Kent Burkhart
Kent Burkhart has enjoyed a radio career in station ownership, group management, as a satellite and network pioneer and national and international radio advisor and consultant. He has received many broadcast honors. The November 6th (2006) issue of Radio Ink magazine was dedicated to broadcastings first “10 YEARS, 100 PIONEERS”, and he was one of those selected. Also, in 1996 Radio Ink named him as one of the “75 who made a difference…in the first 75 years…of the industries' evolution”. In 1990 he appeared on the “Living Legends” panel at the annual fall National Association of Broadcasters Convention. Radio and Records magazine printed a full page Radio Legends article about him (4-27-01). In 2002 he was inducted into the inaugural Texas Radio Hall of Fame. Other awards include the Fifth Estate Award from Broadcasting Magazine, and the Gavin radio Executive of the Year award. He has held ownership positions in radio stations in Austin, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Columbia, and Greenville. He was also the operating General Partner in a limited partnership funded by General Electric Capital Corporation. Currently he, along with his co-partners, own KYYK and KNET in Palestine, Texas.
His group management was with Pacific and Southern Broadcasting where he served as President of Radio for stations in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Denver, Los Angeles, Portland and Bergen County, New Jersey. His ten person consulting company, which he sold in 1995, provided programming, administration, marketing and sales services for virtually every large and small radio group for twenty-three years. The company frequently consulted top twenty markets in the United States as well as station clients in Australia, England, France, Canada and Mexico. His company also assisted in the development a new network for NBC called “the Source”.
He was one of the four founders of Satellite Music Network, the first company to offer turn key twenty four hour satellite programming to over one thousand radio stations. He was the first broadcaster to create and direct audio sports programming on the Internet for Sportsline.com. (now CBS Sportsline.com).
Before entering ownership and management of radio stations he was an afternoon air personality at KOWH in Omaha which is known as the original Top 40 station. Todd Storz, who owned the Omaha and other stations, promoted him to program director of WQAM in Miami. He also worked for the Gordon McLendon stations in New Orleans and Houston as an air personality. Mr. Storz and McLendon were the two group owners who changed radio-programming history/listenership by overcoming televisions dominance with a steady programming blend of music and news on radio. He has held board seats on two NASDAQ companies and many private companies as well. He currently is on the Board of Advisors of Emerald City Radio Partners, a radio station group. He has authored countless articles on radio station management and programming for major trade
publications such as Billboard, Radio Ink, Radio and Records, Radio Business Report and Talkers Magazine. He currently writes a Friday column for RadioDailyNews.com. He has lectured radio classes or groups in colleges and universities including the University of Southern California (UCLA) in Los Angeles, and the University of Georgia, the Peabody Award University.
Kent and Pat live in Key Biscayne, Florida.
KB with his pipe and his cowboy boots. Thanks to Bonnie Kellog for sharing this picture with The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame
Kent Burkhart with the father of Top 40 radio, Todd Storz, and legendary programmer Bill Stewart-year unk
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