NYS Broadcasters Association to Welcome Werthheimer into 2007 Hall of Fame

ALBANY, NY (05/30/2007)(readMedia)-- The New York State Broadcasters Association (NYSBA) today announced that Albert “Bud” Wertheimer, a 30-year broadcast veteran and founder of The Lincoln Group, a multi-market group of radio stations located throughout Eastern and Central U.S., has been named to NYSBA’s 2007 Hall of Fame.

The Syracuse resident joins five additional Hall of Fame-bound nominees from the Albany, Buffalo, New York City and Long Island markets, as well as previous Central/Western New York inductees, E.R. "Curly" Vadeboncoeur (GM of the radio and television enterprise involved in the expansion of Newhouse Broadcasting), George "Hound Dog" Lorenz (the “granddaddy of rock 'n roll” in the 1950s), and Andrew Langston (founder, chairman and CEO of Monroe County Broadcasting Company).

Wertheimer will be inducted during gala banquet ceremonies at NYSBA’s 46th Executive Conference slated for June 25-26 at the picturesque Sagamore Resort Hotel in Bolton Landing.

“Over the past 30 years, this self-driven businessman’s activities have been at the forefront of significant changes in the broadcasting industry,” said NYSBA President Joseph A. Reilly. “Bud truly deserves this recognition and honor for the integral role he has played in building, influencing and leading the broadcast industry. He is an upstate New York broadcast legend as was his father before him.”

Wertheimer entered the broadcasting industry unconventionally as an FM broadcaster at a time when FM radio was an almost unheard of media. His father, Al Wertheimer, along with Al’s partner Larry Gordon, were two of the founding members of the National Association of FM Broadcasters (NAFMB). Al and Larry had been involved in FM radio since the 1950s, when the economic backbone of most FM stations was providing private channel services such as Muzak and Storecasting. When Wertheimer entered the business in 1963, FM radio was in its infancy and was viewed as broadcasting a technically inferior signal to a limited number of receivers.

For the next 15 years, he headed up Functional Broadcasting, Inc. as it evolved from primarily a background music service to Upstate New York’s only main channel FM network. The Empire State FM Network, as it was known, consisted of a group of four stations in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany.

In 1978, Wertheimer took a major leap and, along with legendary Rochester morning man, Jack Palvino, formed The Lincoln Group, Ltd., while also acquiring WVOR-FM in Rochester. After being reformatted to become one of the country’s first full-service FM stations, WVOR featured homegrown personalities and a unique mix of adult contemporary music.

Within four ratings books, WVOR rocketed to the top position in the market in both audience and revenue share. Led by a high personality morning show complete with helicopter-based traffic reporting, a full-time news department and a heavy dose of music research, WVOR’s award-winning programming and results were unprecedented in FM radio.

Over the next 15 years of significant and sustained growth, the Lincoln Group under Wertheimer’s leadership was widely admired for its innovation in areas and methods thought of as commonplace in the industry today. It was first to develop a proprietary computer-based music programming software system. The extensive use of client perceptual research coupled with a strong commitment to the development of new methods of audience and music research were all Lincoln innovations that brought industry accolades. In 1985, the NAB gave recognition to these efforts when it featured WVOR-FM in its book, Radio: In Search of Excellence.

Wertheimer’s company was also innovative in its approach to sales and marketing. The Lincoln Group was among the first radio groups in the country to use qualitative research as a sales tool, and Arbitron recruited the company to help in the creation of its first qualitative product, “Retail Direct.”

Yield Management pricing software company, Maxagrid, chose to incorporate the Lincoln Group’s approach to sales marketing and demand creation strategies to help train the industry in the evolution of Yield Management Pricing strategy. Wertheimer’s company developed the first radio station-issued Visa credit card as an innovative way for building loyalty with radio station listeners and financial institutions.

Other broadcast industry “firsts” for the Lincoln Group included the original series of morning show TV spots produced by industry leader Filmhouse, the highly successful Winners’ Choice Sweepstakes direct mail prize promotion, and the Lincoln Group’s Broadcast Negotiation Training workshops.

During the post-1980 period of rapid expansion of the radio industry, financial institutions quickly and aggressively seized the opportunity to benefit from radio’s rapid growth through the financing of broadcast properties. Wertheimer was well known for his extensive work in persuading the financial sector to recognize and embrace new radio financing strategies. He championed efforts in cash-flow modeling and tax-based structuring as viable approaches to media funding.

“Bud brought an unusual array of talented people together and gave them one charge — be great at radio,” said Arnie Rothschild, president of Normal Communications. “Then he found every way possible to help us succeed. That is the stuff of the world’s greatest management minds.”

For more information on NYSBA’s 46th Annual Executive Conference, call (518) 456-8888, or go to www.nysbroadcasters.org.

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Founded in 1955, the NYS Broadcasters Association (NYSBA) represents the interests of more than 600 television and radio stations in the NYS Senate and Assembly, the US Congress, and various other legislative bodies. NYSBA also offers a variety of services to help the broadcasters of New York State better serve their communities. For more information, call (518) 456-8888 or go to www.nysbroadcasters.org.

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Posted Wednesday May 30, 2007 at 09:24 am by New York State Broadcasters Association