Interviews

Last week, Alpha Media named Ernie Martinez National Director of Digital Content. Martinez has come a long way from his first gig in radio when he was 19 and a producer for Radio Disney. As the head of Alpha's Digital Division, Martinez is now responsible for the digital strategy for hundreds of Alpha's radio stations, and that includes finding ways to bring in digital revenue.

The radio industry's top leaders do not just fall into their positions of leadership. They work harder, they work smarter, and they find ways to put themselves into positions to advance their careers. We turned to four of radio's top leaders and asked them exactly how they do it. Why are they the ones leading people? What did they do to educate themselves? Here's what they had to say.

Does the radio industry take creative seriously enough to help clients succeed? Why do many advertising agencies lack the desire to spend time on radio creative, caring mostly about a television commercial that takes so much more time to produce and costs so much more than radio? Why do radio stations allow awful-sounding advertisers to record their own commercials? We turned to a very successful creative services company to try to find the answers.

Bruce Demps started his radio career in sales with WIVY Y103 in Jacksonville back in 1983, when it was one of four stations in the market owned by Infinity Broadcasting. He went on to work for Clear Channel and Radio One, among other companies. He told us about his long and winding road through the radio industry and beyond, and we wanted to share his story with you because we know so many of you can relate.

That's just one of the questions we asked Nielsen Audio Managing Director Brad Kelly in his May 22 Radio Ink cover story interview. A lot of industry revenue, and a lot of industry jobs, ride on the ratings. In the top 50 markets those ratings are determined by the Portable People Meter. What is Brad Kelly doing at Nielsen to make your radio life better?

(By Gary Krantz) Lee Harris is an air talent on one of the country’s biggest stations, but his experience across other segments of the radio business have inspired a company and products that may just reshape the industry’s future. We got a look at his thought process.

On Thursday, September 22 at The Radio Show in Nashville, Radio Ink magazine will be introducing the industry to radio’s most successful Sales Managers, General Managers, Digital Sellers, and Account Executives. Thanks to the Radio Advertising Bureau, we are able to recognize these industry greats every year with awards named in honor of Wayne Cornils, who worked for the RAB for many years and was one of radio’s greatest ambassadors. Keith Lawless is also a great ambassador for radio and here are the reasons why...

In our continuing search around the industry for millennials who love working in radio, it came as no surprise when we found one on the digital side of the business. Erin Nutter, 27, is the director of digital strategy for Max Media of Hampton Roads in Virginia Beach. Here's our interview with Erin.

In our ongoing effort to troll the country and find radio stations doing unique, out-of-the-box radio so we can share those ideas with you, we tripped upon what Cayuga Radio Group General Manager Chet Osadchey is doing in Ithaca, New York.