 Edward F. Seeger |
 Andrew Guest |
 Jim Fort |
Ed and Jim met more than 15 years ago. Jim was ending an illustrious career with Sonoco Products Company of Hartsville, SC, a global packaging company. Ed and Jim formed a company for the purpose of owning and operating radio stations. Andrew met Ed and Jim initially while working for them in radio stations they owned in Florence, SC. When the opportunity presented itself, Jim and Ed offered Andrew a position to be a partner and to work with them on another company they had formed for the purpose of developing and brokering radio stations.
Each of the three recognized that they shared a strong entrepreneurial desire to create a company that would effectively provide others with a measure of the same successes they had achieved over the years. Although Jim had been involved in many flourishing entrepreneurial enterprises by that time, he had remained at Sonoco with ever-increasing responsibilities until he retired with the title of Senior Vice President of Marketing.
Ed and Andrew each had spent more than 30 years in radio broadcasting, where they had managed or owned properties and worked at the corporate level with several broadcast groups. But they were looking for a way to share their expertise with others. They knew that there were scores - perhaps hundreds - of radio stations throughout the country that could become much more valuable. The challenge was to develop the technology to successfully improve those stations' coverage and reach.
Andrew had already begun working on that technology. Ed and Jim quickly decided that the three of them had found their next big challenge: founding a new engineering and brokerage company that could turn certain "Mom and Pop" stations on the periphery of large markets into much more valuable properties by moving them closer to the metropolitan area.
Such "move ins" had been randomly accomplished for years, but they were rarely attempted because of the complexities and the costs involved. But Ed, Andrew and Jim were convinced that they had found the winning formula to successfully implement station upgrades, and Ed and Andrew started assembling a team of professionals to make the concept a reality. The formation of such a company was the first of its kind in America dedicated to and combining two specific facets of the broadcast industry - development and brokerage. American Media Services was the first company to service the industry with all of the components required to implement the "move-in" process, as well as facilitating the transnational side of buying and selling stations. This included a fulltime staff consisting of engineering, legal, accounting, sales, negotiating talent and office staff, all with years of broadcast experience working to complete developmental and brokerage service.
Since its founding in 1997, AMS has increased the value of 21 stations across the country by $205.1 million, and more than $200 million in proposed rulemakings are currently pending before the FCC. AMS is also the fastest growing radio brokerage company in the U. S. The company completed more than $57.5 million in brokerage transactions in 2005, and it has completed more than $150 million in transactions over the last five years.
