2015: Episode 1
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Jeff Smulyan is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Emmis Communications. He has always been, first and foremost, a radio broadcaster. He sat down with Seth Resler at the 2015 Worldwide Radio Summit to discuss his broadcasting career.
Here’s what he talked about in this interview:
- He got his law degree from the University of Southern California and wrote a law review article on the Clear Channel Doctrine
- Many years ago, David Letterman was Jeff’s midday jock at WNTS
- Emmis was born when WSVL in Indianapolis flipped to WENS in 1981
- Emmis was involved in print publishing for a while with monthly magazines in cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta
- Magic Johnson was once featured in an ad for Magic 106 in Los Angeles, the AC station featuring on-air personality Robert W. Morgan
- Emmis flipped Magic 106 in Los Angeles to Power 106 in 1984
- Hot 97 in New York City was originally on 103.5 until it swapped frequencies in 1988
- Everybody thought Jeff was crazy when he wanted to launch an all-sports station; despite being an initial disaster, WFAN, the nation’s first all-sports station, has become an incredibly successful institution
- Don Imus was key to the success of WFAN
- Jeff and Emmis bought the Seattle Mariners in 1989
- Emmis went public in 1994
- Emmis bought TV stations because it believed that television would get retransmission rights
- Jeff focuses his time on Next Radio these days (which has gained support from T-Mobile and AT&T since this interview)
- Hot 97 was the #1 radio station on TuneIn in 2014, but it lost $400,000 streaming
- Jeff was one of many Indiana CEOs who signed a letter opposing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by Governor Mike Pence because it could be used to discriminate against gays
- Longtime Power 106 morning show host Big Boy departed for a rival radio station, leading to a legal dispute that is still ongoing
- Emmis had been grooming new Power 106 morning show host J Cruz for some time before moving him into the time slot
Produced by James Clausen.
Digital Dot Connector at Jacobs Media
Seth Resler is a 30+ year broadcasting and podcasting veteran who worked at Jacobs Media for eight years.He specialized in podcast and digital content consulting.
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