Meet One of Radio’s Best Managers

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Mark Masepohl is the President and General Manager for Univision in Dallas. With over 30 Years in the radio industry, Mark continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible. He serves on the Nielsen Audio Advisory Board and the Texas Association of Broadcasters, as well as serving as a leader for Univision’s radio operations on a national level.

Mark has led the DFW Local Radio cluster to a third consecutive year of growth in a down market. He is also one of Radio Ink’s 2018 Radio Wayne finalists. The awards will be given away at The Radio Show next month in Orlando. Here’s our interview with one of radio’s best.

Radio Ink: Why did you choose radio as a career?
Mark: Radio provides the opportunity to make a difference. Whether it’s helping Latino entrepreneurs and small business owners get closer to making their dreams a reality, partnering with local organizations to help families successfully navigate the U.S. education system, or bringing live experiences to local communities to celebrate our bilingual, bicultural world, radio is the heart of the local community we serve — radio provides the opportunity to make a difference. Finding ways to shape the future is extremely exciting.

Radio Ink: What is the key to managing multiple stations today?
Mark: The most important factor is hiring the right people to build your team — these are the folks that complement your strengths and weakness and align with your values. I have a very clear understanding of my values: integrity, innovation, and intelligence.

Radio Ink: How do you manage so many people successfully?
Mark: Let’s replace the word “manage” with the words “lead” and “motivate.” To be successful with your team, you must have a unified sense of purpose, mission, and goals that are clearly communicated throughout the organization. Helping each person to have realistic stretch goals is essential. Finally, operating off a problem-solution strategy has helped me empower my team to be innovative. When someone has a problem, they must offer a possible solution. The problem switches to a conversation that stimulates that person’s intellect, sense of accountability, and creativity, leading to a solutions-orientated mindset and team culture.

Radio Ink: What motivates you to walk into your radio station every day?
Mark: The people. I truly love the team I work with. It’s hard to believe we actually get paid to serve communities and grow the economy. It’s special to work alongside a team whose commitment to the community is a daily reaffirmation that I’m doing what I love .

 

Radio Ink: What are your top three challenges, and how are you overcoming them?
Mark: One, hiring the right people. We are very patient and thorough in our process. We are blessed with a strong HR department and department heads that work diligently to find people that are the right fit to our Univision family — an environment we are proud of.
Two, not getting lost in tactics. The goal is to dedicate time to strategy. We use our department heads’ meetings for ideas, not reporting. Additionally, I block two-hour private think sessions for myself weekly. Finally, I am blessed with a phenomenal DOS, and we are both morning people — at least three days a week we start with a conversation before others arrive.
Three, staying on top of all the digital offerings out there and trying to see how they complement radio. Only solution here is to read, read, read.

Radio Ink: How do you educate yourself so you are always on top of your game?
Mark: I try something new on a consistent basis. If you are correct 80% of the time, that is pretty good. However, we have to learn from the other 20%. My supervisor encourages taking chances to grow. The challenge is knowing when to cut a loss. This is challenging because when you have high performance, it’s not easy to know when something simply won’t work and it’s time to move on. Our team has learned more from what didn’t work than from what has worked.

Radio Ink: Tell us what’s made you the proudest about the people and stations you’ve led over the last year.
Mark: I am proud of the fact that we have outperformed the market for the last three years, taken chances while innovating, and taken a stand on issues impacting our diverse communities.

Rech out to Mark and congratulate him on being one of the best in our business at [email protected]

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