Indiana Broadcast History Archive

J Chapman grew up in the broadcasting industry — his father, Jerry, led Indianapolis’s WFBM-FM/TV (now WRTV-TV) for three decades, and J got an early start in the media business when assigned by his father to mow the grass at the station’s northside transmitter site.

After graduating from Hanover College in 1983, Chapman worked as on-air talent at stations in Indianapolis; South Bend, Indiana; and Madison, Indiana. He also worked at stations in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Covington, Kentucky. Chapman was part of a team that launched Indianapolis’s Fox TV affiliate, WPDS-TV (now WXIN-TV), in 1984 as a photographer and sports anchor. In the later 1980s, Chapman decided to go into broadcast sales and joined Emmis Communications, where he started as a sales representative for WENS-FM and became sales manager before becoming general sales manager for WTLC-AM/FM. From 2001 to 2005, he was director of sales for Emmis’s Indianapolis Radio Group, where he worked for 17 years.

In June 2013, he became owner and president of Woof Boom Radio with six stations throughout eastern Indiana, serving the Muncie, Anderson, Hartford City, Daleville, Yorktown, Alexandria, Pendleton, New Castle and Marion communities. He soon added more Indiana stations in Lafayette and a five-station cluster in Lima and Delphos, Ohio. Chapman also served as the board chairman of the Indiana Broadcasters Association.

Jay Chapman was inducted into the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2020. 

Indiana Broadcast Pioneers