Meet The Leaders is a special 8-week series created in partnership with Point to Point Marketing. Today’s feature is on the President of Cox Media Group Radio, Rob Babin. Follow along with the series and revisit former conversations by checking out the entire category.
Rob Babin serves as President of Radio at Cox Media Group (CMG), overseeing the company’s radio operations, strategic direction and financial performance. With nearly three decades of experience in broadcasting, Babin has spent the majority of his career with CMG, advancing through leadership positions across several major markets. His extensive experience in sales, market management and regional leadership has helped shape his approach to building successful radio brands and developing high-performing teams.
Babin rose to senior vice president and head of radio in January 2021. He succeeded longtime radio executive Bill Hendrich, before becoming president of CMG Radio. Under Babin’s leadership, CMG Radio has emphasized audience growth, revenue development, innovative programming, community engagement and operational excellence. Beyond his work at CMG, he has contributed to the broader broadcasting industry through leadership and board service with organizations including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), where he was just elected as the new chairman.
In this edition of “Meet The Leaders,” we dive into his new role with the RAB as chairman, balancing oversight with multiple markets, AI, attribution in radio, and why building and promoting from within is so important to the future of Cox Media Group.
Babin spoke with Barrett Media from his offices in Atlanta, GA.
Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
John Mamola: Congratulations on being elected the new chairman of the RAB executive committee. You’re succeeding Townsquare Media COO Erik Hellum in that role, but you served as vice chair underneath him. With this new role, what do you hope your leadership of this committee will be as chairman?
Rob Babin: First of all, Erik is a good friend. It was great to serve under him. He’s such a great leader. Working with CEO Mike Hulvey as well.
Overall, I’m extremely honored to serve as the chair of this committee because of the leaders that are on it. This board of directors is a phenomenal group of leaders. The best of the best. Truly, there’s a unified passion and belief and optimism about radio.
The first piece is the honor, and the opportunity to work on the board with the board directors, but also with RAB staff. It’s an amazing staff as well. The work they’re doing is endless in advocating for radio and supporting broadcasters. Really helping advertisers to better understand the power of radio.
One of the central focus areas as an industry is when we really focus on combining radio’s trust, and local connection with better proof of performance. Plus, a simpler buying experience for the advertising community. That’s when I think we’ll see revenue grow in this industry. I really believe there’s growth ahead of us.
When you think about the extreme complexity out there, I remember in the early 90s selling radio and here comes this dot com. Then, we had search and did other aspects. It’s always been evolving challenges and concerns. But I think today we’re presenting with a different opportunity. In this one-to-one fragmented media world filled with algorithms, this mass media and shared experience has the best reach of any of the local media you can buy in a market for an advertiser.
We’ve got to prove it out. We’ve got to work better as an industry to prove the outcomes. Make it simpler for not only local, but also the national advertisers to buy radio and see the results.
John Mamola: Earlier this year, you personally advocated that the industry should treat digital as a primary growth engine. You said 2026 would be defined by the ability to integrate radio and digital campaigns that offer measurable results. We’re now six months in. How would you say the industry has adapted to what you were pushing for six months ago?
Rob Babin: I can’t speak on behalf of the whole industry, but what I’ll share what our perspective is.
What we know is Google search is continuing to decline because of AI, Google pages and all the different evolutions around how customers find products and services. The reach that we have in radio combined with smart digital assets driving a singular campaign is proven to work. It’s proven to help customers understand how to build relationships via the core business we’re in. Building that brand in an advertising industry that’s become very much bottom of the funnel.
Radio is a brand builder. The digital assets that we’re selling now are much more aligned to the radio schedules and campaigns that we’re airing right now. 15 years ago, a lot of radio companies built their business off of search, reselling, third party and so on. While we still have third party digital assets, it’s more about selling parallel to radio schedules.
John Mamola: The issue of attribution to radio continues to still be an issue. Despite all the gains made to show clients their campaigns work with radio because of X, Y and Z. What do you think the remaining hurdles are that the industry could overcome in the next year?
Rob Babin: There are so many partners out there. We see them at the NAB, the RAB board meetings and so on. There are so many different tech partners out there working hard on behalf of the radio industry to provide us with technology and all that fun stuff.
We need to be working closely with those companies and working closely as an industry, understanding more of what advertisers need to justify more radio spend. What we’re hearing at more of the national level is we need radio to be in our DSP. We need radio to be available and planned multiple markets in 24 hours, not four weeks. As an industry in leadership, we have to continue to consider and think about how we modernize how our inventory is available to those national clients.
If you think about billboards years ago, they weren’t programmatic. Television has advanced. Digital has advanced. Radio must advance how we’re available to planners so they can effectively plan radio and measure the outcomes. From an outcome perspective, it’s about continuing to work with partners to understand how with all the tech out there, there must be some viable solutions for us to understand how radio impacts outcomes in marketing campaigns.
There is one such vendor we’re working with on over 200 stations around the country. That’s Validate with Coleman Research. We’re utilizing that in a few markets now. We started last year, and that enables us to see directional outcomes, if you will, from over-the-air radio campaigns.
John Mamola: You’ve been with Cox now for 25 years. You’ve seen this industry evolve in so many different ways. What’s one element of the industry today that you never would have conceptualized maybe in your earlier days entering the business?
Rob Babin: Technology is never going to stop. It’s always moving forward. But in so many ways, we’re doubling down on it. My belief is you’ve got to have the right people.
You can look at all the technology coming our way, all the changes that come with that. But you’ve got to have the right people focused on their people. Focused on serving our community, serving our audience, and serving our customers. That remains. Technology enables us to do it better, but the most important lesson to me is it always starts with people. We can’t be successful, we can’t be resilient, and can’t evolve and transform if not for strong talent on our teams.
John Mamola: Cox Media Group has had a number of promotions within the company in several markets. From your position leading this company, how vital is it to continue raising the next generation of leaders from within the walls?
Rob Babin: I have many passions, but one of my highest passions is seeing people grow. We focus on training, but really the best training is on the job. Continually, in our reporting structure, we ensure that our leaders are constantly engaged in meeting with our people. That includes meeting with leaders and management, and thinking about their development. Putting them in situations where they can grow and learn.
A long time from now when I retire in the industry, I want to know that the industry is better than it was when I started. It’s important to me that the leaders feel the freedom to explore but also are given the playbooks to succeed. It’s talent that makes it happen.
John Mamola: I talk to a lot of talent around the country. We always discuss the next generation that want to get into broadcasting and their advice for them. From the sales, marketing and digital side, how would you sell the role of selling radio to somebody that might be considering entering the industry?
Rob Babin: I talk to students often in college and even in high school. What I would say is that, and I say this to my team all the time. There’s so much opportunity out there. If you are intrigued by marketing, by helping businesses grow, that’s the central tenant.
Are you naturally curious and do you want to help businesses grow? Great. We can do that through marketing consultation. We can look at data and can help customers understand how they can put together a strategy through marketing. Then we apply the right asset. If we start with helping a client solve their challenge, putting together a creative solution to help them win in a marketplace.
Of course, we can apply our over the air radio assets in addition to the other research data and digital services that we have. If you say hub and spoke, you might have four stations in the market. Maybe it is OTT. Maybe it is another digital service and so on.
The fact is that you have the ability to truly help solve a client’s challenge and be their partner now more than ever. In radio, we’ve been around for 106 years, right? That’s what’s amazing about this business. We’ve remained relevant, local and trusted. There have been so many people over the years I’ve seen go work for potentially one digital asset, or one emerging piece of technology.
Unfortunately, maybe they skip around because they’re selling one piece of a marketing solution. We offer it all and teach our people how to be marketers. We have a consultative process. Then we’re able to start with radio, than any of the digital services and research we provide to help customers win. There’s not a place you can go to do that. Radio has the largest reach of any of the local media possible. So, when you start with that foundation, it’s unbeatable.
John Mamola: It’s not an easy job to be president because you have to oversee everybody. I’m sure you have to devote time to each of your individual markets. So how do you balance your time and day to day?
Rob Babin: Things can change at any given moment, so you have to respond. But I focus on prioritizing what’s the biggest impact I can bring to the company and the people that I serve. I still have one-on-ones with my direct reports, which are the market GMs and our corporate team to make sure that I’m there with them individually engaged at least every other week. Then, I have leadership meetings and try to make it impactful where we can share where we are and where we’re going, and gain input from the markets.
I also spend time in the field. Being in the markets. Meeting with people and our customers helps keep a pulse on the business.
John Mamola: We’re in the fourth quarter of the year. What would you say have been the toughest challenges of this past year? Also, what have been the biggest positives so far in 2026?
Rob Babin: A general industry issue, which is what we’re also feeling, is national revenue has been a challenge. As we continue to work as an industry to solve some of the attribution and opportunities there, I think we can help to make it better at some point.
But the strength is local. The strength is that our local teams continue to grow. Both in share and our actual direct core business. We need to double down on local and the thousands of businesses in our community that need our support. In times like this, this is where they’re most confused. This is when their world becomes most complex.
When we show up as a Cox Media Group media consultant, we’re there to share data and research around how they can win in the marketplace. We truly approach it that way. It’s why we’re growing our local direct business.
John Mamola: The biggest complaint I would always get from sellers and my former market manager was I never have enough time to listen. How do you make time in your role as president of the company to keep an ear on that local presence?
Rob Babin: You could probably ask some of my program directors but I’ll actually send a note. Usually it’s positive, or asking about any challenges. Of course, I work with a strategic team, but usually it’s more of I try to catch someone doing something right. So, they also know that I’m listening and I’m a fan of our own brands.
Obviously, it’s hard to listen to every station, but I do have our apps all saved. I try to listen, especially when I know that certain dayparts, shows, or there’s a special event happening. I try to stay in tune and be a consumer of our radio brands.
John Mamola: I saw a recent interview with you talking about how you’ve been involved with hurricane coverage with certain markets in the company. You discussed how you enjoyed being present and participating with your teams in instances like that. Can you explain why that’s important to you with your time spent in markets such as South Florida and Atlanta?
Rob Babin: I was the general manager running our Miami cluster, and Hurricane Ivan that was coming through. At that time, it was a category five barreling down on us in South Florida. We did a really good job of having business continuity planning in advance. We activated our plan and had our employees go to safety at a hotel as a couple million people in South Florida did the same. I felt it was my duty to stay with the team.
Leading by example, I felt it was important to be there for them. I’m sure they were concerned. I’m sure they were wondering how important it is what they were doing. Whatever it needed to be, I wanted to be present with them and help make calls as needed if we lost communications. It was pretty critical and I was proud of our team. All of our stations stayed on the air at the time. Once the hurricane passed, we had FEMA, sheriffs, and community leaders in the studio ready to go right after that storm passed.
Fortunately, we didn’t get the full on category five. But we did feel the impact.
John Mamola: AI is the biggest unknown right now in radio. Are there any concerns on your part that people are going to get to a point where the listener may not be able to tell, but also may not care that what they hear on the radio is AI? As you know, it’s becoming more normalized in our society day-to-day.
Rob Babin: We’re not airing anything AI over the air. We made a commitment early on that we were going to be human centric. That human connection remains our ultimate differentiator.
We made a very early determination on that. If all of a sudden, we start with one song, day part, or whatever it may be as AI, before long, it becomes a full day part, a full week, and so on. Then what’s the difference between broadcast radio and the internet at that point? Can you really trust what you’re hearing? We have to maintain the relevance, the trust, and the confidence of our public.
The airwaves don’t belong to us. They always belong to the people. Our job is to make sure that we’re stewarding those airwaves in the right way. I truly believe that at CMG, but also as broadcasters, we should keep that credible and trusting to the public.
That means that we don’t have content that’s AI driven.
John Mamola: With that said, every executive is exploring ways to use AI in their day to day. What’s the use of AI within the walls that’s not on-air for you and Cox Media Group?
Rob Babin: I’m personally using it just to understand it. We use Copilot as an operating system within our business. It’s made our team more effective in helping to prioritize some of the workflow that they’re working on in the sales process. There are some really good use cases in the very early stages that we’re seeing around, for example, Copilot. It’s built into all the Microsoft desktop and platforms that we work with.
A lot of our vendors are working with AI solutions to help us become more efficient for this fact of making us more compounded or more effective moving forward. That’s where I see AI as an extremely good use. But when it comes to our content, no. That’s not something we’re going to do.
John Mamola: I’m sure you saw the latest Share of Ear research discussing the rise in the on-demand experience. Linear formats have lost the majority that they held for a while. When you look at that kind of data, what elements do you use to pivot from a strategy standpoint when it comes to navigating how to address that growing trend?
Rob Babin: I’ll go back to hub and spoke theory. If you start in the center and say we’ve got to have great talent and great content, it’s a start. If you’ve got that, then you can say let’s go from here. Let’s go broader with our distribution. Whether it’s on-demand, podcast, video, whether events, or whatever it might be. That’s where we’re focused.
We’re more focused on ensuring that our primary business is successful targeting our audiences. Also, morning shows are at their top notch and so on. Then from there, enhancing our engagement on the audience through video, on-demand, podcasts. That’s where we need to move. The audience doesn’t see it as AM or FM. They see it as audio. It’s a brand or a talent.
The focus for us is ensuring that we remain focused on developing our talent, making sure that we have the strongest possible brand, and then distribute it on different means. Whether that’s video, podcast, on-demand or whatever it may be to ensure that we’re engaging and growing our audiences.
John Mamola: When you’re trying to identify who the next leaders are within the company, what are the qualities that you feel those candidates have to have in regards to radio, media and audio in 2026 and beyond?
Rob Babin: You have to be resilient, positive, and understand that the only constant is change. Embrace it and understand that challenges come our way. We’ll continue to problem solve finding ways to improve or evolve.
The best talent is always focused on being a user. If they’re a talent on the air, are they waking up every day wondering how to improve or entertain their audience? If it’s a salesperson, are they waking up every morning thinking about how am I going to improve or grow my customer’s business. That is something that can’t be hidden. You can see it. Everyone that works with that person can see that they’re waking up with a passion.
As a leader, are you focused on growing your people? Are you investing in your own growth, development as well? Is this your profession and do you want to make an impact?
You can say hard work and all those things but at the end of the day, it’s the individual that’s beyond themself. They’re thinking about either their customers, audience, community, peers, leaders, direct reports, and the organization. Are they focused on growing and developing the end result.
John Mamola: Looking ahead to 2027, what is the single biggest mission statement for the company moving into next year?
Rob Babin: For Cox Media Group, we’re continuing to focus on combining our innovation. Being forward looking while evolving our business. Keeping the core of our trusted local brands is differential and needed in this one-to-one fragmented media world.
This mass media that we are in is important. We have to continue to find ways to grow our audience and connect to different platforms. We must stay focused on the communities we serve, local audiences, and being relevant to those markets. We’ve been around for 105 years. We expect to keep moving forward.
From an advertiser perspective, when complexity grows, it’s an opportunity to meet with businesses, and provide services whether it be workshops or seminars. We can help businesses understand marketing and how it impacts their business. If we stay focused there, we’ll continue to grow our business until we can’t.
To learn more about Point-To-Point Marketing’s Podcast and Broadcast Audience Development Marketing strategies, contact Tim Bronsil at tim@ptpmarketing.com or 513-702-5072.
