CLASS OF 1972
The life of Ralph W. Beaudin was marked by the undeniable impact he made on both the broadcasting industry and the lives he touched along the way.
A native of Omaha, Mr. Beaudin served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1945-1951 before returning to Omaha embarking on his career in radio. He began in 1954 as an Account Executive with two legendary figures, Don Burden at KOIL and later Todd Storz at KOWH, learning some valuable programming lessons along the way.
Beaudin went on to a huge career with ABC. He managed station KQV Pittsburgh in 1958 flipping the station to a successful Top 40 format, the first in the ABC chain of stations to do so. He was soon moved to Chicago in 1960, leading WLS into two decades of market dominance with Top 40 radio.
ABC Radio then gave him the reins to the network as VP in 1966. Under his direction, ABC met the shift to music radio formats by splitting the radio network into four distinctly separate news services, each styled to dovetail into different format presentations.
Beaudin returned to Omaha in 1987 working out his pre-retirement years as VP and General Manager of John Mitchell’s Omaha stations.
Mr. Beaudin died in 1999.
