This Christian Radio Player Just Named A New Leader

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After an extensive national search, the board of directors for one of the nation’s most successful Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) radio broadcasting networks has selected its new President/CEO.


In an announcement made today by Colorado Springs-based Board Chairman Neal Joseph, John Scaggs has been selected to succeed Bob Augsburg at the helm of WAY Media.

Augsburg founded the Christian-focused noncomm organization in 1987 with is wife, Felice. He is retiring from his day-to-day role, and will serve as founder and president emiritus.

The selection of Scaggs is the result of a succession timeline mapped out by the WAY Media board several years ago. This plan included the return of the Augsburgs to Nashville, where they could be closer to family.

“We were blessed with a number of strong candidates to consider, and are thrilled to bring aboard a new leader with such a rich history both in the field of media and technology and with the organization,” Joseph said.

Slingshot Group was hired as the executive search firm.

At the end of the day, WAY Media went with a member of its board of directors since 1998.

Since May, Scaggs has been VP of Encoding.com, where he consulted digital and broadcast organizations in the migration to cloud-based SaaS workflows. He has also been a VP at telecommunications firm Diligent.

From October 2011 through May 2017, Scaggs was the Director of Broadcast Solutions at Harmonic.

Between 1995 and 2006, Scaggs served as the Director of Sales for Wegener.

Scaggs is no stranger to Christian-themed radio broadcasting: From 1992-1995 he served as VP/Engineering for the music division of Salem Radio Networks.

Speaking of his new duties, Scaggs commented, “Since hearing about a cutting-edge experiment in Fort Myers, Fla., in 1987, I have been fascinated with WAY Media. As a young man still in college, I flew down over a weekend to see WAY-FM’s operation firsthand. Serving as a board member since 1998 is the longest unexpected job interview I’ve ever heard of! I have continued to play my part, never expecting to actually move from avocation to vocation for the ministry.”

WAY-FM can presently be heard in 12 states. Its West Palm Beach O&O, Class C1 WAYF-FM 88.1, is a Nielsen Audio subscriber; it consistently enjoys strong ratings and in July 2017 was the fifth-ranked station, among all listeners 6+.