Jeff Smulyan to Be Honored As ‘Giant of Broadcasting”

Jeff Smulyan

Jeff Smulyan, founder and CEO of Emmis Communications, is slated to be honored later this year as a “Giant of Broadcasting” by the Library of American Broadcasting.

The 11th annual event celebrating distinguished leadership or performance in television and radio, is scheduled for Ooctober 16 in New York’s Gotham Hall.

Radio veteran Smulyan formed and became principal shareholder of Emmis in 1980. Emmis currently owns and operates 20 FM and 2 AM radio stations in the nation’s largest markets; six local, regional and national magazine operations; and radio stations in Slovakia and Bulgaria.  A former director of the National Association of Broadcasters and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Radio Advertising Bureau, Smulyan served as past chair of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, a consortium of CEOs from central Indiana’s largest corporations. In 2000, Smulyan was honored with the National Association of Broadcasters’ National Radio Award.  He has also been named one of the 10 most influential radio executives of the past two decades. In recent years, Smulyan has been leading the radio industry’s groundbreaking efforts to expand FM radio’s reach to mobile phones

The Library has announced Smulyan and other professionals will be recognized in 2013 for their contributions to those media in the last half-century. The distinguished honorees join 161 Giants of Broadcasting who have been honored by the Library since 2003.

Honorees also include: 

• Media titan Barry Diller 
• TV host Alex Trebek
• Anne Sweeney of the Disney Media Networks
• 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer
• Emmy-winning talk show legend Dick Cavett
• Media mogul Robert L. Johnson
• TV Producer/Writer David E. Kelley
• Former FCC Chariman Richard E. Wiley
• Talent Agent Richard Leibner
• Talent Agent Carole Cooper (Leibner’s spouse)