Best Manager Profiles

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.

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.

That was one of the questions we asked Chris Kampmeier, iHeartMedia's veteran programmer who's retiring New Year's Eve. In the final installment of our interview with Chris, we asked him for his thoughts on the Portable People Meter technology, whether programming a radio station is easier today than it was decades ago when he started, and the skills the program director of 2017 will need to win. Here's what he had to say...

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.

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.

Sarah Frazier is the Market Manager for CBS Radio in Houston. She's also one of Radio Ink’s Best Managers of 2017. And that should come as no surprise, Frazier is consistently one of The Most Influential Women in Radio and on our Best Managers list. Frazier has been in radio since college, when she worked as the sales manager, traffic manager, and operations manager at KJHK at the University of Kansas.

Marc Kaye is the Market Manager for Hubbard Radio in Seattle. He's also been chosen as one of Radio's Best Managers for 2017 and will be featured in the October 9 issue of Radio Ink Magazine, along with a small group of radio's other top managers. Kaye runs a five-station cluster for Hubbard in Seattle, leading and managing over 100 employees.

Kurt Luchs is the Market Manager for NRG Media in Wausau-Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He's also been chosen as one of Radio Ink's Best Managers for 2017 and will be featured in the October 9 issue of Radio Ink Magazine. Luchs is responsible for four NRG FMs in his cluster and he leads about 30 NRG employees. During the nomination process, here's what one of those employees said about him, and it's what every manager hopes for. 

In our latest 2018 Radio Wayne finalist podcast we speak to Cumulus Houston Sales Manager Tim Gratzer about how he succeeds in the trenches every day. The Radio Ink Radio Wayne Awards will be handed out on September 27 at the RAB/NAB Radio Show in Orlando, and over the next several weeks we're going to highlight the best of the best in radio sales and management. Here's our interview with Cumulus' Tim Gratzer...

At the Radio Show in Orlando next week, Matt Cowper's name will be announced following the Advertiser Breakfast, Thursday morning. Matt is a Radio Ink Radio Wayne finalist in the Stu Olds National Sales Manager category. The Beasley Media VP, based in Philadelphia, oversees Tampa, Vegas, Fort Myers, North Jersey, Boston, Fayetteville, Charlotte, Augusta, Detroit, and Boca.