Emmis CEO Looks To Diversify

Jeff Smulyan

The Emmis sale of four St. Louis radio stations for $60 million in February, coupled with a move this month to restructure Smulyan’s severance package, had some in the radio industry wondering if the soon-to-be-71-year-old is ready to cash in his chips.

When asked about the possibility, Smulyan let out a hearty laugh.

“No, that’s not me,” he told Indianapolis Business Journal from his roomy office overlooking Monument Circle. “We are who we are, and I like working. Working is not stress to me. I like problem solving.”

Smulyan said he’s readying to put that love for problem solving to work by diversifying the company in a whole new direction. Years steering a publicly traded company in a high-profile business—radio, television and publishing—have him prepared to face criticism.

“We’re looking at some new areas. I’d like to diversify and try another area where, if we do it, people will say, ‘What do they know about the widget business?’” Smulyan said. “And that will be a fair question, but … what I’ve learned is that, every time we diversified, we were smart enough to know what we didn’t know and we got the talent we needed.”

Just what direction Smulyan is planning to take Emmis he wouldn’t say. But the when? That appears to be soon.

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