Indiana Broadcast History Archive

An owner of a number of radio and television stations, a former owner of the Seattle Mariners, an author, and a businessman, there is no denying that Jeff Smulyan is a true inspiration to Hoosier broadcasting. From his first radio station in the Indianapolis area where he hired David Letterman to host a talk radio show to the founding of the renowned Emmis Communications, Smulyan’s life journey has been full of several profound feats. 

Early Life

Jeff Smulyan was born on April 6^th, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana as the son of Sam and Natalie (née Stolkin) Smulyan. He has two siblings: a brother named Jim, and a sister named Dale. Sam Smulyan was the former owner of Indianapolis’s Howard Johnson's motels, as well as the former president of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck. 

As a young man, Smulyan worked for the Indianapolis Times and the Indianapolis Star. He was always fascinated with writing, and believes that propelled him to create his media empire.

Education

Jeff Smulyan attended the University of Southern California, where he graduated cum laude with degrees in history and telecommunications. He stayed at USC for law school where he worked as a note and comment editor for the USC Law Review and earned his law degree. 

Family Life

Smulyan married his first wife, Janine Ginger, in 1975. The duo appeared on the game show Las Vegas Gambit in 1981 and won enough money to help him get started in business. In 2003, Smulyan married Heather Hill. He has three children: Samantha, Cari, and Bradley, as well as two grandchildren: Liam and Quinn. 

Career

Smulyan had planned to stay in California, but his father convinced him to move back to Indiana to help run a small radio station owned by a relative. Smulyan renamed the station WNTS (standing for news, talk, and sports) and even hired David Letterman away from Channel 13 to host a talk radio show. Eventually they changed the format for the station to religious programming.

Emmis

In 1980, Jeff Smulyan established Emmis Broadcasting Company (later renamed Emmis Communications), where he now serves as the Chairman and CEO. As he was raised in a Jewish family, Smulyan wanted to give his newfound company a name that tied to his roots and chose the name “Emmis” as the Hebrew word for “truth”. Shortly after, Emmis began to purchase more radio stations, including WENS in Shelbyville, Indiana. 

“Everything about the radio business mesmerized me,” says Smulyan in his book Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down. “Unlike television in which you were largely a captive of your network, and beholden to program whatever is sent down the line, radio was a complete blank slate. You picked the format and the talent, devised the marketing, and summoned all of your creativity to build a business.”  

WENS

“There have been a few times in my life when everything goes perfectly, and the launch of WENS was one of those times,” Smulyan said. Not long after Emmis bought the station, WENS was making a splash, showing that the media company’s future could be profitable. 

It wasn’t just the station itself that was growing either. Emmis had grown from one station in Shelbyville to across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York. In fact, at one time, Emmis—and by extension, Smulyan himself—owned 15 television stations, six monthly city and/or regional magazines, and more than 20 radio stations.  

Smulyan worked hard to build and own various well-known brands, including Hot 97 based out of New York City, Power 106 in Los Angeles, KSHE in St. Louis, Q101 in Chicago, WVUE-TV in New Orleans, along with Texas Monthly and Los Angeles magazines. 

WFAN

In 1987, Jeff Smulyan transformed the New York-based radio station WNBC into one centered around sports: rebranding itself as WFAN. WFAN was America's first all-sports radio station. You can listen to the historic format change as it happened here. 

Don Imus was one of the most prominent names at WFAN, who had already hosted a morning show through WNBC, so his transition to sports radio was quite natural. It included updates, highlights, replays from events that took place the night before, and even a monologue from a character Imus invented named “Billy Sol Hargus”.  

Smulyan’s ownership of WFAN also paved the way for the beloved Mike and Mad Dog Show. Over time, this radio show grew to be one of the most popular radio shows in New York City, and influenced countless American sports talk shows that came after. 

You can listen to WFAN here. 

Seattle Mariners

Jeff Smulyan and David Letterman stayed in touch after their Indianapolis radio work, which even led them to purchase a baseball team roughly 16 years later. In 1989, Smulyan and Letterman—along with several other buyers—purchased the Seattle Mariners from George Argyros for $75 million. They owned the team for three years, when it was sold in 1992 for $110 million to a handful of local buyers. One of these buyers was Nintendo, the video game company.  

Brand Ownership

Smulyan credits his negotiation skills and ability to build a positive work environment as primary reasons why these successes could come into fruition. “The most important lesson I’ve learned is creating the right culture,” Smulyan said. “If you can have even a little leverage in a negotiation, it’s a nice spot to be in.” 

At one point, Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, the former owners of AudioNet (later rebranded to Broadcast.com), wanted to partner with radio stations. They offered Smulyan a deal to stream his stations through AudioNet, charge them a monthly fee of $8 thousand per station, and insert their commercials in place of the previous station commercials. Smulyan declined, mostly because that was not a good deal for him, and he is skeptical of streaming. But additionally, in the US, broadcasters don’t pay royalties to performers; streaming companies do. In other words, all streaming audio companies must deal with distribution charges, but also, deal with music royalties (which usually adds up to 60% of gross revenues). The US radio stations just pay royalties to songwriters and publishers when their music is played on-air, but their are no performance royalties. This is the major reason why streaming audio has struggled to reach profitability.

The Eleven Commandments of Emmis

Emmis’s notoriety can also be chalked up to a strict code that Jeff Smulyan and his employees follow. “Never jeopardize your integrity [here],” Smulyan said. ”We win the right way, or we don’t win at all.” He is a firm believer that when one’s word is good, nothing else matters. 

Smulyan also wrote down his eleven rules for achievement, or “commandments,” at Emmis. They are as follows: 

Smulyan found his experience with the Seattle Mariners to be a bit of a misstep. On December 4^th, 1991, Smulyan offered to sell the team for $110 million—after just three years of ownership.

This led Smulyan to add an Eleventh Commandment to his list:

11. Admit your mistakes. 

Additional Information

Emmis Communications has transitioned from local radio and television to sound masking solutions and digital advertising. However, it still operates both an AM and FM station out of New York City.  

Emmis Communications has always been based in Indianapolis, which Smulyan says keeps him humble. One of his friends gave him a sage piece of advice, which he actively follows to this day. “If you’re a bad guy in NY or LA, it might take years to figure it out. In Indianapolis, they’re going to learn it very quickly, so I think it makes people think twice about screwing others in a smaller town”.  Adding onto this, he noted "If somebody gives you their word in Indianapolis, they'll live up to it."

Whether it be through Emmis Communications or in his everyday business ventures, Jeff Smulyan perpetually works to make a positive impact on everyone with whom he is involved.  

Jeff Smulyan was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2011. 

In April 2024, Cooper Hudson, Jack Lindner, and Mike Conway had the opportunity to interview Smulyan at his Emmis office, located in Indianapolis. The full oral history can be viewed below.

May 2024

Written and Edited by Cooper Hudson

Information from Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down by Jeff Smulyan, Wikipedia, the IBHA, Emmis.com, Alchetron.com, Archive.SeattleTimes.com, and WFAN's website.