For many years, Granum Communications served radio listeners through its ownership of such stations as Classic Rock WHTQ-FM 96.5 in Orlando, a station acquired by Granum in a $11.5 million purchase of TK Communications brokered by Star Media in 1995.
While Granum was controlled by investment bankers Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), it was Herb McCord who directed its day-to-day activities, as President/CEO. This role led him to receive the 2015 Ward L. Quaal Leadership Award, bestowed on worthy individuals by The Broadcasters Foundation of America.
Now, the media industry is pausing to remember McCord, who died early Tuesday (11/19), Streamline Publishing has confirmed.
McCord’s rise in the radio industry dates to the 1970s. An August 1975 Radio and Records noted with excitement the hiring of Les Garland as PD of “The Big 8,” legendary Windsor, Ontario-based CKLW-AM, serving Detroit. The GM of CKLW? McCord.
He’d stay at CKLW until December 1979, when he was named GM of the Radio Division at Greater Media.
In April 1990, McCord exited the company founded by the Bordes family to go out on his own, and founded Granite Broadcasting Corp. — later, Granum.
The goal? To acquire stations in the Top 50 markets. The New York-based company was backed by an investment fund headed by his lifelong friend, former Goldman Sachs partner Lew Eisenberg.
Granum, and McCord, cashed out right after the Telecommunications Act of 1996’s passage, by selling his 12 stations across five markets — including Orlando — to Infinity Broadcasting for $410 million.
In an e-mail sent Tuesday afternoon, Peter Ferrara, who served as HD Digital Radio Alliance Corporate Affairs President in 2010 and was a founding partner and COO at Granum, said, “It is with great sadness that I tell you Herb passed away early this morning. He had been struggling with serious health issues recently and had been going downhill steadily the past year. His family was with him as he died peacefully under the care of Hospice.”
