InFOCUS Podcast Encore: Jeff Smulyan

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On Tuesday (6/13), Emmis Communications founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan shared that after 41 years, it would soon no longer own a radio station in its home market of Indianapolis.


Urban One is buying the company’s radio properties in the Circle City, leaving Smulyan with a passive interest in two New York FMs licensed to Medico Holdings, an AM that’s been for sale for awhile, and a station operated by ESPN Radio under a long-term LMA.

Smulyan tells RBR+TVBR that he’d like to wait until the release of a long-awaited memoir, scheduled for early October 2022, to discuss Emmis’ further evolution as a company focused on Lencore Acoustics, offering sound masking products for commercial applications; Los Angeles-based podcast studio and branded audio content creator Sound That BRANDS; and Digonex, a provider of dynamic pricing solutions for attractions and live entertainment industries.

With a Form 314 filing with the FCC that will reveal the sale price of WYXB “B105.7,” WLHK-FM “97.1 Hank FM,” News/Talk WIBC-FM 93.1; translators W228CX and W298BB (home to Sports Talk “The Fan 93.5 and 107.5”), and Network Indiana still forthcoming, RBR+TVBR ventured into its InFOCUS Podcast archives to revisit Smulyan’s April 29, 2020 conversation with Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson about the Mediaco stations’ performance as the COVID-19 pandemic neared its worst days.

It’s a conversation worth listening to again as a beloved broadcast industry leader transitions away from AM and FM radio station owners.


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Listen to “Episode No. 13: Jeff Smulyan” on Spreaker.