Program Director of the Year Radio Ink: #2 Major Market 1998

In August, 1998, Radio Ink Magazine published its selection of the best program directors in the United States. The special issue listed the top programmers in groupings determined by market size. Here is the cover (observe the programmer peeking from within the letter “K” in the magazine’s logo) . It is both unusual and rewarding for a programmer of a Spanish language station to be included; no other Hispanic station programmer was selected in 1998.

Click on any of the graphics on this page for a larger PDF view.

"David Gleason has been the PD of Spanish-language KTNQ since 1995. He started his Radio career in 1959 at the age of 13 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1964, the owner of HCRM1 in Quito, Ecuador, decided to make him the PD. Gleason just happened to be that owner, which made programming decisions easy. In 1978, Gleason took a risk while programming a station in San Juan. He changed a beautiful-music station to 100 percent salsa. Since 1995, Gleason has programmed KTNQ, which he converted from an aging personality-and-music station to all-talk. Gleason says about commitment, “A Spanish-language News/talk station requires a special degree of involvement and dedication. The format is new in the U.S., and 100 percent of our hours are locally programmed.” Gleason is dedicated to training many of the talent at KTNQ have no Radio experience. “A PD must coach talent to be both individuals and part of creating stationality,” he says. “Meetings and coaching intended to promote stationality must not give the impression of demanding conformity, so they often are like pep rallies where everyone is there to root for the team, and individual concerns are laid aside.”

The "suitable for framing" certificate.

And the letter of notification

And the HBC press release.