Former ARS CEO Steve Dodge Dies

Dodge was killed in Bonita Springs, FL, Wednesday night while riding his bike. Police say Dodge was riding on the sidewalk of a busy road when he attempted to cross the road at an angle. A car traveling in the same direction hit Dodge from behind. He was taken to the hospital where he died from his injuries. Dodge was 74.

Steve Dodge was the CEO of American Radio Systems which was formed in 1993 after merging the company he founded, Atlantic Radio, with Tom Stoner’s Stoner Broadcasting Systems and David Pearlman’s Multi Market Communications. The company owned 16 radio stations in seven markets at the time. The senior management team consisted of David Pearlman co-COO, John Gehron co-COO, Don Bouloukos co-COO, and Joe Winn CFO.

ARS became a leading-edge consolidator, publicly-traded company, and grew to become the country’s fourth-largest radio group. In 1998, American Radio Systems was sold to CBS Radio for a then-record enterprise price of $2.6 billion dollars.

Dodge was tremendously successful in the cable business before moving over to radio. He was also involved in the tower business.

The pictures in this story are from the July, 1994 issue of Radio Ink Magazine.

Dodge was on Radio Ink‘s 40 Most Powerful People in Radio list in 1996 (#7) and 1997 (#6).

It was obvious how many lives Steve touched in a positive way by the comments we received about Steve’s death:

Radio Ink Publisher Deborah Parenti:
“This one cuts especially deep. Steve Dodge was more than a brilliant executive and visionary in every business he touched, including radio. He was an extraordinary human being who made people proud of their work, in part because they could feel the pride he had in them. And he demonstrated that over and over again by being approachable and at the same time, allowing people to truly participate in charting the course and setting the goals. He instinctively knew when to ‘come in’ and when to ‘step aside.’

“I remember traveling to New York City following a visit to Boston, American Radio Systems headquarters, for budget meetings one time. One of the ARS staff attorneys had decided to come with me. Steve heard we were there and that it was her first trip to the Big Apple. Next thing we knew, there was a limo at our disposal so she could see the town in style. Steve was like that. Even as the company expanded and grew along with others following deregulation, he kept the spirit up-close, personal, and something of which you just wanted to be part.”

David Pearlman
“Steve Dodge profoundly enriched the lives of everyone he touched both personally and professionally. He inspired all around him to be better at what they did. Steve was a passionate people-person and he instilled a team-oriented, unique culture that resulted in some of the greatest industry successes in history. There was no one smarter or savvier than Steve Dodge. I gleamed valuable life lessons from him every day I was privileged to partner with him at ARS. Till the night he died, he lived life to the fullest at every turn. What a tragic loss for his family and his world wide web of influenced friends and colleagues. Steve Dodge was one of a kind and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”

Randy Michaels
“I admired Steve as a broadcaster, a businessman, and as a person. My favorite company of the era was, of course, Jacor — but ARS was close. Steve was one of the few broadcasters who could read the balance sheet and the transmitters schematic. His motto was ‘play to win.’ He did that with honor, fairness, and great success.”

Greg Strassell worked with Dodge from 1991 to 1998.
“Steve was a tremendous person on many levels. Smart, visionary, and built an employee-friendly company that arguably was the first major radio company to take advantage of rapid expansion with the new FCC rules in the 90s. In his career, he lead a banking division, a cable company, a real estate development company, started American Tower Corporation, but he loved his time in radio the most I believe due to the many levels of creativity, energy and people needed to be successful. He loved the vibrancy of all talent in this business.

I First met him when he had 2 radio stations in Boston MA and Rochester NY. He was struggling with WROR 98-5 and I was flown in to meet with him (and his GM Mark Renier). I was lucky enough to get the nod   to relaunch it as Mix 98-5 and join his team early on until it was sold to Infinity. Later he brought in Don Bouloukos, Dave Pearlman and John Gehron to build an exciting company. He will be missed, a classic character, wonderful family man, and great employer.”