Last weekend, Beasley held its annual General Managers gathering where it presented special awards to outstanding employees, and also celebrated their upcoming 50th Anniversary in radio broadcasting (December).
Each year, at the gathering, Beasley recognizes noteworthy achievements, operating success and contributions from individual Beasley employees and radio stations over the preceding 12 months.
The 2011 honorees include:
• 103.9 WXKB-FM – Radio Station of the Year / Fort Myers-Naples, FL
• Bruce Simel – General Manager of the Year / Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville, NC
Simel
• Justin Chase– Program Director of the Year / KKLZ-FM, Las Vegas
Chase
• Matt Smith– Sales Manager of the Year / WXTU-FM, Philadelphia
• A.J. Lurie- Interactive Sales Manager of the Year / Fort Myers-Naples, FL
• Lisa Lewis– Business Manager of the Year / Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville, NC
• Don Melnyk– Engineer of the Year / Philadelphia
WXKB-FM was selected based on solid overall ratings and revenue as well as commendable community service. They saluted Market Manager, Brad Beasley, his management team, and the entire staff of B 103.9 WXKB professionals who all played an essential role – whether on-air, in sales, working the business office or promoting the station in the community- for achieving this company honor.
Simel, also a prior winner of the award, joined Beasley in 1985 and has been overseeing its Eastern North Carolina cluster (5 FMs and 1 AM) since 1994. Bruce’s ability to focus on revenue and ratings while uniting his team, managing the many departments within his 6-station cluster, and ensuring that Beasley ENC plays a vital role in the diverse and geographically challenging Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville communities contributed to his being honored this year.
Chase became involved in Radio in 1994, entered the Las Vegas market in 2000 and joined Beasley Broadcast Las Vegas in 2009. Although Justin manages other Las Vegas FMs for Beasley, he is honored this year specifically for the incredible success of 96.3 KKLZ-FM, a station that has remained a market leader throughout the year in its Adults 25-54 target demo and has the prestige of being named a 2011 National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Awards finalist. Justin also serves as PD for Beasley’s Coyote Country 102.7 KCYE-FM.
In radio since 1997, Smith joined Beasley in 2003 and worked in Beasley’s Las Vegas and Wilmington DE radio stations prior to moving to WXTU-FM. This past year Matt has done a tremendous job increasing local sales in an effort to offset sluggish national sales at the station. Additionally, Matt serves as GSM for sister-station Wired 96.5 WRDW-FM and developed several tremendous community service projects that are successfully branding both stations in the community.
This is the first time that Beasley has awarded an “Interactive Sales Manager of the Year.” Lurie began at Beasley’s Southwest Florida cluster in 2007 and was promoted to Interactive Sales Manager in 2009. A.J. has excelled in this relatively new field, hitting budget every month, and possessing a keen understanding of how best to utilize digital assets to grow overall local dollars, and also how to successfully bring in new digital dollars to grow top-line revenue.
This is the third time that Lewis – who joined the company in 1987 – has been recognized for demonstrating excellence in all areas of the stations’ business operations including financial reporting, accounts receivable and payable management, payroll and human resources. She joined Beasley’s Eastern NC cluster in 1994.
Melnyk joined on in 1994, working his way up to Market Director of Engineering for Beasley’s four Philadelphia radio stations, 92.5 XTU WXTU-FM, Wired 96.5 WRDW-FM, 860 AM ESPN Deportes Radio and 800 AM WTMR. A temporary staff reduction this year from three engineers to one made it necessary for Don to also handle Beasley’s WJBR-FM in Wilmington. He was also intricately involved with planning an upgrade and continues to oversee rebuilding and construction of the Philadelphia facilities.
