User:Jaymeyers/Jay Meyers

Jay Meyers was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Levittown, Pa., graduating from Neshaminy High School. He received a B.S. in Math from Drexel University before embarking on a successful career in the radio broadcasting business.

He began his radio career while still a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Before graduating in 1973, he served as general manager of Drexel’s radio station and as a weekend disc jockey at various suburban Philadelphia radio stations. After graduation, he began a full time career in radio broadcasting as program director of WCHE in West Chester, PA, a small, daytime only radio station near Philadelphia. His success led him to positions with larger New Jersey stations WDVL-FM in Vineland and WBUD and WTTM in Trenton and then WRCP-AM in Philadelphia.

In 1977, he left the Philadelphia area to become program director at WVOR in Rochester, NY, the bottom ranked radio station in the Rochester radio market. In 18 months, Mr. Meyers led the station to a first place ranking in its target demo. His next position was at WNDR and WNTQ in Syracuse, New York, where he authored a format change and a similar turnaround success. In 1980 he returned to New Jersey for a three-year assignment as Operation Manager for Greater Media’s flagship station, the legendary WCTC in New Brunswick. During his time in New Brunswick, WCTC made the New York City Market Arbitron ratings 12 consecutive times and won numerous New Jersey Broadcasters Association and other awards.

In 1983 he left WCTC to return to his Philadelphia roots and take over the radio station he grew up listening to, as program director for WFIL. There he led a rapid resurgence of the once dominant radio station that had fallen in its ratings, bringing top personality Joey Reynolds (now WOR Network) back to the radio business. In 1985 he became Vice President of Operations for The Lincoln Group, overseeing the programming and operations for the in upstate New York based group and also handling the programming duties for WBUF in Buffalo (which became number one in its market for the first time in its history). This also was a return home of sorts as the Lincoln Group line-up included WVOR.

Late in 1986, he moved from programming to general management becoming General Manager for WOJY and WGLD in Greensboro, North Carolina. During his two years at the helm, the stations attained their peak ratings and revenue performances of the 1980s. In 1988, he joined a new company, Atlantic Ventures (later to become American Radio Systems) formed by media mogul Steve Dodge, where he became VP/GM of its first acquisition stations in Rochester, NY. He changed the stations’ call letters (to WRMM/WEZO) and their formats and led a resurgent turn around, toppling the station he built ten years before (WVOR) and creating a new dominant station (WRMM) in the Rochester market.

In late 1990, he was recruited to join Sherman Broadcasting as Vice President. That company had been positioned to execute a substantial acquisition program beginning in 1991. However, the company was caught by the recession that year which substantially reduced the values of some stations purchased in the eighties, when market prices were substantially higher, When the company was forced to seek bankruptcy protection, he was asked to become President/COO of the company with responsibility for resolving its Chapter 11 proceeding. After operating successfully for two years, he sold the company in mid-1994 for three times its 1991 (independently) appraised value.

Upon completing that assignment, he opened Jay Meyers and Associates, a management, financial and programming consulting firm. His client list included Legacy, Command, Jacor, Cox, Greater Media, NewCity and CBS. In addition, he provided consulting and analysis services to various banks and financial institutions, including the radio analysis relied on by Bear Stearns with respect to the Disney/ABC merger. During this period, he also became a broadcast station receiver with respect to defaulted radio company loans and served as the broker for a number of radio deals for his broadcast clients and bank clients.

One of the transactions he brokered was the sale of radio stations to Jacor Communications. That led to other engagements involving Jacor, where he was involved in the turnaround and development of many of Jacor’s radio properties. Eventually, in April of 1998, he was recruited as Senior Vice President of Jacor with oversight responsibility for nearly a third of the company’s operations and direct responsibility for developing strategic sales and programming plans for underdeveloped stations, as well as responsibility for creating company infrastructure and designing and choosing numerous company operating systems.

With the acquisition of Jacor by Clear Channel Communications in May of 1999, he became Senior Vice President of Clear Channel. As Clear Channel grew into the largest radio operation in the world, his responsibilities grew also. During his time with Clear Channel, he had responsibility for over 125 different markets served by nearly 600 Clear Channel radio stations from Maine to Florida, and from New Jersey to California, as well as numerous support service divisions. Regardless of his regional assignment, in each of his years with the company his group of stations was the first or second best performing group in Clear Channel.

In 2006, he left Clear Channel and formed Cavalry Media Services with four other partners and over its two year life span, Cavalry grew into the leading radio management and financial consulting firm, used by many of the senior, mezzanine and equity groups that are prominent in financing the radio broadcasting business. On the management side, his consulting services were used by (and continue to be used by) many U.S. based broadcasters as well as internationally.

In 2008, Cavalry was merged with another entity to form Broadcast Management & Technology, LLC (www.bmtllc.com) and he became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the new company. BMTllc assumed the mantle from Cavalry as the leading radio management and financial consulting firm in the both the U.S. and around the world.

He is a career radio broadcaster with experience in every facet of the business, from corporate management to individual and cluster station management and even years as an award winning radio program director and air personality. With involvement and oversight of nearly 150 markets, and over 700 different radio stations, Jay possesses knowledge and experience nearly unparalleled in the radio broadcasting industry.

He has served on the Board of the Radio Advertising Bureau and is a past chairman of the RAB’s Management Leadership Conference. In addition, he has served on the Arbitron Advisory Council and numerous NAB planning committees. Along with former Apple and Pepsi CEO John Sculley and football great Dan Marino and others, he serves on the Board of 3Cinteractive (www.3cinteractive.com), a leading mobile marketing firm. Gerson Lehrman Group, a service used by analysts and investors, recently acknowledged Jay as one of their most requested advisors in the media, broadcast and advertising fields. He also advises e360Live (www.e360live.com), the market leader in providing state of the art music video channels and guiding traditional media into the digital world.

On an outsourced basis (a BMTllc service), he also serves as Chief Operating Officer of Horton Broadcasting of Florida, and Radioactive, a company which owns radio licenses based in Fort Wright, KY.

He currently resides in Indialantic, Florida with his wife Marsha Lewis Meyers, a high level executive in the sports and entertainment field, who is also President of the MPTO and serves on the local Board of the Make A Wish Foundation, and their five year old daughter Abby Meyers who attends kindergarten. He has two other children, Courtney Meyers Fox, a 2003 graduate of the University of Rochester, who is a high school math and physics teacher for gifted students residing in the Cincinnati area, and a son Justin Meyers, a 2009 graduate from Hofstra University who is very active in Long Island politics as a campaign manager and fund raiser for numerous officials.