list are people in the radio business we admire, look up to, and respect greatly.  Some of have been our mentors.  And our friends.  And it’s more than a little humbling to join them.

The other cool thing is that the NAB is giving it to both of us.  That means the world to us because our accomplishments over nearly four decades have been shared.  Paul and I have turned out to be great partners – I’m the programming guy, he’s sales.  And together, we have experienced more than we ever could have imagined when we each broke into the business back in the 70’s.

At the Marconi’s (neither of us ever won one while working for a station), we will take the stage in front of the entire radio industry, and do our best to be deserving of this accolade.

And here’s the challenge:

We only have 4 minutes between the two of us before the violins are fired up and we’re given the hook.  We understand the need to be brief, be brilliant, and be gone.

But FOUR FREAKING MINUTES?!

After all, there’s a lot of people to thank.  You don’t receive an honor like this without a lot of help, support, and frankly, luck.  I can’t necessarily explain the last part, but believe me when I tell you we have a LOT of people to thank.  And we could take up the entire four minutes doing just that.

But we have some things we want to say, and so if it’s OK with you, we’re going to do our best to thank a lot of people, companies, and organizations here in this post.  We’re not going to name a lot of names.  We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  And I’m afraid that inadvertently and unknowingly, we may do just that.  So here goes…

Let’s start with the team at Jacobs Media, past and present.  We’ve always been about being an organization.  I wasn’t a one-man band for long.  It wouldn’t have worked.  I have tried hard to hire to my weaknesses – and it’s worked pretty well.  So if you’re a current employee or you spent any time putting up with me, thank you.  We’ve had a remarkable run.  That includes Jacobs bro #3, Bill, the late Tim Davis, Keith Cunningham, Mike Stern, Lori Lewis, Seth Resler, Ralph Cipolla, Jason Hollins, and many other brilliant, quirky folks who took a chance on working for me, and later, Paul.  And everything Lisa Riker, Elnora Lowe, and Joyce Koja put up with us.

Both of us started our adventures at Michigan State in the TV Radio Department (renamed Telecommunication while we still there).  And that Union Building rat pack set the tone for our entire careers.  A lot of truly great and talented people earned their chops in studios A, B, and C.  Jim Respress, Larry Estlack, and Gary Reid were especially influential and supportive, but scores of hungry young people went on to great careers out of those MSU roots.

I eventually convinced the upper regions at the Frank Magid company in Marion, Iowa to hire me.  It wasn’t easy.  I blew the first two interviews, and barely made the staff on my “charmed” third attempt.  The folks I worked with there – like Dallas Murphy Miller – taught me a lot about how to do research and how to run a business.  The fact that people like Jon Coleman, Bill Moyes, Bruce Fohr and others later started their own successful research companies tells you all you need to know about this boot camp in the corn fields of Iowa that turned out some pretty sharp people.

Then came our ABC Radio family.  And this is where Paul and I met again – eventually, me as PD and him as an account exec.  (You can only imagine.)  I got to work alongside some of the best and brightest in radio.  Tom Bender and Jay Hoker hired me.  A couple years later, the late Marty Greenberg moved me to New York City to do research for the company’s owned FM stations with legendary PDs like John Gehron, Tom Yates, Tommy Hadges, Larry Berger, and others.  From the personalities to the support staff to the management team, WRIF and ABC was a seminal career moment for me and Paul.  The fact that WRIF celebrated 50 years as Detroit’s rock station last year, and continues to lead the market in ratings to this day tells you a lot about the dynasty the station has become.  And yes, they eventually nabbed a Marconi a few years ago.  Thanks to Greater Media and the Beasley’s, we still play a dotted-line role at the station.

Then there was the Classic Rock phenomenon.  Truth to be told, if it wasn’t for owner/manager Bob Ottaway and PD Jeff Crowe, I wouldn’t be on that stage tonight.  Bob owned a Class A, WMMQ, licensed to Charlotte (Shar-LOT), Michigan outside of Lansing.  Yes, you probably know the storybook tale of the format.  MMQ exploded (it’s still in format today, now owned by Townsquare), and I quickly signed on stations in a whole lot of markets.  Tom Bender and I collaborated on the format, and thanks to owners like Jay Hoker (Kansas City, Cincy), Greater Media (LA and Detroit), Metroplex (Cleveland, Charlotte, Jacksonville), Infinity (Philly, NYC, Atlanta), Cox (Chicago), and a host of others, it grew FAST.

I benefitted from having the format rolling in so many markets.  As new programmers took the helm, exciting new innovations, features, and promotions were developed – many of which are still on the air on many Classic Rock stations.  Thanks to all those PDs from the present and the past – we learned from each other, and continue to do so.  Bill Weston, David Moore, Keith Hastings, Larry McFeelie, Scott Jameson, Bob Bellini, and SO many others over the years.

Alternative (OK, it was called Modern Rock in the mid-80’s) happened thanks to John Lynch, Norm Feuer, and “Mad Max” Tolkoff at Noble in San Diego.  Yup, 91X.  A couple years later, we launched the Edge format, and had a great run.  A lot of broadcasters took a shot on us and a format that was a perennial 2-share in a lot of markets.  Thanks to Tom Calderone and Dave Beasing, in particular, we had some great moments, and there are still Edge stations out there today.  (Yes, we own the service mark.)

We had some great relationships with a number of great radio companies.  In the early years, Metroplex, Greater Media, Infinity, Saga (more on them later), Cox, Granum, and others.  In recent years, Beasley and Hubbard have been standout clients.

Execs like Mel Karmazin, Norm Wain, Bob Weiss, Peter Smyth, Nick Trigony, Bob Neal, Herb McCord, and David Field taught us business – and life – lessons.  These days, it’s Caroline Beasley, Ginny Morris, and Steve Newberry keeping us (mostly) honest.  I have respect, loyalty, and empathy for them all.

We also have been blessed to watch some of the greatest radio personalities of all time ply their craft.  Among them, Howard Stern, Bob & Tom, John Boy & Billy, Lex & Terry, Drew & Mike, Dave & Chuck the Freak, J.J. & the Morning Crew, The Mens Room, B.J. & Migs, Tommy & the Bull, Bob & Brian, Dave & Carole, John Holmberg, Preston & Steve, Sherman & Tingle, Mark Thompson, along with solo gunslingers like Brother Wease, Rick Rumble, Iris Harrison, Pierre Robert, Ken Calvert, Arthur Penhallow, Bob Stroud, Jacky Bambam, and Phil Hendrie.

The MTV/Vh1 days were a whirlwind.  Steve Goldstein first introduced me to MTV research whiz, Steve Seidmon, and later, Marshall Cohen.  I worked with various teams at 1515 Broadway, including Lee Masters.  You know him now as the great Jarl Mohn, who among other things, ran NPR just a few years ago.  Calderone left us to work for MTV, ended up running Vh1, and brought us back into the company in the 2000’s.

Our public radio run started with a bang in the late 9o’s, thanks to Larry Rosin recommending us to Mark Fuerst, and finally, the late Rick Madden who ran the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  We got a nifty grant – its mission in 1998:  to help public radio understand the growth of digital and tech to map out its future.  That project opened our eyes to the possibilities, and we haven’t stopped running in that direction.

From there, NPR hired us for a nice long run of programming and consulting, thanks in no small part to the belief Jackie Nixon and Jay Kernis had in us.  We have loved every second of our involvement in public radio.  We’ve been fortunate to work with some of the smartest people in radio in both mega and small markets.  We’ve learned a lot serving on public radio boards – me at PRPD (Public Radio Program Directors) and Paul on Greater Public (public radio’s version of the RAB).

Speaking of which, we’ve had fascinating and fruitful relationships with the NAB and RAB.  Leadership that includes Gordon Smith. Curtis LeGeyt, Steve Newberry, April Carty-Sipp, and Josh Miely, at the former, and Erica Farber and her troops at the latter.  And we’ve worked closely with their great teams over the years.

We’ve also enjoyed collaboration with Arbitron over the years.  Dr. Ed Cohen doubled down on us for our two ethnographic studies, “The Bedroom Project” (2007) and “Goin’ Mobile” (2010), both of which became NAB Super Sessions, amazing exposure for our company at the Radio Show.

Our foray in Christian music radio started with Tim Davis connecting with Michelle Younkman, a relationship that has only grown over the years.  We’ve met amazing broadcasters along the way.

The jacapps story is an interesting one.  Thanks again to Tim, we launched our mobile app company about 100 days after Steve Jobs opened his now-famous (and insanely profitable) App Store in July of 2008.  More than 1,300 apps later (mostly for radio) on both the iOS and Android platforms, the company continues to break ground.  It’s not an easy business.  Paul ran it for several years before Bob Kernen took over as COO, supported by Kate and Ben Levy, and a collection of really smart young people.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the mercurial Ed Christian, CEO of Saga Communications, who passed away earlier this year.  Ed played an important role for both Paul and me.  He gave Paul his first sales job in radio at WNIC in Detroit.  And when I resigned from WRIF in ’83 to go find what was next, Ed hooked me up with research projects at his stations, later encouraging me to go into business for myself.  Sadly, our relationship faltered over the past decade, and we lost touch with one another.  We owe him a debt of gratitude.

I need to mention the trades, where we thankfully show up with regularity.  I had another consultant ask me a number of years ago if we had a PR firm helping promote the company.  I explained to him we get a lot of ink because we do stuff – all the time.  But we have Ed Ryan and Deborah Parenti at Radio Ink, Paul Heine and Gene McKay at Inside Radio, Paul McLane at Radio World, and the enigmatic Joel Denver at All Access who convinced me to take our Techsurvey out to all formats several years ago – one of the best decisions we ever made.  I’m leaving out others, but thank you all for helping Paul and me tell our story.

Don Anthony from Talentmasters/Jockline Daily has been a great partner, first with his Morning Show Boot Camps, and in recent years with our AQ studies among radio personalities.

Our ventures in automotive started at Ford and CES. At the former, it was the charismatic Scott Burnell and and the bombastic John Ellis, Joe D’Angelo and Bob Strubel from iBiqiuty and later Xperi, and Gary Shapiro at CTA/CES who got us on this important road.  Roger Lanctot was a big influence on us, too.  And it was all Bill Hendrich‘s idea.

One of the weird things about running our own company all these years is there’s no one telling us when we’re screwing up.  But we’ve had an ad hoc “kitchen cabinet” advising us (or beating us up) – Buzz Knight, Steve Goldstein, Tom Bender, Alan Burns, Dave Beasing, Pierre Bouvard, Tim Sabean, Dave Richards, Steve Schram, Scott Westerman, Alan Burns, Ruth Presslaff, Joyce MacDonald, Abby Goldstein, Haley Jones, and others have gladly accepted their unpaid “board seats.”   Paul and I know we can call on them at any time to tell us we’ve lost our minds.

Our families come last on this list, but they’re first in our hearts.  Our wives, our kids, our cardiologists, and of course, our mom, and our late dad, Sidney R. They’ve all put up with a lot over the years.  We couldn’t have done this without them.

It will take you well more than four minutes to read this.  And a lot of great people who have supported and helped us are unnamed here.  If you’re one of them – and there are hundreds – please forgive the omission and know that Paul and I appreciate what you’ve done for us.

It’s been an amazing career ride, and we’re thrilled to have met so many great people along the way.

Happily, there are more chapters to be written.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Fred Jacobs

President & Founder at Jacobs Media

Fred Jacobs founded Jacobs Media in 1983, and quickly became known for the creation of the Classic Rock radio format.

Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.

In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.

Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.

Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.

Latest posts by Fred Jacobs (see all)

• Is Public Radio A Victim Of Its Own Org Chart – Part 2 - December 24, 2024
• In 2024, The Forecast Calls For Pain - December 23, 2024
• Old Man, Take A Look At My Ratings - December 20, 2024

Subscribe to JacoBlog

Fred Jacobs captures the pulse of the industry. Get his blog in your inbox