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Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down
What is it really like to be an entrepreneur? After nearly fifty years of building a successful media company, founder of American all-sports radio Jeff Smulyan shares with candor and humor just how many bitter failures come with each great victory along the way.
For founder and CEO of Emmis Communications Jeff Smulyan, the path to success has been anything but straightforward. When you’ve owned a Major League Baseball team, started America’s first all sports radio station, created the world’s two largest hip hop radio stations and managed everyone from David Letterman to Ken Griffey Jr. and Don Imus and even been nationalized by an ally of Vladimir Putin, you’ve seen the rollercoaster ride of an entrepreneur from every side.
Aspiring entrepreneurs, radio and media industry insiders, and avid sports fans alike will appreciate Smulyan’s honesty as he shares the countless lessons he’s learned from decades of entrepreneurship. Smulyan offers readers priceless insight into navigating the twists and turns of growing a business and teaches how to build a culture based on both trust and humor—the essential keys to surviving almost anything.
Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down details Smulyan’s journey: from taking over his cousin’s failing country music radio station and founding his own company, to purchasing and then selling ownership of the Seattle Mariners and guiding his company through the Golden Age of Radio. Alongside his humorous, eventful, and dramatic stories, Smulyan presents valuable pointers and tips—for anyone else brave enough to try their own hand at starting a business.
The journey to booming business is a rollercoaster. Learn from someone who has experienced all the ups and downs—and knows that what’s most important is to hold on while keeping your sense of humor intact.
For founder and CEO of Emmis Communications Jeff Smulyan, the path to success has been anything but straightforward. When you’ve owned a Major League Baseball team, started America’s first all sports radio station, created the world’s two largest hip hop radio stations and managed everyone from David Letterman to Ken Griffey Jr. and Don Imus and even been nationalized by an ally of Vladimir Putin, you’ve seen the rollercoaster ride of an entrepreneur from every side.
Aspiring entrepreneurs, radio and media industry insiders, and avid sports fans alike will appreciate Smulyan’s honesty as he shares the countless lessons he’s learned from decades of entrepreneurship. Smulyan offers readers priceless insight into navigating the twists and turns of growing a business and teaches how to build a culture based on both trust and humor—the essential keys to surviving almost anything.
Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down details Smulyan’s journey: from taking over his cousin’s failing country music radio station and founding his own company, to purchasing and then selling ownership of the Seattle Mariners and guiding his company through the Golden Age of Radio. Alongside his humorous, eventful, and dramatic stories, Smulyan presents valuable pointers and tips—for anyone else brave enough to try their own hand at starting a business.
The journey to booming business is a rollercoaster. Learn from someone who has experienced all the ups and downs—and knows that what’s most important is to hold on while keeping your sense of humor intact.
328 pages, Hardcover
Published October 11, 2022
13 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 26, 2023
I had the misfortune of graduating from Ball State's Magazine Design program in May of 2008, right as the vast majority of the media landscape collapsed before me. And while I had long hoped to work for one of Jeff Smulyan's Emmis magazines, including my long-time favorite Indianapolis Monthly, the economic collapse never allowed it to be.
That said, reading this memoir by a Naptown-based mogul of international regard, I was impressed by the stories he tells, and -- deeper than that -- the ability he has to convey what it took to parlay a few small radio station holdings into one of the largest media corporations this side of Clear Channel, all while staying true to his Hoosier roots.
The book is a bit overwhelming in its detail, most likely to please students of media like me even when I'm a decade and a half past my college days. And I was disappointed to see Emmis' magazine holdings get short shift to his other business exploits, garnering only a few cursory mentions. But the stories he tells here are gold, and there's a lot to learn from his many rises and falls -- the roller-coaster of the title made real.
His radio stations rose and fell in prominence, while fortunes were made, lost, and then remade. He dabbled in television, sports ownership, even created the first all-sports radio station. And what I'd say I took from this read more than anything was that if you love doing what you do, you'll find ways to make it meaningful. Though in the end I tired of long stretches of his meanderings on every single detail on why Emmis today is not nearly what it was twenty or thirty years ago, Smulyan's heart is in the right place.
If you're a fan of memoirs about entrepreneurs and their exploits in building and maintaining their businesses, this book's for you. And for longtime Hoosiers who always wondered what made Emmis Communications tick, this book is a goldmine.
That said, reading this memoir by a Naptown-based mogul of international regard, I was impressed by the stories he tells, and -- deeper than that -- the ability he has to convey what it took to parlay a few small radio station holdings into one of the largest media corporations this side of Clear Channel, all while staying true to his Hoosier roots.
The book is a bit overwhelming in its detail, most likely to please students of media like me even when I'm a decade and a half past my college days. And I was disappointed to see Emmis' magazine holdings get short shift to his other business exploits, garnering only a few cursory mentions. But the stories he tells here are gold, and there's a lot to learn from his many rises and falls -- the roller-coaster of the title made real.
His radio stations rose and fell in prominence, while fortunes were made, lost, and then remade. He dabbled in television, sports ownership, even created the first all-sports radio station. And what I'd say I took from this read more than anything was that if you love doing what you do, you'll find ways to make it meaningful. Though in the end I tired of long stretches of his meanderings on every single detail on why Emmis today is not nearly what it was twenty or thirty years ago, Smulyan's heart is in the right place.
If you're a fan of memoirs about entrepreneurs and their exploits in building and maintaining their businesses, this book's for you. And for longtime Hoosiers who always wondered what made Emmis Communications tick, this book is a goldmine.
August 14, 2023
Having spent more than forty years on the air at several major market radio stations, I was familiar with Jeff Smulyan but had never worked with him. I wish I had! The man clearly knows his way around the broadcast business and I found myself nodding my head in approval of his many cogent observations. Sadly, I concur with his overall assessment of the future of radio broadcasting and the print industry. This is an honest and very personal read that I found revealing and very refreshing.
January 14, 2023
Nice book full of personal stories and experience about building a business and selling it afterwards. The book is thoughtful and has many reflection points. I really like the transparency of description of multiple events that author went through because you can learn a lot. Overall this is a very positive book and interesting to enjoy reading.
February 3, 2023
Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down by Jeff Smulyan is an amazing book if you are looking to become an entrepreneur. It follows Jeff’s life as he builds and sells his business. It shows all the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
March 5, 2023
As a guy who was around WENS when it started it was an entertaining read. I know a few other stories, but no one book handles all such things.
April 5, 2023
“we had no idea if it would work, but clearly there was a hole in the market that you could drive a truck through"
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews