Ed Henson is a broadcast licensee. He’s also a veteran media broker who believes the National Association of Media Brokers remains a vital group of dedicated professionals who have the experience and knowledge to best navigate buyers and sellers toward the best possible deal agreement.
It may seem like a handful of brokers remain active in the U.S. broadcast media business. That’s far from true. In fact, the National Association of Media Brokers, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2025, counts 43 brokers among its members. Thirty different brokerage firms comprise the NAMB member roster today.
Many of the association’s members aren’t just brokers — they are station owners, too. Count NAMB President Ed Henson among them. Henson, who is starting his second term as NAMB President, has been at the helm of Henson Media for many years, with ownership of radio stations in a small Kentucky city. Before that, he managed family-owned radio stations WAVE and WLRS in Louisville from 1972 through 1988. There were also radio stations in El Paso and in Southern Indiana.
As such, Henson has experienced a lot as both an owner of radio stations, and as a deal facilitator. At NAMB, he’s been a member since just before the signing by President Clinton of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Through the ebbs and flows of big-deal years and trickles of transactions in other years, Henson has this statistic to share: Of some $253 million in deals seen last year, $221 million of those deals involved a broker. “The vast majority of the deals that are done are done by brokers, and the vast majority of those are members of the NAMB,” Henson points out.
NO ADVOCACY, AND ALL AWARENESS
What is the objective of NAMB? Don’t expect to see any of its representatives file an ex parte brief with the NAB on behalf of the association with respect to any number of the proposed rulemakings the FCC has teed up under Chairman Brendan Carr. Rather, the focus of the NAMB as Henson sees it is to help facilitate and help publicize the media brokerage business. The result, he hopes, is that station buyers and sellers understand the advantages of using a broker.
“I’ve been around this business for 50 years and we own stations ourselves,” Henson says. Other NAMB veterans, including six-year President Eddie Esserman, is also a licensee of radio stations. That knowledge colors what Henson believes is the key reason for employing a broker representative. “It is one set of skills to own a radio station and a whole other set of skills to handle station operations and sales, but it is a whole other skill to buy and sell stations,” Henson says. “People realize that they may know the business well and know how to run their stations well, but they need someone with the knowledge of how to buy and sell a radio station. That accumulated knowledge, with years and years of experience, is what makes the broker so important.”
Asked if there is a particular area of focus that has changed for a media broker since 2000, when radio station valuations were at a peak and deal volume was enormous, Henson replies, “When you go to a state broadcasters association meeting today, everyone talks of how it is so hard to find good salespeople.” Henson recognizes this dilemma, but also asks where the owners and entrepreneurs fueling the broadcast media business in the future are coming from. “Twenty years ago there were many,” he says. “Today, we need to determine how to share the wonderful opportunities in the ownership of broadcast properties.”
That’s not to say there aren’t avenues to learning how to buy and operate broadcast media stations. Henson points to the Broadcast Leadership Training program offered by the NAB Leadership Foundation. The incoming class of this year’s NABLF Broadcast Leadership Program was be the 25th group of cohorts enrolled in the professional education program. Just how successful has the BLT program, created and developed by Diane Sutter, been since it began in 2000? Some 62 graduates of the BLT program have gone on to own both radio and TV stations, Henson says.
For NAMB, working with more state broadcasters associations to develop programs on the local level designed to encourage broadcast media station ownership is of desire. These discussions have been had at the annual NAMB meeting that coincides with the NAB Show each April in Las Vegas, and a late autumn Zoom call that replaced a live event previously held during the Radio Show. The spring 2025 NAMB gathering saw Nebraska Broadcasters Association President/Executive Director Jim Timm and Jordan Walton, who serves as Executive Director of both the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association and New Jersey Broadcasters Association, work closely with Henson and his group on ways to develop state-level initiatives to attract new station owners.
MORE THAN THE MIDDLE MAN
For some, many think a media broker is like a realtor — one that submits a bid for a property and gets a commission for winning the right for their client to buy a new home or office. “Brokers provide a lot more than just helping people buy and sell,” Henson says. “A lot of NAMB members do evaluations of stations on a local level, so banks can determine whether or not to loan money.” Thus, the broker is the source of intelligent opinions on what stations are worth and can provide general consulting on financing — a key need today, Henson says. This is also helpful in helping to develop the next group of radio and TV station owners.
Henson acknowledges that as a broker he’s seen plenty of profit-and-loss sheets. But revenue growth and income statements aren’t the domain of a broker. “You don’t want me fixing the sink in the kitchen,” Henson jokes. “But when it comes to buying and selling a station, we have the knowledge.”
With Tideline Partners’ Greg Guy and Roger Rafson of CMS Station Brokerage serving as NAMB’s Vice President and Secretary, respectively, Henson also believes the group can help send the message to a prospective buyer and seller that there is a big difference between “Main Street Radio” and “Wall Street Radio.” Henson comments, “A lot of deals that happen in small and medium-sized markets happen because the buyers recognize that people in these towns rely on small-town radio for local news coverage. These communities are really desperate for information. Many times, in these communities the local newspaper has suffered. That’s what makes these deals so attractive.”
In these instances, Henson is speaking specifically of radio station acquisition opportunities. The broadcast television acquisition opportunities are different, unless low-power TV stations are of interest. And, they are, with Guy actively involved with many LPTVBA members.
While NAMB members may be more likely to be engineering a radio station deal, one mission permeates every potential transaction involving a broker, Henson says. “I think we’ve learned that if a deal is not a good deal for both parties, it is probably not going to get done. If you’re too extreme, you are not doing a good job representing your client and you’re not understanding what both parties need to do to get a deal done.”
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the RBR+TVBR Summer 2025 magazine, distributed to all Radio + Television Business Report Members. Not a member? Please click on the menu tab above for 2026 subscription information.
