Jerry LeBow, a former station group owner who was also known in the U.S. radio industry for co-founding a manufacturer of widely used Emergency Alert System equipment, has died.
He was 81. His death was reported by Harold Price, president of Sage Alerting Systems, the EAS manufacturer.
Gerald M. LeBow held a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Rhode Island, was a longtime member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and held amateur radio license K2SMC since 1955.
He co-founded Sage Broadcast Corp. in 1985, according to a bio on the Sage Alerting website, and was its executive vice president. The company at one time owned 24 radio stations in the Northeast and Midwest, and its stock was traded on NASDAQ.
In 1991 LeBow co-founded and was VP of Sage Alerting Systems Inc., which developed and installed warning systems for the petrochemical industry and for governments. At Sage Alerting he advocated for the use of RBDS for emergency alerting.
This activity gave rise to his involvement in 1994 with the Federal Communications Commission as it migrated from the Emergency Broadcast System to the Emergency Alert System.
“He took part in field tests with the FCC, and was a member of the team that developed the original Sage ENDEC in 1995.” Radio engineers may remember his appearances at conventions promoting the Sage technology while wearing a white lab coat in the persona of “Doctor ENDEC.”
In 2009 he authored a commentary in Radio World encouraging broadcasters not to fear the new Common Alerting Protocol (you can read that here).
He began in broadcasting as chief engineer of college station WRIU in 1965 while he was an electrical engineering student at the University of Rhode Island, according to Sage Alerting.
“He was a tech in the control room in 1967 when a small plane hit the main and backup towers and knocked WCBS 880 off the air, hours before the Newsradio format was to have its debut.”
As a consultant to several radio manufacturers, he worked on and promoted stereo AM and quadraphonic FM systems. He was a member of several national radio committees and was instrumental in bringing RDS (as RBDS) to FM radio in the U.S.
According to Radio World’s archives, LeBow gave a presentation at the 1984 NAB Show on behalf of TMC Inc. called “Minimum Bandwidth High-Quality Digital Audio Transmission System Using DC-PCM.”
LeBow also co-founded Ameridata Technologies, a large IT technology company traded on the New York Stock Exchange; it was sold to General Electric in 1996.
LeBow also was a co-founder of AQUUS Energy and Mercury Solar Systems, a renewable energy integrator.
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
Harold Price of Sage Alerting told Radio World that LeBow had a reputation for introducing people and companies to each other for the mutual benefit of all involved. “Jerry taught me a lot about the non-technical side of running a business and how to get things done. I’ll continue to try to pass that forward.”
