Jon Zellner
I never had a plan B. After meeting Wolfman Jack on the NBC Tour in third grade, I knew I wanted to be on the radio and program radio stations. My first time on the air was at my high school radio station, WRRH, in Franklin Lakes, NJ. At Ohio University, I joined all six campus radio stations and when I was a junior, I got my first paid job in radio at WATH-AM and WXTQ-FM in Athens, OH doing afternoons and nights. Those two stations are still owned by the same family and on the air today.
A year after graduation, I gave up my lucrative job as a news writer for the Associated Press and went to work for minimum wage at WQIO, Mt. Vernon, OH doing nights. A few months later, Randy Rahe, the GM at 92X Columbus hired me to do overnights where getting your head shot printed on cards to pass out at remotes was standard operating procedure.
92X was my “baptism by fire” into radio, where I lived through five PDs, three GMs and several ideations of CHR before the station flipped to oldies and I went across the street to work with Dave Robbins at WNCI and Nationwide Communications.
Nationwide transferred me to WKZL Greensboro, then KZZP and Y-95 in Phoenix, where I was fortunate enough to work for Gary Edens. In 1993, I became a PD for the first time at Kiss FM Oklahoma City.
My growing family moved again a year later to California where I got to work with Guy Zapoleon, Steve Wyrostock and a very talented staff at Mix 102.7.
In 1996, we moved to Kansas City where my family of five would spend the next eight years, an extremely happy time both professionally and personally.
The company (Regent, Jacor, ARS, CBS, Infinity and back to CBS) changed over the years, and so the did the team but they were some of the best people I’ve ever worked with, including Herndon Hasty, Tom Land, Mike Payne, Dylan Sprague, Kelly Urich, Mat Mitchell, Mathew Blades, Jeanne Ashley, Jana Sutter, Rocket & Teresa and dozens of others.
Red, White & Boom was our signature event that we started in 1996. Over the years, the show attracted some of the biggest names in music at the time including Bon Jovi, Destiny’s Child, Maroon 5, Def Leppard, Pink, Train, Sheryl Crow, Goo Goo Dolls, Kelly Clarkson, Billy Idol, Daughtry, Enrique Iglesias, Hootie & the Blowfish, Third Eye Blind, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, just to name a few.
In 2004, with CBS getting ready to sell its Kansas City properties, I made the transfer to Boston where I had the opportunity to work with legendary broadcasters Dale Dorman, John Lander and another great team including Mark Hannon, Greg Strassell, Mike Mullaney and many others.
My five years in satellite radio (at XM in Washington DC, then Sirius XM in New York) allowed me to learn things I never could’ve imaged when I got into the business. Aside from working with a variety of broadcasting veterans like Steve Kingston, Lee Abrams, Eric Logan, Mel Karmazin and Howard Stern, it was my introduction into technology, digital, streaming, mergers and acquisitions, live events and the subscription business.
I joined Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) in 2009 and the past eleven years have been nothing short of exhilarating. I’ve had the opportunity to work with markets large and small and simply the best people: Bob Pittman, Rich Bressler, Tom Poleman, John Sykes, Brad Hardin, Marc Chase, Kevin LeGrett, John Hogan and so many others.
Though radio has been a major part of my life for many years, it pales in comparison to my family. Patty is, without a doubt, my better half and the love of my life and my kids Jenni, Xander and Mackenzie will always be our greatest achievement.
