The Industry According To….Kevin LeGrett, Beasley Media Group

Thank you for checking out ‘The Industry According To’. This series runs each Tuesday, and features radio and record industry executives, managers, programmers, talent, artists, and professionals from all areas of the business world. To be considered as a future guest, email me at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com.

Today, we check in with a radio and media veteran who has been in the boardrooms and worked at the highest levels, but can also relate to the hustle, grit and grind required to work your way up from the bottom to the top, Kevin LeGrett. Kevin was recently named Chief Business Officer for Beasley Media Group, after a long run at iHeartMedia. His tenure there included serving as President of iHeart Sports. He also enjoyed a decade-long tenure as iHeart’s Division President for the West Coast and Los Angeles market.

So, let’s dive in.

From Bear to Bull

Keith: Inside the industry, radio operators tend to be very bullish about the medium. But many advertisers still approach it cautiously. Why is there this confidence gap, and what needs to change so advertisers see radio the way insiders do?

Kevin: The “confidence gap” is largely an attribution and education gap. For too long, our industry sold on “faith” while digital sold on “data.” At Beasley Media Group, we’re bridging that by moving beyond just the spot. We are showing advertisers that radio is the original “influencer marketing” but with massive, verified scale.

The gap closes when you stop selling “reach” and start selling results. We aren’t trying to be the biggest radio, digital, or podcast company in the world. What we are is a highly trained marketing team that operates with surgical precision. While others preach national reach, a partner in Philadelphia or Boston doesn’t care about assets in Los Angeles or Chicago—they care about winning their specific city, specific zip codes, and their specific customers. We turn bears into bulls by delivering a data-driven, local-first strategy that proves we move the needle right where their business lives. That commitment and focus matters to our partners because their success is directly linked to ours.

Revenue Reality

Keith: Across the industry we see and hear about revenue pressures. How much of that is based on economic cycles? How much is a result of advertisers just reallocating their budgets across more choice?

Kevin: It’s a combination of both, but “more choice” is actually our greatest opportunity. Reallocation is only a threat if you aren’t providing a clear, integrated solution. We lean into that choice by being marketing, audio, digital and events experts on the ground in our local markets.

While economic cycles are inevitable, we mitigate that pressure by evolving into an integrated media partner. We partner with these businesses, we don’t see them as clients and therefore they don’t see us as a vendor, our team doesn’t just sell spots; we provide integrated marketing solutions that bundle our OTA, podcasts, events and digital assets including CTV/OTT to solve local problems. By maintaining strict CRM discipline and focusing on sales velocity, we stay ahead of the curve. We win because we are big enough to have the best tools and attribution, but small and nimble enough to care deeply about a partner’s success in a specific community. When you deliver results at the street level, the “macro” revenue pressures become much easier to manage.

Adults 25-54

Keith: The radio industry still largely revolves around A25-54 numbers, which has pushed many radio brands to the middle. But not every format, artist, or personality was built to live in the same box. Do you see a future where radio sales rely less on a broad demo and more on the true audience a brand actually delivers?

Kevin: The future isn’t just coming; it’s here. While A25-54 remains a standard “currency,” the most successful brands are moving toward community and consumption-based selling.

We are leaning into the “true audience”— the passionate, loyal fans who follow our talent across every platform. Think of Preston and Steve on WMMR in Philadelphia or Zolak & Bertrand and Felger & Mazz on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. Their relationships with their audience is that of a ‘best friend’ – someone you trust and react to. That connection is amazing. Frankly, I worked for Mel Karmazin at CBS Radio who preached ‘content is king’ but in 2026, ‘connection is king’. Our personalities are focused on surrounding their audience with multiple touchpoints to enhance their ‘best friend relationship.’

At Beasley Media Group, our partnership focus is on delivering a specific, engaged consumer rather than just a broad demographic slice. By leveraging our first-party data, we can prove that a brand delivers a high-intent audience that traditional demos might miss. Selling the impact of the brand rather than just the age of the listener is how we avoid the “middle” and drive premium value for our partners.

Attribution

Keith: An unarguable key strength for radio is reach, but advertisers are gravitating towards attribution. Where do you think radio stands today in its ability to prove effectiveness to advertisers?

Kevin: Radio is no longer the “black box” it used to be. We’ve moved from selling on “faith” to selling on proof. Today, we can provide closed-loop reporting that tracks everything from website lift to physical foot traffic. At Beasley Media Group, we use attribution not just to prove that an ad ran, but to prove it worked. By layering our massive broadcast reach with digital tracking tools, we provide a full-funnel view that rivals any pure-play digital platform. Reach is the engine, but attribution is the dashboard that shows our partners exactly how fast they’re growing. The more of our assets a partner is connected to the higher results they see.

Immediacy

Keith: Radio still operates on a measurement cycle that may be up to a month late. That means that a February ratings book might not land until the end of March. Meanwhile, some platforms can deliver near real-time data. Does the slower loop create more revenue challenges for the broader industry when advertisers are used to seeing results almost immediately?

Kevin: The lag in traditional ratings is a legacy challenge, but it’s one we’ve bypassed by focusing on real-time internal metrics. We don’t wait for a monthly book to tell us if a campaign is successful. We monitor sales velocity and digital engagement in real-time. By the time a ratings book lands, we’ve already optimized the campaign multiple times based on the actual consumer response we’re seeing through our attribution tools. The “slower loop” only creates challenges if you aren’t using modern data to drive your daily decisions.

Downsizing

Keith: No executive enjoys downsizing, but cost-cutting has become a reality. At the same time, some worry radio may be reaching a point where there’s little room left to cut. With too many layers involved in decision making and fewer boots on the ground to create the content and drive audience loyalty through connection, there’s real concern. Do you share that worry? How do you balance financial discipline with making sure stations have the people and creative energy needed to grow in an environment that’s more competitive than ever?

Kevin: I have been involved in many reductions in workforce and expense cuts, and it’s never easy. It’s frankly tougher sitting on the side exiting, which I have experienced. Overall, it’s about efficiency, not just deficiency. Financial discipline shouldn’t come at the expense of the “boots on the ground” who create the connection with the audience. My approach is to strip away the bureaucratic layers that slow down decision-making. By being leaner at the top, we can protect the creative energy at the local level.

Giving the ‘true power’ to the leaders that are closest to the action is just not a phrase to me. It’s a strategy. We want our teams focused on two things: creating indispensable local content and delivering results for partners. When you remove the “corporate noise,” your people actually have more energy to innovate and compete.

Sports & Passionate Audiences

Keith: You spent significant time building sports platforms – and those fans are among the most passionate audiences in media. What lessons from sports media can other formats learn when it comes to engagement and loyalty?

Kevin: Sports media taught me that passion is a multiplier. Sports fans don’t just “listen”—they participate, they debate, and they stay loyal through thick and thin. Other formats can win by treating their audiences like a “fan base” rather than just a “listenership.” This means creating multi-platform touchpoints where the audience can engage with the talent beyond the 30-second spot.

Whether that’s through a podcast, a social thread, or a live event, you must give the audience a way to “wear the jersey” of your show and radio station. That approach ‘screams’ throughout the hallways of Beasley Boston where we have the largest sports station in the country, 98.5 The Sports Hub. The ecosystem they have built to serve their ‘fan base’ is unprecedented. As you can tell by my passion, I truly have enjoyed my time in Boston working with that team!

Being The Littler Guy

Keith: Companies like iHeart or Audacy can leverage enormous scale to gain the lion’s share of revenue. You’re now leading a smaller group with less mass, and fewer layers and resources. How has your approach changed related to generating and growing revenue when you have less scale to draw upon?

Kevin: I have nothing but GREAT respect for both iHeart and Audacy! Each company is great and successful in their own way/lane but I don’t see my new challenge as “less scale”. I see it as more focus. At the massive companies, you often get bogged down by national mandates that don’t translate to the local street. At Beasley Media Group, our “littler” size is our greatest competitive advantage. We are more agile, we make decisions faster, and we are more deeply embedded in our local communities with two-way communication from our leaders in the market vs. just corporate dictating strategy and the tactics to achieve their strategy NOT the market’s.

Our approach hasn’t changed regarding the fundamentals. We still prioritize our partners and audience first then a CRM discipline with data-driven sales—but our execution is faster. We can pivot a strategy in a single afternoon to help a local partner win their key zip codes, whereas a larger ship takes miles to turn. We’re not trying to out-scale the giants. We’re out-maneuvering them.

Kevin’s New Business

Keith: You’ve hypothetically left radio to start your own business and have money in your plan to spend on radio. How would you allocate the budget between spots, sponsorship, events, endorsements, social, show podcasts, etc.

Kevin: What a great question. Man, I’d love to invent a product and use audio to launch it and drive sales. First, I would build my budget around integrated influencers. I’d lead with talent endorsements and show podcasts to build immediate trust and credibility with a loyal fanbase. That’s the “high-touch” foundation.

From there, I would use OTA (Over-The-Air) spots as my frequency engine to maintain top-of-mind awareness. I’d layer in digital and social to catch the audience in their scrolling habits and events to create a physical community connection. I wouldn’t treat them as separate buckets, I’d treat them as one ecosystem. The goal isn’t to be “on the radio”. It’s to be everywhere my target consumer is, using the station’s and podcast talent as the trusted bridge to my new brand.

Looking Ahead

Keith: You’ve built a career through vision and being able to see around corners. Looking ahead a few years, how do you see radio evolving in how it serves audiences with programming and delivers results for advertisers? What advice would you give operators when trying to navigate the future?

Kevin: Radio is evolving from a “broadcaster” into a “multimodal content engine.” For audiences, the delivery will be seamless—the car, the smart speaker, the phone—but the soul will remain local and human. For advertisers, we are becoming an attribution-first medium. We won’t just tell you we have a big audience; we will show you exactly how many people took an action because of us.

My advice: Kill the “silo” mentality. If you are still separating your “digital” team from your “radio” team, you’re already behind. You need a unified, highly trained marketing force that understands data as well as they understand creative. Embrace the “grit and grind” of the local market but use world-class tech to prove your value. I have always had a fondness for ‘grinders’ who out-work, out-think and out-innovate their competition.

That Really Happened

Keith: You can be ambiguous or make up names, cities, call letters, whatever you need to do, but having overseen hundreds of brands and watching countless dollars in transactions, you’ve seen some wild things happen. Give us a story of something you still can’t believe really happened, but did.

Kevin: I’ve seen everything from high-stakes negotiations in backrooms to promotions that went sideways to live broadcasts that went off the rails in the best way possible. But one that sticks out is when we pitched a major client who was 100% convinced radio was ‘dead.’

We didn’t just bring a deck, we brought a live data dashboard showing real-time foot traffic to a competitor’s store triggered by a single flight of ads we’d run as a test as well as a major personality who electrified the meeting room with their passion and story-telling ability. Seeing the look on that partners face when they realized they were missing out on a massive, active local community—that’s the ‘wild’ part of this business. It reminds you that data doesn’t just support the story; sometimes, it is the story.”

My outlook for the future is incredibly optimistic, but it’s a focused optimism. At Beasley Media Group, we aren’t trying to be the biggest radio, digital, or podcast conglomerate in the country. We have a much more intentional mission: to be the most effective, highly trained marketing team in the local markets we serve.

We understand that a partner in Charlotte or Tampa doesn’t care about your footprint in Seattle or Houston. They care about winning their specific city and their specific zip codes. That is where we excel. By combining our dominant local reach, amazing personalities with sophisticated digital assets, attribution and a relentless, data-driven sales discipline, we don’t just offer impressions; we deliver measurable results right where our partners live and work. We are leaning into the ‘grit and grind’ of local business, backed by world-class assets, to prove that when you win the community, you win the market.

We can’t just stand still. If we want to keep growing, we need to make sure that we continue to make ourselves relevant and address forward-looking needs of our audience and our partners. I’m incredibly proud of the work this team is doing, and we are just getting started!

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