There’s no shortage of people ready to write radio’s obituary. Some of them work inside the industry. Doug Abernethy has never been one of them.
The Regional Vice President for Urban One’s Radio One has run clusters from Miami to Houston, overseen more than a dozen markets at once, and walked away from the business only long enough to realize he couldn’t stay away. Through every consolidation wave, every budget cut and every “radio is dead” headline, his position hasn’t moved an inch. Radio works. And the people who doubt it should probably find another line of work.
A Second-Generation Radio Brat
Abernethy didn’t stumble into radio. He was raised in it.
“I’m a second-generation radio brat,” he said. His uncle, Tom Abernethy, was a fixture at WSTV in Steubenville, Ohio, where he hosted mornings for years. He was such a local institution that Steubenville shops have sold nutcrackers and Christmas ornaments made in his likeness. His father worked in the business, too.
The young Abernethy spent his time behind a turntable and a microphone, cutting his own air checks on tape. “I was 12 years old, and so I knew I was destined to be in this business,” he said. “My uncle Tom and my dad — they had these big baritone voices. I grew up in it and just loved it. I would see the two of them, and it was like going to an RAB meeting.”
The 60-Second Pitch That Made a Career
After college, Abernethy decided he’d spent enough winters in Pennsylvania. He headed to Tampa and landed his first sales job in 1986. The facilities were rough. The training was rougher.
His sales manager worked out of a double-wide cubicle, smoking his wife’s Virginia Slims. “He’s like, ‘Kids, there’s no such thing as a sales call. You just got to con them out of their money,'” Abernethy recalled. “That was my sales training.” The manager didn’t last long.
Abernethy took a different path. Because he knew production, he’d tear through the thick Sunday paper, write spec spots for advertisers, record them on Sunday nights and take them out to sell. His white whale was Import Warehouse, a sprawling wicker furniture store that ran a double-truck ad in the St. Petersburg Times every week. The owner wasn’t interested. “I’ve tried radio before, and it doesn’t work,” he told Abernethy.
Six months later, his new sales manager wanted to hand the account to someone else. Abernethy asked for one more shot. He wrote a spot for a going-out-of-business sale, called the owner and promised it would be the last time he ever bothered him.
He walked in with a boombox and asked for 60 seconds. The owner’s face turned redder by the second until he slammed the stop button. His business was thriving, he shouted. Abernethy didn’t flinch. “I said, hold on. It gets better than this. My sales manager told me that I could run this for free all weekend.”
The owner erupted. Abernethy had the perfect answer. “What do you care? Radio doesn’t work.”
Import Warehouse became his number one customer. The owner became a good friend.
Checking Out of the Hotel California
In early 2025, after roughly 36 years without a break, Abernethy resigned from Audacy. He’d led its Miami-Fort Lauderdale cluster and later served as a regional president overseeing more than a dozen markets. It was time to stop and think.
His first instinct was to go small. He formed an LLC, Iron Spur Media — a nod to his roots near Pittsburgh and his love of West Texas, where he owns a ranch. The plan was to buy a handful of small-market stations in the region. Then the Texas floods hit, swamping transmitter sites. “I’m like, I am just buying a capital nightmare if I go through with this,” he said.
That’s when Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins called. Abernethy had already returned to the company once before. “This is my Hotel California,” he joked. “I check out, but I can never leave.”
The pitch was too good to pass up. Abernethy had been Director of Sales for Cox’s Houston stations in the early 2000s, then ran Radio One’s Houston and Dallas operations from 2004 to 2015. With Urban One’s integration of the former Cox Houston stations, every station he’d ever managed in the market now sat under one roof.
He returned in October 2025. When Liggins introduced him at a town hall meeting, the room erupted. “It was like your favorite team just scored a touchdown,” Abernethy said. “I was like, I am right where I need to be.”
This summer, Urban One closed its acquisition of Service Broadcasting’s Dallas stations, bringing K104 and Smooth R&B 105.7 alongside 97.9 The Beat. Today, he says, Radio One’s Texas markets are “in total growth mode.” His footprint is growing, too, with Charlotte and Indianapolis — two markets he’s led before — joining his portfolio.
Managing that many people means learning a lot of names. Abernethy has a trick for it. When he enters a new market, he lines up the staff by birthday without letting anyone speak, then has each person introduce the colleague beside them. It’s a lesson in collaboration and communication, two of his non-negotiables.
No Room for Naysayers
Ask Abernethy about the biggest challenge facing radio, and he doesn’t mention ratings, revenue or streaming. He names the naysayers.
“I wish I had all the things I could sell that are available through radio today in 1986,” he said. “Our industry has transformed better than any other traditional media, and people still say that we’re done.”
He has zero patience for that mindset inside his own building. “If anybody ever came to my office that worked for me and said our best days are behind us, I wish radio was the way it used to be, I’d fire them on the spot,” he said. “This industry to me is still as exciting today as it was day one.”
Radio One’s motto under Abernethy is simple: Think big, ask big. Come with a big idea, then make a big ask. “When you come up with a big idea and a big ask, I haven’t had anybody say no,” he said. “They might say that might be a little too much, so can we scale that down?”
Recently, his team pitched a single client on a six-figure deal built across all of the company’s assets. It was one of the biggest asks of his career, and to Abernethy, that’s the fun part. “How exciting is that?” he said.
To the doubters, his message is blunt. “Go play dominoes or cards, or go fishing,” he said. “But don’t be a hater. Our best days are still ahead of us.” That belief, he says, has to run through the whole staff — the front desk, the street team and the on-air talent. “Everybody knows we think big and we ask big because it takes everybody in every position to execute those big asks.”
From Airwaves to Audio Company
Abernethy expects more consolidation over the next five years, and he doesn’t see it as a death knell. “You can’t save your way to success, but you can consolidate your way to greater success,” he said. “You’re going to have less players, but the overall thing is going to be growth for those who remain and are still passionate about this business.”
Part of that growth means reviving what the industry lost. During his first run in Houston, Radio One built a car show and concert that drew 15,000 to 20,000 people. It returns next month. Ticket sales are “flying through the roof,” he said, and sponsorship sales have been just as strong. Similar tentpole events are planned across other Radio One markets. “They are as lucrative, if not more lucrative, than they were back then.”
He also believes radio already owns the asset every brand is chasing. “Everybody talks about these influencers,” Abernethy said. “Our on-air talent were influencers before influencers were even created. They’re the best influencers, and they’ve got more channels to do that.”
Between podcasts, social media and live events, he sees an industry that has outgrown its own name. “We’ve gone from just the airwaves to a complete audio company,” he said. “Whether you’re talking to me or Audacy or iHeart or Cumulus, audio is exploding. It’s the number one medium, and we’ve got the best asset to capitalize on that as an industry.”
Concrete Over Carpet
Abernethy used to preach “concrete over carpet” to his sellers — get out of the office and in front of people. Now he preaches it to everyone in the building.
He saw it pay off when he recently promoted an assistant program director to PD. In front of the staff, the new PD summed up his job in three words. “Here’s what I understand. I understand ratings, I understand revenue, and I understand relationships. And those relationships are the clients, the community and everything that we do.” Abernethy’s reaction: “Man, am I the smartest man in the room to promote him.”
For a brand-new account executive walking into an industry they’ve heard strange things about, his advice starts simple. Be inquisitive. Be bold. Learn.
“You are embarking on something that is going to be life changing for you,” he said. “You have the opportunity to meet so many different business owners. You’ll get more knowledge in one year of this than four years of college. If you grasp the ability to pull out challenges that marketers are facing, and you can come back to a team of people who are going to give you big, bold ideas, you’re going to be immensely successful. You’re going to have more fun than you’ve ever had in your entire life.”
And when a client tells him radio is dead? Abernethy doesn’t get defensive. He gets excited. “I’m like, oh yeah, let me tell you,” he said. “This is a great conversation starter.”
Thirty-plus years after a wicker furniture dealer told him radio doesn’t work, he’s still proving people wrong.
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