“I feel bad about accepting an award when, after all, I didn’t really mean to make a career of media. This is my hobby,” said Radio Ink 2025 Lifetime Leadership Award winner Randy Michaels in poignant remarks at Wednesday’s ceremony at Forecast 2026 in Manhattan.
Michaels was recognized for his decades in the industry, including his leadership at Jacor Communications, Clear Channel, Local TV LLC, Tribune Company, and his current work via Radioactive LLC.
The luncheon crowd rose to its feet in a standing ovation as Michaels took the stage, accepting the award from Radio Ink President and Publisher Deborah Parenti after an introduction from Nexstar Networks leader and former Michaels employee Sean Compton.
Reflecting on his Appalachian upbringing, Michaels delivered a love letter to the spirit that so many in the industry share. “Radio fascinated me at a very early age. It took me places I couldn’t imagine or visit in real life.” Among those locals was the Blue Room at the Hotel Roosevelt in New Orleans, as made famous by WWL. “When I finally got to eat [there], I was so disappointed. It was so much nicer when you saw it on the radio.”
growing up with commercials and late-night broadcasts from Nashville’s WLAC, WCKY in Cincinnati, KFI in Los Angeles, and famed border-blaster XERF. “That’s where I went to school.”
That education took a hands-on turn as he got older, when he worked on his family’s tube radio and received a shock from the unplugged device. Not believing that this could happen, he touched it again, and the capacitor gave him another jolt for his efforts. “I wanted to go to the library and learn why that could happen,” which led to his entry into broadcasting as Chief Engineer for his college station.
“I didn’t think it would last…I just meant for it to be fun. And it really has been.”
“Maybe I’m not the guy to give lessons in work/life balance, because I don’t think you need to have it,” Michaels commented, quoting Marc Anthony’s, “If you do something you love, you don’t work a day in your life. I’ve never worked a day in my life.”
In addition, retired TEGNA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Media Operations Lynn Beall was honored with the Radio + Television Business Report Lifetime Leadership Award.
