Ed Salamon

Edward R. Salamon is an American entertainment industry executive and radio broadcaster. He is credited as one of the forces that led to country music becoming a major force in the mid-1990s. He was dubbed “country radio’s most influential programmer” while programming WHN, New York, which became the most listened to country radio station of all time in the mid-1970s, an accomplishment that led to his induction into the Country Radio Seminar Hall of Fame in 2006.

Salamon’s success at WHN encouraged the establishment of country radio stations in other urban and non-traditional country markets, which greatly expanded the audience for country radio, and, in turn, increased the exposure of country music. He has been credited with reinventing country radio because his programming techniques, viewed as radical at the time, were emulated by other broadcasters, many of which went on to greater successes in the radio industry. After WHN, Salamon headed a succession of national radio networks for twenty consecutive years.

Salamon began his radio career in 1970 as assistant promotions manager and director of market research for KDKA in Pittsburgh. Upon his promotion to music director, he applied the methodology used for sales research to programming. His techniques led to his being hired, in 1973, for his first job as program director, at country-formatted WEEP, a Pittsburgh daytime-only AM station, which was virtually at the bottom of the local radio ratings. At WEEP, he furthered his use of research for programming and became the first country radio program director to adopt the formatics, most notably short playlists, used in Top 40 Radio. Under Salmon’s guidance, WEEP became second rated only to KDKA in The Pittsburgh Total Survey Area.

Storer Broadcasting’s WHN switched to country music in 1973. When Salamon was hired in 1975, the station had gone through three program directors and was mired in 14th position. The prevailing wisdom was that country radio could not be successful in the urban market of New York. Using the techniques he refined in Pittsburgh, the format “mixed timely artists like George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Dolly Parton with the timeless Hank Williams. Also in the mix were contemporary country rockers, like The Eagles, crossover popsters like John Denver, and odd weepy novelties and off-center artists that New York just had to love, like Kinky Friedman." While at WHN, Salamon partnered with Jim Halsey to bring an Oak Ridge Boys concert to Carnegie Hall. and assembled a staff of personalities who were able to make country relatable to New Yorkers.

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