On June 4, 1981, what would become the first radio station in the Emmis Communications stable of media properties officially came to fruition, as WSVL-FM was reborn as WENS. On June 13, 2022, the Adult Contemporary radio station Emmis had begun operations as was no more, and had been reincarnated at WLHK “97.1 HANK FM.”
That station, along with two other full-signal FM stations and a pair of FM translators known as Sports Talk “The Fan,” had just been sold to Urban One for an undisclosed price. The transaction marked the sale of Emmis’ last group of broadcast media properties.
What happened in between? Emmis founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan decided to put pen to paper, and put it all — with some slight editing — into a book that officially goes on sale December 6. What can readers learn about business, entrepreneurship and what it is like to one day be called a genius and one week later being vilified by an entire city?
It’s all in “Never Ride A Rollercoaster Upside Down.”
