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Michael Osterhout
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Although born in Chicago, Michael D. Osterhout was raised in Tampa, graduating from Plant High School in 1966. After earning a BA at Mercer University (he would later receive an MBA from the University of South Florida), he dropped plans of heading off to law school and decided to join the Air Force instead.
Four years later, he opted again not to go to law school and made the decision to work for an Atlanta pharmaceutical company. Six weeks into the job, the company went belly-up and he found himself out of work. But as luck would have it, he met someone from Atlanta’s WYZE who told him the station had an opening in sales. To make a longer story shorter, he applied for the position and landed the job, but two years later left and returned to Tampa to join WDAE.
Michael is best known as a former GM of Q105 WRBQ and president/COO of former owner Edens Broadcasting. It was he who introduced the Morning Zoo format during the station’s Top 40 heyday. When Q105 was sold to Clear Channel, he decided to move on rather than remain with the company, and joined broadcast consultants New Spectrum/Spectrum Europe as president/CEO, and then Metro Networks as a regional vice-president.
Since 2001, Osterhout had been COO of Morris Communications’ broadcast division (MCC Radio) in Augusta, GA and a board member of the RAB and Country Radio Broadcasters. He lost a bout with esophageal cancer and passed away June 26, 2010 at the age of 61.
Station History
1979 - 1992 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (Management)
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