R.I.P. Fred Silverman: Best Radio Programmer Ever

When Fred was appointed CEO of NBC in the spring of 1978 his early mission was to revitalize the radio divisionamp160 Toward that goal he oddly hired a 26 year old to be head of the FM Group after I convinced him I knew stuffamp160amp160What I knew was that there was a huge hole for entertaining 2534yearold women on the FM bandamp160 No really amp160at the timeamp160no station was targeting young women on FMHere39s what Fred didamp160 He committed research dollars vast capital investment in studios and equipment and an insistence on hiring superior talentamp160 amp160I needed 1000000amp160to promote WYNY for one bookamp160 In the meeting he looked at NBC TV39s CFO and said quotCancel that concert special and give the money to Walterquotamp160 Gotta love thatWhen he was hired the NBC FM stations were not considered to be radio within the halls of 30 Rockamp160 The AM stations were quotradioquotamp160 The FMs were quotFMquotamp160amp160That could be confirmed by a look at the signs outside the elevatorsamp160 They read quotWNBC Radioquot and quotWYNY FMquotamp160 That same signage appeared in every cityamp160 The FM just wasn39t radioamp160 From the moment Major Armstrong feuded with General Sarnoff FM was orphaned by the company that invented itamp160amp160Until Fred Silvermanamp160 He believed in the undernourished medium of FM and blessed the hiring of world class GMs and talent including Dan Daniel Dick Summer Don Bleu Art Roberts Joel Sebastian Catherine Smithamp160and Tom ParkerThe format that we put on also had no nameamp160 Some called it FM MORamp160 But it quickly became known as Adult Contemporaryamp160 It was launched at WYNY New York WKQX Chicagoamp160and KYUU San FranciscoIn Washington DC we launched another format lead by Donnie Simpsonamp160 Urbanamp160 Withinamp160oneamp160book Donnie took WKYS from a twoamp160share to a 10 share and to No 1 in the cityamp160 That was Donnie39s geniusamp160 WKYS under Ray Yorke and Bart Walsh delivered the highest profit margin of anything owned by RCAFred Silverman was my mentor and my family39s friendamp160 Real friendamp160 Thanks for my career Fredamp160 you were the best radio programmer who ever livedClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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R.I.P. Fred Silverman: Best Radio Programmer Ever

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Walter Sabo

Jon Miller | Cofounder Marketo, Engagio | The Gumball Machine is Broken - Rethinking B2B Marketing - By Mike Linton

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R.I.P. Fred Silverman: Best Radio Programmer Ever

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Walter Sabo

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