Jeff Smulyan

Smulyan is the son of Natalie and Sam Smulyan. He has one brother and one sister. His father owned the local Howard Johnson's motel franchise and was president of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck. A cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California with a B.A. in History and Telecommunications, Smulyan earned a Juris Doctor degree from USC School of Law, where he served as note and comment editor of the Southern California Law Review

In 1973, Smulyan returned to Indianapolis, where his father purchased WNTS-AM for $400,000 and named Jeff vice president and general manager. WNTS was a talk station, which employed David Letterman, and the format was changed to all-news when NBC launched the all-news NBC News and Information Service in 1975. When NBC abandoned the format after only two years, WNTS switched to religious broadcasting. Two years later, they purchased KCRO in Omaha, which was also religious. In 1980, he founded Emmis Broadcasting Corporation as the principal shareholder and began to purchase radio stations: WENS in Indianapolis, WLOL in Minneapolis, KSHE in St. Louis, KPWR in Los Angeles, WQHT (1986) and WHN (1986) in New York, and WAVA (1986) in Washington D.C. making Emmis the largest privately owned radio broadcasting company in America. In 1987, WHN was switched to WFAN, the first all sports radio station in America. In 1988, he purchased KXXX in San Francisco; WKQX in Chicago; WJIB in Boston; and WYNY and WNBC in New York. He also purchased the Indianapolis Monthly magazine. In 1991, he sold WFAN for $70 million, the highest price ever paid for a radio station at the time.

Emmis grew to build brands like Hot 97 in New York City, Power 106 in Los Angeles, KSHE in St. Louis, Q101 in Chicago, WVUE-TV in New Orleans, and Texas Monthly and Los Angeles magazines. At one time, Emmis owned 15 television stations, six monthly city/regional magazines, and more than 20 radio stations.

In 2022, Smulyan released the book "Never Ride a Roller Coaster Upside Down", which details Smulyan's life and career, to rave reviews from people like Andrew Luck and David Letterman.

As of 2025, Emmis (the Hebrew word for truth) owns 1 FM and 2 AM radio stations in Indianapolis and New York City. In March 2020, Emmis acquired the sound masking business of Lencore Acoustics Corp., which makes high-quality sound masking solutions for offices and other commercial applications. Emmis owns Digonex, which provides dynamic pricing solutions across multiple industries. Emmis has an investment in Anzu, an advertising technology company focused on video games. In January 2025, Emmis launched a groundbreaking new bilingual AC radio station in New York City, La Exitosa on WEPN-FM and WLIB.

Emmis developed and licensed TagStation; NextRadio, a smartphone application that paired FM radio broadcasts with visual and interactive features on smartphones, and created DialReport, a data attribution platform for the radio industry.

In 1981, Smulyan and then-wife Janine appeared as contestants on the game show Las Vegas Gambit. In 2003, he married Heather Hill. Smulyan has three children and two grandchildren.