Jimbo Martin goes into Georgia Broadcasters Hall of Fame

Jimbo Martin, owner of PMB Broadcasting in Columbus, was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame Friday night in Athens.

Martin, 64, is a Columbus native who has been active in the local radio business since 1973. He bought his first stations in 1985. In 1998, he sold five stations to Cumulus and stayed on to manage the stations. In 2000, the stations were sold to Clear Channel. Martin left Clear Channel in 2008 and along with his partners acquired the stations previously owned by Chuck McClure.

In his nomination letter for Martin, PMB Assistant General Manager Joseph C. Brannan pointed out a couple of examples of his leadership and business practices.

“In 2008, a tornado took down a competitor’s tower (Greg Davis), he provided his backup facility at no charge until the competitor could rebuild,” Brannan wrote. “When Arbitron continued to under-deliver diaries in particular demos of our market, he traveled at his own expense to Columbia to review the challenges with Arbitron– not only using examples of data flaws in his stations, but in the data for competitors – he was fighting for accurate and fair ratings data for all participants in the market.”

The 2016 class included Jim Wilcox of WALB TV in Albany; Randy Gravley, CEO of Tri-State Communications, Inc. in Jasper; and WSB-TV Director of Public Affairs, Jocelyn Dorsey of Atlanta.

“The GAB strives to recognize those broadcasters who, at their core, strive to better our industry and our state,” said Bob Houghton, President of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters. “It is an honor to recognize these well-deserving broadcasting legends who live these values everyday.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Jimbo Martin goes into Georgia Broadcasters Hall of Fame."