Originally published on April 11, 2008

Pete Benedetti

New Northwest Broadcasters
President/CEO

'Blocking and tackling is still where it's at' for New Northwest Broadcasters CEO and NAB Radio Board member

From the football field to the radio field, Pete Benedetti is at the top of his game. Since 2002 he has served as president/CEO of Seattle-based New Northwest Broadcasters, owner of 37 stations in Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Washington. In addition to his day job, Benedetti serves on the NAB Radio Board, as chairman of its small/medium market radio committee and as district representative for Oregon and Washington.

Beginning your career: I went to college on a football scholarship. I played as a defensive back at the University of Wyoming and then went to graduate school in Boulder, Colo. I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I went to work for a family business in promotional merchandising. The idea was I would eventually take it over. I was dating a girl at the time in Colorado and like a lot of young, immature people, I gave up the chance to take over the business to chase the girl. So I needed a job, and my brother-in-law had started selling radio advertising and said maybe I'd like it. That was 19 years ago and I'm still selling radio ads. I lost the girl but I gained a pretty cool career.

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First radio job: I started selling at KBPI/Denver, one of the great heritage rock stations. I was there about five years and felt like I was ready to move into management. I got called by one of the original guys at Citadel and was offered a sales manager job in Albuquerque after they had just purchased a cluster. Bob Proffitt was running it at the time, and Larry Wilson was in the early stages of building the original Citadel.

I started as a sales manager in Albuquerque and then they added a second station. I moved to Salt Lake City and was director of sales for six months and then became GM for the cluster. Citadel kept expanding and promoted me to regional president, and I was overseeing multiple markets.

Joining New Northwest Broadcasters: Citadel was sold, Larry left, and the environment changed quite a bit. I had been approached by a headhunter and decided this was a good time to look at running a whole company, and I made the tough decision to leave. I've only left two jobs in my whole life—one to be a sales manager in Albuquerque and the next to become CEO of New Northwest.

Mission of the company: To be a regionally based owner and operator of small and midsize markets in the Pacific Northwest.

Long-range plans: It depends on who you ask. Part of our investor group would like some liquidity at some point, and then others think it's a good time to buy stations.

Biggest challenge: Bringing new salespeople into the business. It seems harder to get new, young people to really understand how great a career it can be.

State of radio: I love this business and I feel bad it's getting such brutal treatment in the press and financial community. It's as good as it's ever been. We have an unbelievably powerful mouthpiece, and not even our sellers on the streets understand how much we can deliver. We've got many well-filled-out clusters in any size market and if you look at the cume reach of those stations, it compares favorably with newspaper and television. We don't understand what we've got and we need to figure out how to harness that and get paid for it.

Serving on the NAB board: There's always something, and lately there have been some big ones facing the industry. The staff at the NAB is phenomenal. They make it really easy to be on the board and still have your day job. We couldn't possibly be as effective without the NAB staff.

What individual stations can do to stay involved: A big challenge the NAB has is not so much what position to take on issues or how to be effective, but getting people in the local markets to develop relationships with their senators and congress people—to literally visit their offices and discuss how important some of these things are, so we can keep bringing services to the local communities that everyone wants us to. It's intimidating to pick up a phone and call a senator or a congressperson, but they have local offices that want to hear from the people in their district.

Career highlight: I'm most proud of the relationships I've developed and have been able to maintain over the years.

Career disappointment: I think everything that maybe didn't go the way it was expected has been a tremendously gratifying educational experience. That's just the way I try to look at it. I get to be in the radio business and I have a pretty fun job, so I think disappointments are relative.

Most influential individual: Larry Wilson and Bob Proffitt. Those two people taught me a lot and I love them like big brothers. We recently had a resignation on our board and were looking for a radio person to fill it, and I immediately thought of Bob. It was one of the best things to happen. He's a super guy, very knowledgeable and a great operator.

Something about New Northwest Broadcasters that would surprise readers to learn: How much of a soul and a heartbeat it has. I get that feedback from employees all the time. It's a cool place because everyone is allowed to do our jobs and there are no egos in our company. Anyone can call me on my cell phone any time of day or night.

Advice for broadcasters: Just keep selling. We're in the best business in the world and we need to change the perception. There are advertiser success stories out there. We need to serve our communities. We need to put local, relevant programming on the air and we need to sell it. And blocking and tackling is still where it's at; the people that do it well are the ones that are successful.

Liner Notes
Profile: Pete Benedetti
Title: New Northwest Broadcasters president/CEO
Favorite radio format: "Sports/talk, country and hard alternative."
Favorite TV show: "'24.' I'm addicted."
Favorite song: "'Cowboy and Me' by Tim McGraw."
Favorite movie: "'The Shawshank Redemption'"
Favorite book: "Anything by Robert B. Parker."
Beverage of choice: "A nice glass of red wine and a vodka martini occasionally."
Hobbies: "I like to cook. I love to work out and stay in shape. I like to play golf too, but I'm no good."
E-mail address: pete.benedetti@nnbradio.com

'A big challenge the NAB has is getting people in the local markets to develop relationships with their senators and congress people—to literally visit their offices so we can keep bringing services to the local communities.' — Pete Benedetti