Ira Apple has died.
He was the Traffic Director Guild of America’s liaison with state broadcaster associations but that was just a capstone on a busy career.
Before that, the organization stated, “He spent over half a century in broadcasting and media related fields including traffic software [and] online learning development and was a broadcast programming consultant. He was a frequent contributor to Traffic Digest and helped cover major conferences such as the NAB and RAB annual conventions.”
Starting on the air at a station in Kittanning, Pa., during high school, he rose to a career in talk radio as a program manager for Westinghouse stations KDKA and WBZ and worked in later assignments in New Orleans and WBAL in Baltimore.
“During that same period, he served as an adjunct professor for Emerson College in Boston. He was honored by President Dwight Eisenhower and received the prestigious Freedom Foundation Award in ceremonies at the White House,” TDGA stated.
In the 1980s Apple was a regional sales manager for CBSI and was with that company until it was acquired by Wicks Broadcasting.
Apple was 74. TDGA said he had suffered a series of aneurysms in early July and had lapsed into a coma. He died at a hospice facility in Reistertown, Md.
