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See our complete history here. The company's present ownership & management team is:
Joel Dearing ~ EVP/Affiliate Relations
Bio: At age 17, while working in a plating plant to earn enough money to buy a 1973 Ford Pinto, Joel Dearing decided to give local radio a try through a Junior Achievement project. As he tells "the rest of the story", the phonograph needle stuck in his arm and he was injected with a lifelong love of radio that endures today. He brings that love of radio broadcasting into his present role as Executive Vice President of Affiliate Relations for Virtual News Center. His most recent position was as Vice President of Programming and Format Development at Sovereign City Communications, LLC in Green Bay, WI. There Joel created the AC Oasis format as well as Five Star Country for national syndication. Prior to that Joel served as Program Director at WYYD, a Mainstream Country station in Lynchburg, Virginia where he took the station to #1 in Lynchburg and placed the station back in the top five for the Roanoke-Lynchburg Arbitron market. He also enhanced station involvement in St. Jude Hospital, American Red Cross, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and other community foundations. During the same time period, he held the Program Director position at WZBL in nearby Roanoke, a Classic Country station, achieving an overall ratings coup versus the competition by creating an effective combination buy in the market with the two stations and, he spearheaded the launch of WZBL in HD2 with a Smooth Jazz Format in July of 2007. Previous to his stint in Virginia, Joel made his home in north east Wisconsin with Mainstream Country stations WPKR/WPCK in the Appleton-Oshkosh, Green Bay, Wisconsin market. In his position as Vice President of Programming, the stations showed consistent ratings increases and produced the highest ratings in the history of the company. He also created outdoor and direct mail campaigns plus wrote and produced the station's television commercials. Station community involvement included a Columbine Prayer Chain, a 911 Memorial Service and Operation Yellow Ribbon in support of U.S. troops serving in the Middle East. Earlier experience in radio comes by way of WLMX in Chattanooga, Tennessee, KSMG in San Antonio, Texas, WNDU in South Bend, Indiana and WGNI/WAAV in Wilmington, North Carolina. In his off time, Joel researches and spends time investing in the Stock Market. He and his wife MaryAnn raise Siberian Huskies and spend as much time as possible camping and boating. Dale Forbis ~ EVP/Content
Bio: Dale has been working in newspaper and radio since the early 1970s. He has won more than 50 state and national awards from the Missouri Broadcasters Association, the Oklahoma Broadcasters Association, UPI, AP and the Radio and Television News Directors Association. Dale has managed small news departments (him), large news departments (17 at KMBZ-KCMO-WDAF Kansas City), programmed radio stations and directed the Wisconsin Radio Network. He owns six computers (five laptops) for no apparent reason and has been a member of the same fantasy baseball league for 26 years, finally winning the title last summer. Dale plays lots of sports -- with no skill, but plenty of enthusiasm -- and reads incessantly: newspapers, books, online gossip, soup can labels and those battered machines in gas station restrooms.
Scott Roberts ~ EVP/Technology
Bio: Scott's work in small- and medium-markets has given him experience in most aspects of station operation. He started in a job that hasn't existed in our industry for several years -- board-op for Kansas City Royals baseball games on a tiny AM in Pratt, KS. At the same time, Scott was in high school and writing software. His first program ran on the Apple II and managed high school debate tournaments. His broadcast career took him to several communities in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. He moved to Mississippi to become an EMS Dispatcher in 1994, and at one time was responsible for dispatching ambulances in 1/3 of the state. He returned to IT while in Jackson, becoming the Divisional Manager for IT for American Medical Response and managing phone, cellular, pager, computer, and networking resources for central Mississippi and northern Louisiana. His top achievement at the time was planning and executing the move of the Jackson dispatch center, which handled 9-1-1 EMS calls for all of Central Mississippi, across Jackson with zero downtime. Later, he joined the staff of Journal Broadcasting's KFDI, Wichita, KS, where he progressed to Assignment Editor and Courts Reporter. During his time at KFDI, Scott was part of the team that earned) numerous Regional and National Edward R. Murrow awards, personally earning National Murrows in all three of the individual categories. At the time he was also the owner of a web hosting firm aimed at small business. Scott started VirtualNewsCenter in 2005, building its technical infrastructure as the affiliate count grew. With his transition from full-time news production to full-time technical management, Scott is laying the groundwork currently for an evolution in news gathering software planned for introduction late in 2011.
Jen Austin ~ EVP/Communications
Bio: Jen started her radio career as an intern at Lincoln, Nebraska’s country leader KZKX. She graduated as a Cornhusker with high distinction and quickly moved to full-time nights at KZKX, but she decided the snow in Nebraska wasn’t exactly her thing, and she left her roots for Austin, Texas without knowing a single person there. Scary, yes. The move of a lifetime that opened up a world of new opportunity, another yes. Jen started working part-time at Austin country powerhouse KASE, and then eventually signed on with Star System – a central hub for voice tracking. She developed a system for efficiently voice tracking ten plus stations a day, and was contacted by Radio and Records magazine for tips on how to do it with ease. That was 1998, on the cusp of a big voice tracking boom. Star System was eventually dissolved, but Jen’s skill with serving multiple clients per day with a high level of attention and dexterity would prove valuable down the road. Jen has kept voice tracking clients through her career, one that moved her to Dallas in 2001 to become the traffic reporter for Kidd Kraddick in the Morning on KHKS. She provided local interaction on the nationally syndicated show, and took on extra on-air duties at the station. From there, she moved across the hall to KDMX in 2006, as the night personality and also manager for Clear Channel’s innovative Pride Radio stream. Two years later, she joined the Mix Morning show as the on-air producer. That morning experience led to a similar role with The Dorsey Gang across town on KSCS, where “Producer Jen” added an extra dimension on the air for the award-winning show, and initiated new ideas behind the scenes. Jen and her spouse enjoy spending time with their three girls Finley, Kallan and Piper. The perfect day for Jen involves a good workout on the treadmill, a good home improvement show on TV, and a little time to cook something elaborate that the kids will eat with no complaints. Oh, and a great MLB or NFL game to cheer wildly over must be involved. Jen is a huge sports fan. |
Joel brings extensive experience in Programming and Operations to his role with Virtual News Center. He is the initial contact for stations seeking to find out more about the company and to design a solution that's the right fit for the market and budgetary needs. Joel is also the company's primary Business Development contact, responsible for fostering relationships with vendors and complementary relationships with others in our vertical industry.
Dale is ultimately responsible for all content produced by our reporters & anchors, whether it is on-air, online or in our social media feeds.
Scott brings nearly 30 years of radio industry and technology industry experience to his role. He wrote Virtual News Center's "News Dashboard" software used for copy and audio management, designed the news gathering infrastructure, and handles the day-to-day management of our servers, phone systems, and the software platforms used by all our staff.
In addition to anchoring for several stations, Jen is the one behind the marketing and press material that comes from Virtual News Center. And when it comes to showcasing the capabilities of the company and its anchors, Jen executes custom demo requests and helps get a station-tailored demo back into the hands of the requesting client as quickly as possible.