Steven Bruce Dodge (July 12, 1945 – January 17, 2019) was an American telecommunications and media entrepreneur, environmentalist, and philanthropist.
Dodge was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs at Babson College in 2002 and the Mobile Infrastructure Hall of Fame in November 2018.
At the time of his death, Deborah Parenti, publisher of the trade journal Radio Ink, described Dodge as extraordinary and noted his ability to make others proud of their work.
[4] In a 2018 interview, Dodge credited his time in the Navy for helping him learn to work hard and focus on tangible results.
[5] Back in civilian life, Dodge joined the Bank of Boston in the commercial loan officer training program.
Selected from the program by bank executive William L. Brown, Dodge was asked to research and later lend to a new industry, cable-TV.
On November 1, 1993, Atlantic merged with Multi Market Communications, Inc. and Stoner Broadcasting System Holding, Inc., forming American Radio Systems Corporation (American Radio) with Dodge as Chairman, President and CEO, Winn as CFO and Director, and David Pearlman and John Gehron, and later Don Bouloukis, as co-chief operating officers until its merger with CBS Corporation in 1998.
In April 1997, the Company merged with EZ Communications, adding 24 radio stations in eight markets, for an aggregate purchase price (including assumed debt) of $830 million.
Dodge felt it was obvious that wireless was coming, so the firm started building new towers to see what kind of business they might attract.
[1] Dodge’s launch of Windover in 2005 was a result of his personal interest in architecture and construction and an opportunity to create special places.
He artfully enhanced landscapes in Massachusetts and Vermont featuring weathered fieldstone fences, newly planted trees, and classic New England structures.
His favorite getaways included fishing the mountain streams in Chile and motorcycling in Sardinia, enjoying the latter particularly because they had no speed limits.