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Beasley Broadcast Group
Radio Active
Once, George Beasley had to worry that cash-strapped advertisers might try to pay him in seafood. Today, his radio empire faces new challenges: In a multimedia world, there's much more competition for consumer's ears.
 Competing For Ears George Beasley’s Naples-based public company owns 44 radio stations and ranks as the 17th-largest radio group in the nation. Facing a proliferation of new technologies, Beasley has seen revenue growth slow over the past several years. In the first quarter, revenue fell 4.6% to $29.4 million and operating income dropped 5.5% to $4.8 million. [Photo: Jason P. Smith] |
But as Beasley’s young family grew quickly, the 29-year-old educator worried about how he’d be able to put five children through college on his $12,000 salary. To supplement his income, Beasley coached sports and sold encyclopedias door to door.
In 1961, he decided a career change was in order. Growing up, Beasley had spent time hanging around radio stations owned by
a cousin and his uncle, Robert Epperson. With Epperson’s help and a $12,000 letter of credit from other family members,
Beasley successfully applied for a permit from the Federal Communications Commission to build a 500-watt, daytime-only AM station in the 2,300-population town of Benson, N.C. In November 1961, his new station, WPYB-AM 1580, went on the air.
Beasley didn’t give up his day job at first. He would spend the first half of each day as a principal at a nearby high school. After the bell rang, he’d head to his radio station and conduct sales meetings. The double duty paid off. Within six months, the tiny station with just five employees was turning a profit.
Five years later, he sold the Benson station for $125,000 and used the proceeds to buy WFMC-AM 730, a 1,000-watt AM station in Goldsboro, N.C., for $115,000. The purchase established the formula that Beasley used over the next four decades to build his radio empire: Find a reasonably priced, underperforming station in a larger market, then tweak the programming and make necessary operational adjustments to get the station in the black.
By 1969, Beasley had become a full-time broadcaster. He acquired stations in Fayetteville, N.C., and Augusta, Ga., and began looking to even larger markets. The business became a family affair. On family vacations, Beasley would pile his wife and kids into the station wagon and head out for new cities to scout potential acquisition targets. When he came to cities where he owned a station, he and the family would “drive the signal” to check out the reach of the radio station and would stop by other stations — including those he didn’t own — to see how business was. Beasley recalls stopping in one South Carolina station in the 1970s and seeing more than 400 pounds of fresh-caught fish on the floor — payment from an advertiser who didn’t have any cash.
