Jerry Lee

Jerry Lee (born April 20, 1936, in Sharon, Pennsylvania) is a crime prevention philanthropist, proponent of evidence-based policy-making, and the former owner of the Philadelphia radio station WBEB-FM 101.1. Currently he is working on promoting the effectiveness of radio commercials, owns SpotQ Services, Inc., is the President of the Jerry Lee Foundation, and is involved in continuing to encourage the adoption of evidence-based criminology.

Additionally, he was the original donor of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania (later the Jerry Lee Professor of Criminology ), the Jerry Lee Centre of Experimental Criminology at the University of Cambridge, and helped found many organizations/initiatives such as the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy.

Early career

In 1960, Jerry Lee graduated from Youngstown State University, Ohio with a bachelor's degree in economics. After a brief stint with a management consulting firm, he became the general manager of WAQE FM in Baltimore. This was his first job in Radio before moving to Philadelphia in 1963 where he joined a new radio station being launched.

Radio Station - WBEB-FM Jerry Lee was hired by David Kurtz, the owner of WDVR 101 FM radio station, three weeks before the station went on the air in 1963. David Kurtz was trained as an Engineer and gave Jerry Lee the opportunity to work for the fledgling station. Jerry originally offered to work for very low pay but with a very high sales commission and set a goal for himself that the station would be the Number 1 rated FM radio station in Philadelphia in 12 months. He offered to quit if he did not achieve this goal. Originally, Jerry Lee had the title of Sales Manager but soon was running the station.

Originally the station was licensed to broadcast at 5,000 watts of power while the competition broadcast at 20,000 watts. Lower wattage makes it harder to find the station on the dial, which often means a station will have lower ratings and sales. By 1966 despite its low power, WDVR 101 FM had the largest audience of any FM Radio station in the country according to the Arbitron ratings. In order to create such a large audience, Jerry Lee employed a novel strategy for the time. While other stations played familiar songs 70% of the time, he insisted that WDVR play 100% familiar songs.

The station was originally assigned a low wattage because they would have interfered with the signals from two other radio stations. Jerry Lee saw this as one of the primary operational restrictions holding the station back. In 1968 Jerry Lee negotiated a mutual interference agreement with WCBS FM in New York City and in 1970 an agreement was reached with WGAL FM in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that allowed the station to achieve full power.

In February 1967, WDVR was able to move from the Germantown Neighborhood of Philadelphia to the more centrally located Bala Cynwyd. After this move Jerry Lee called a staff meeting, “I will do anything to double our sales in 1968, no matter how far out it is”. The station increased revenue from $339,000 in 1967 to $1,006,000 in 1968.

Some of the sales strategies that came out of that initial meeting included installing new technology like the new automatic IBM typewriter to use as a conversation piece and a continental height bar that was accessed by a sliding door adjacent to his office. The continental height bar proved such a successful sales tool that a penthouse was rented a block away from the studios and an authentic Spanish wine cellar was installed, the penthouse also had moving floors. The penthouse proved to be an even more effective sales tool than the bar adjacent to Jerry's office and automatic typewriter but not as effective as the yacht that was purchased for sales meetings in 1972.

AM dominated FM stations in ratings and in advertising. To change the perception of FM, Jerry decided to lease Cadillacs for every one of the sales reps. In late 1967 a deal with one of the top AM “Rep Firms” in the country (Petry Media Corp) was brokered and business with national advertising brands rose dramatically.

In February 1968 the biggest money giveaway in the history of radio, to that point, was launched. The $101,000 giveaway contest (101 prizes worth $1000) that was promoted by the spokesperson for Avis on TV. It was the first time a professionally created TV commercial was ever made for a radio station. “Some time in the next few days, you will get the most important mailing of your life.” The audience for the station went up 35%”.

Out of the box thinking that was both audacious and carefully researched became the hallmark of the station’s continued ratings growth. This led to Lee becoming owner of 49.99% of the station in 1969.

In 1969 the James Bond car featured in Goldfinger and Thunderball that had an ejection seat was purchased and for the next 42 years was central to the James Bond room of Jerry Lee’s house. Taking a picture inside this car was a major attraction for advertisers, political fundraisers and visiting dignitaries.

One of Lee’s promotions in the mid-1980s focused on giving away 50,000 deluxe rosewood cabinet radios with 6-inch speakers to retailers in the region. The radios were manufactured so that they could only receive 101.1 FM. At the time it was relatively common to walk into a salon, barbershop, grocery store or other place of business and hear one of these radios playing 101.1 FM. As of 2024, it was anecdotally remarked that some of the original 50,000 radios are still in operation.

When the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law Lee saw a broader industry move toward consolidation coming. He was noted to say, “I knew that everyone would scramble to bulk up and buy a lot of stations that would require a lot of financing—and the first thing they would cut is their marketing budget, which they did. So, I increased my advertising over a three-year period from $1 million to $3.5 million a year.” This positioning helped WBEB maintain a large ratings lead.

Lee purchased the rest of the station's shares from Dave Kurtz's estate in 2005 and left the organization in 2018 with the sale to Entercom (now called Audacy). The Director of the Cambridge Lee Centre, Dr. Heather Strang, is highly cited for the 12 randomized experiments in restorative justice that she led in Australia and the UK.

Awards and honors

1987 President Ronald Reagan – President's Private Sector Initiative Award (on behalf of The Broadcast Productivity Council) 1997 Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia – Person of the Year 1997 Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia – Hall of Fame 1999 PAB (Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters) – Broadcaster of the Year 2001 PAB (Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters) – Hall of Fame 2003 Academy of Experimental Criminology – Honorary Fellow 2003 Caring Institute, Washington, DC – National Caring Award 2003 Caring Institute, Washington, DC – Hall of Fame for Caring Americans Inductee 2007 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) – National Radio Award 2008 King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden – Knight of the Polar Star in recognition of his role in establishing the Stockholm Prize in Criminology. 2008 Library of American Broadcasting – Giant of Broadcasting 2008 Radio Ink – Radio Executive of the Year 2011 Radio Ink – Lifetime Leadership Award 2017 PAB (Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters) – Gold Medal Award 2010 Medal of Victory Award from the Wellness Community of Philadelphia for supporting their work with cancer patients.

Leadership Roles 1970 PAB (Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters) – Board of Directors 1970 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) – Board of Directors Salvation Army - National Board of Directors BICIAP (Broadcast Industry Council to Improve American Productivity) – Founder Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia – President