Best Manager Profiles

Michael Dudding is the owner and General Manager of Mikadety Radio Corporation on Denison, Iowa, which he purchased in 1993. It's home to KDSN-AM and FM. Dudding is also on Radio Ink's 2016 Best Managers in Radio list, set to be released on October 24th. Those that nominated Dudding for our list said, "he is the licensee of the most successful small-market broadcast operation in the nation." That is high praise for sure. We set out to find out why he's believed to be one of radio's best and here's what we found out.

As part of our series spotlighting 2019 Radio Wayne finalists, we turn to the D.O.S. category today. Carter Broadcast Group's Vic Dyson is a 28-year radio veteran. He grew up in the radio industry, his dad is the legendary Marv Dyson.

Alex Cadelago is the Market Manager for Cumulus Media in Houston. Last month in Orlando, Alex won Radio Ink's Radio Wayne Award for Market Manager of the Year. Cumulus VP Dan Bennett is Alex' supervisor. “What makes Alex Cadelago a great leader is first and foremost his character. He is honest and trustworthy and people want to follow people like him."

CBS Radio DFW is having one of its best years ever, with both ratings and revenue up nicely. At the helm is Market Manager Brian Purdy. According to people who work for him, Brian is more than a numbers manager, he truly cares about his employees. One of the ways he keeps his team motivated is by holding breakfasts or happy hours where the staff celebrates its "Rockstar of the Month."

Tim Gratzer has 24 years of experience in the radio industry. He’s a great mentor for his AEs, according to Cumulus Market Manager Alex Cadelago, because he's equally vested in their personal growth as he is their financial success.

Stephanie Callihan is the Vice President and General Manager for Entercom in Austin. She started her radio career as an assistant to an account executive and worked her way up to NSM, GSM, DOS and then finally market manager. Her colleagues says she is a true radio professional.

Jim Watkins is the General Manager at WHUR at Howard University in Washington DC. He’s also one of Radio Ink’s Best Managers of 2017. Watkins is credited with building WHUR, 46 years ago. He's not only the General Manager of this top tier heritage radio station, he's also a mentor to some of the industry's most notable radio personalities and executives.

iHeartMedia's Dave Carwile has worked in every position in radio sales and sales management over the past 23 years. He's been an AE, Team Leader, GSM, DOS, NSM, Market Manager, Market President, Regional Market President, and now Region President over 53 radio stations in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Carwile has excelled at every level during those 20-plus years and has been promoted to senior executive level positions four times just in the past five years.

As part of our series spotlighting Radio Wayne finalists, we turn to the Sales Manager category today. Michael Tedesco fell in love with radio listening to the Real Don Steele on KHJ-AM in Southern California. Today he's helping make WAWZ-FM in New Jersey a financial powerhouse as sales manager.

Eric Mastel has taken what we are told was a struggling cluster for Cumulus and turned it into one of the company's top performers. You cannot do that without getting people to follow you into battle.