Best Manager Profiles

It was only four years ago that Amy Stroud joined Mike Tarter's Forcht Broadcasting as Digital Media Director. On Wednesday, Tarter promoted Stroud to Senior Vice President, where she will spread all of her broadcasting knowledge across Forcht's 25 stations by working with managers on personnel, programming, and operations as she continues to run the company's social media and website products.

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.

And that's exactly what Jeff Wilson does. Jeff has been in radio for over 36 years. He's worked on the air, as a controller, a sales manager, a GM, and now Senior RVP. He is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations for Radio One's DC cluster, with additional oversight of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Wilson has been voted one of Radio Ink's Best Managers of 2016. Here is our extended interview with Jeff on his management style and what it takes to be a successful leader in the radio industry today

Meet one of Radio's Best Managers. Kristin Okesson is the Market Manager for Jeff Warshaw's Connoisseur Media in Connecticut. She's been in radio since she was 16 years old. Her first job was for radio station WZBG where she was the producer of the morning show. It was a startup station owned by Dick Ebersol and Susan Saint James in Litchfield, CT.

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.