ESPN Radio 540 Milwaukee host Craig Karmazin "has turned sports talk into big business," according to Bill Glauber of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. The 37-year-old Good Karma Broadcasting Founder, President & CEO is a "self-effacing executive with a big smile and graying hair" who heads a "radio broadcast and sports marketing mini-empire." Good Karma currently owns 11 radio stations in five markets, including Milwaukee, Madison, Cleveland and West Palm Beach. Eight of the stations "are ESPN affiliates, something of a seal of seriousness in the din that is sports in America." The firm also is "branching out," and will open "three remodeled houses near Lambeau Field in Green Bay to entertain clients and fans" this fall. It also opened a Verizon Wireless store in Beaver Dam, Wisc. Four of Good Karma's "five minority owners are Karmazin's childhood friends." His father, SiriusXM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin, said, "I told him, of all the businesses, why would you with your last name, want to go into the radio business? ... I was a big believer in large market radio stations, and when Craig told me of his interest in acquiring a station with an eye toward acquiring other stations in markets that weren't New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, I told him that wasn't the way I'd go. He said it would be a better way for him. He liked to be able to influence what was going on in a community" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/29).
