Smulyan is the son of Natalie and Sam Smulyan. He has one brother and one sister. His father owned the local Howard Johnson 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 USC Law Review.
Career
In 1973, he 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 an all news network. When NBC abandoned the format, WNTS was 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 and WHN in New York; and WAVA 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 and own iconic 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. As of 2020, Indianapolis-based Emmis owns a radio portfolio consisting of 4 FM and 2 AM radio stations in Indianapolis and New York City. Emmis owns Indianapolis Monthly magazine, as well as a controlling interest in Digonex, which provides dynamic pricing solutions across multiple industries. In March 2020, Emmis acquired the sound masking business of Lencore Acoustics Corporation, the world leader in high-quality sound masking solutions for offices and other commercial applications. Emmis developed and licensed TagStation; developed 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 1989, Smulyan with partners, purchased the Seattle Mariners from George Argyros for $75 million. Smulyan held the largest interest and contributed $35 million while the remainder was contributed by Morgan Stanley ; other investors ; and the remainder via bank financing. In 2005, Smulyan made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team.
