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 lives in Key Biscayne, Florida.
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