R.I.P.: Radio Inventor, Station Owner George Marti

George Marti

George Marti, a radio broadcat pioneer and a pillar in the Cleburne, TX community, passed away this weekend at the age of 95.

The Cleburne Times-Review reports Marti was known as one of the county’s leading educational advocates. Through grants from the Marti Foundation, hundreds of students have earned college degrees.

Everyone in broadcasting knows the name Marti. It’s associated with the well-known and ever-present system for remote broadcasting and Studio Transmitter Links. The man behind the name – George Marti – is a legendary Texas broadcaster who continues outstanding service to the industry and his community on a daily basis. And he shows no sign of slowing down.

According to the Texas Association of Broadcasters, George Marti graduated from Central High School in Fort Worth at the age of 16 and then attended technical school for nine months. He received his radiotelephone First Class and Amateur Radio licenses just prior to his 17th birthday (call letters: W5GLJ).

Marti says his grandmother influenced him more than any other person. He spent time at her house each day on his way home from the two-room schoolhouse at Oak Grove. She told him when he was 12 that he needed to make a business plan.

He decided that his plan would involve establishing a radio station in Cleburne.

Marti started working part time at KTAT-AM and KFJZ-FM Fort Worth. By 1938, he was employed by Tarrant Broadcasting Company, which was owned by Elliott Roosevelt and later sold to Sid Richardson.

After nearly four years in the Us Marine Corps, he returned to KFJZ where he worked until 1946. In April 1947, he and Jo put his first station on the air: KCLE-AM Cleburne. Marti designed and built his own 250-watt transmitter and audio console in his mother’s living room. KCLE-FM joined the fold in 1949. In 1953, Marti added KKJO in St. Joseph, Mo., and kept the station until 1968.

When he sold KCLE in 1960, Marti started his second career. Marti began manufacturing Remote Pickup equipment and later added Studio Transmitter Link equipment. Before he designed and built the units and successfully lobbied the FCC to allow their use, radio stations had to use telephone lines that were expensive and not always reliable.

His invention revolutionized the industry. Small stations in remote areas could be operated and stay on the air while being controlled from a larger studio in another city. He owned and operated Marti Electronics until 1994. During that time, he also had either an interest in or financially supported more than 12 radio stations. When Broadcast Electronics purchased Marti Electronics, Marti’s equipment was in more than 80 percent of radio stations worldwide.

In 1991, Marti received Texas broadcasting’s most coveted honor – TAB’s Pioneer Broadcaster of the Year Award. In the same year, the National Association of Broadcasters presented him with their highest engineering honor. In 2001, TAB installed the Association’s first Legend of Texas Broadcasting Award on permanent display at the TAB Building in Austin.

He was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2010, the Texas Association of Broadcast Educators named him as their Broadcaster of the Year.