About Us
Our Media Brokerage Firm
Media Services Group is a leading national brokerage and appraisal firm specializing in radio/TV stations, their digital assets, and communication towers. Our partners focus on long-term client relationships and utilize the most up-to-date technology and knowledge to meet or exceed our clients’ needs. We maintain a reputation for honesty, discretion, excellence, and professionalism.
We specialize in radio and TV station brokerage , tower brokerage, new media, financing, and workout restructuring consultation. We bring to the table a national footprint and more than twenty-five years of success. We maintain a large inventory of radio stations for sale, as well as television stations and communications towers. Our sole focus is to maximize value for our clients.
We’re uniquely qualified to operate and move individual stations, markets, and entire companies quickly, efficiently, and at top dollar. Media Services Group has contacts throughout the broadcasting industry, private equity and lenders. We pioneered the use of online data rooms, which enable efficient and discreet transaction process reporting to stakeholders.
Most of us have 20+ years of brokerage experience; all of us have been or are broadcasters. When you hire us, senior guys lead the charge.
Asset Management Experience
Our team of professionals brings to the table a unique blend of asset management experience, including Trusts and Receiverships. Most of our professionals serve or have served as receivers in the past and have operating experience in all market sizes.
Brokerage Experience
Most of our partners have spent over 20 years in the brokerage business and our projects are led by senior level professionals so you don’t get the “B” team. Our partners are experienced negotiators and knowledgeable about the industry. We feature seasoned professionals located in 8 offices dispersed throughout the country for your convenience.
Our Media Brokers
Edward (Eddie) Esserman, Managing Director
Eddie Esserman manages Media Services Group’s St. Simons Island, Georgia office. Mr. Esserman began his broadcast career in high school and owned multiple radio stations in Georgia. He served as the General Manager of one of the country’s first large market clusters, KSAN, KBGG, KABL and KNEW, San Francisco. He also served as the General Manager and General Sales Manager for Shamrock Broadcasting’s WFOX in Atlanta. Mr. Esserman received a B.S. degree in Industrial Management from Georgia Tech. He was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2010.
R. Thomas (Tom) McKinley, Director
Tom McKinley manages the company’s New York Metro office. He opened the office in 1996, after 30 years of experience in the broadcast industry. His experience in station and group management is extensive having worked for Evergreen Media and Noble Broadcast Group. National corporate experience includes positions as Executive Vice President, Major Market Radio, and President, Group W Radio sales. Mr. McKinley received his B.S. degree in Business Administration from Temple University.
Bill Whitley manages the Dallas office. He has held sales and management positions at stations in Temple, Dallas and Little Rock prior to entering the media brokerage field in 1978 with Chapman Associates. In that capacity he has handled over $200 million in sales and over 300 appraisal assignments. Mr. Whitley received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Radio-TV from Texas Christian University and served as an adjunct faculty member of the Broadcasting Department of Southern Methodist University.
Megan Reed joined Media Services Group in 2015 to assist with Marketing. She is now also assisting with brokering transactions and an Associate of the Jacksonville, FL office, working out of Charlotte, NC.
Prior to joining Media Services Group, Megan was the Strategic Marketing Specialist for Douglas Elliman, the largest regional and the nation’s fourth largest real estate company. She worked out of the Greenwich, CT office. Megan also worked at two reputable advertising agencies in Connecticut. She was a Senior Account Executive on major brands including Starbucks and McCormick.
Megan graduated with honors and a degree in Strategic Communications from Elon University in North Carolina.
Click here to add Megan on LinkedIn.
G. Gregory (Greg) Merrill, Director
Greg Merrill manages the Salt Lake City office. He has been a media broker for over 30 years having represented sellers and buyers in more than 150 transactions. Specializing in the intermountain/northwest region of the country, he has sold more radio properties in that area than any other broker in the country. Additionally, he has acted as an expert witness in numerous court appearances and has served as court appointed receiver for radio stations in the region. He began his career in radio station management and ownership. Prior to joining Media Services Group, Mr. Merrill was an Associate Broker/Vice President of Chapman Associates for ten years. Mr. Merrill graduated from Utah State University with a B.S. in Business Administration/Economics and obtained a Master’s Degree in Communications (Broadcast) from Utah State University. He is a graduate of REI Engineering School and holds a 1st Class Radio-telephone license.
Tom Birch brings 45+ years of media, media research and financial experience to Media Services Group, including his ownership of Lakes Media LLC since 2005 and 9 years of ownership of Opus Media Group in the 1990s. Lakes Media is a 9-station group serving southern Virginia and northern North Carolina. Opus holdings included market-leading clusters in Jackson, MS and Savannah, GA and stations in Monroe, LA and Fort Walton Beach, FL.
Tom served as Chief Financial Officer of Simmons Market Research Bureau from 2001 to 2003, during which he significantly reduced operating expenses and arranged for a refinancing that enabled the company to avoid bankruptcy and find an acquirer, Experian, that paid a premium price to acquire the company in 2004.
Best known as the founder/Chairman and CEO of Birch/Scarborough Research in the 1980s, Tom built a company that at its peak, employed more than 1,200 people nationwide and maintained sales offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas. The company interviewed over 100,000 persons per month in 260 markets (including persons in all continental U.S. counties) and its client base included major radio broadcast groups such as Clear Channel (now iHeartRadio), CBS and ABC, leading national advertisers such as McDonalds, Anheuser-Busch and Delta Airlines, and major national advertising agencies such as BBDO, McCann-Erickson and Ogilvy & Mather. Birch/Scarborough Research was acquired by VNU (which subsequently acquired Nielsen) in 1989. As a startup and turnaround entrepreneur, Tom has written numerous business and financial plans and has raised millions of dollars in financing through venture capital and lender financing. Tom is a graduate of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
Robert L. (Bob) Heymann Jr., Director
Since joining Media Services Group and opening the Chicago office in 2008, Bob Heymann has bought or sold dozens of radio and TV stations for clients of the firm. Prior to joining Media Services Group, Mr. Heymann spent 24 years in the media brokerage business in Chicago where he successfully brokered various-sized radio and TV stations from coast to coast with a total aggregate value in excess of $500,000,000. A few of his record setting transactions include the sale of WNIB-FM (now WDRV) Chicago for $165,000,000, the sale of WPNT-FM (now WILV) Chicago for $75,000,000, and the sale of KOMA AM&FM Oklahoma City for $54,000,000. Among his other business enterprises, Mr. Heymann was co-founder and chairman of the nation’s first broadband cable system and chairman of the largest telecom information company partnered with Pacific Bell (now AT&T). Before starting his station brokerage business in 1984, Mr. Heymann managed KQAK-FM in San Francisco and previous to that, he held management positions and consulting relationships with some of the largest broadcasters in America including NBC and CBS.
Mr. Heymann holds a B.S. Degree from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mr. Heymann did post graduate work at New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business and later pursued an M.B.A. at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Heymann became one of the youngest persons in U.S. history to be awarded a First Class Radio Telephone Operator License by the FCC after becoming interested in broadcasting at the age of 14.
George Reed manages Media Services Group’s Florida office. He has been actively involved in the broadcasting industry since 1972. He joined Chapman Associates in 1987 as a radio and TV station broker/consultant, and co-founded Media Services Group in 1989. Mr. Reed’s practice includes station brokerage, valuations, investment banking, and workout restructuring consulting. He has served as an expert witness in State and Federal courts concerning station valuations, and as a court appointed Receiver.
He owns and operates six stations and digital assets in Charlottesville, VA (Monticello Media). In addition, he owns a cell tower company (USAntenna, Inc.) with towers in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Mr. Reed received his B.B.A degree from Mercer University and his M.B.A. from Georgia State University’s Executive MBA program. He is a past President of National Association of Media Brokers and serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters. Click for Mr. Reed’s CV. He publishes George Reed’s Radio/TV Station Trading Views.
Media Services Group is very proud to support most State Broadcasting Associations and the following broadcasting industry associations:
National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
National Association of Media Brokers (NAMB)
Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA)