PETE SALANT:  Bio In Brief
 

In 1979, Pete Salant created a groundbreaking Adult Contemporary/ Top 40 hybrid format for heritage easy listening station WKCI New Haven. KC101 debuted at #1 statewide, bringing Salant to the attention of NBC Radio executives, who recruited him to program the network’s low-rated 97 WYNY.

In short order, Salant propelled #22-ranked WYNY to #1 in America's largest radio market, and #1 25-54 in the nation. Legendary competitor WABC (AM) switched to talk within 18 months. At age 26, Pete Salant held the most important radio programming post in America.

Pete Salant is widely credited with having developed the sound of today's Adult Contemporary radio while at WYNY. A skilled musician and audio specialist, Salant was a chief contributor to the development and proliferation of today’s multi-band audio processing. Pete left WYNY in 1983 to begin a successful 20 year consulting practice.

As a programming consultant, Pete Salant advised hundreds of winning CHR, Hot AC, AC, Country, Oldies, Classic Rock, and Talk-formatted stations in markets of all sizes around the country. Digital product vendor Broadcast Electronics used Salant’s consulting services to help shape their audioVAULT digital playback system during the 1990s. Pete also had early, primary input into automation systems from RCS, Scott Studios, and Prophet Systems. As the demand for consulting services decreased in the new millenium as a result of radio industry consolidation, Salant began to create and produce television commercials for radio stations, drawing on his extensive production background. By 2002, TV spot conception and production became his focus. In 2005, Pete joined Clear Channel Radio as Program Director of WWYZ Hartford, soon adding PD duties for all of the company's Connecticut AM stations, WPOP/Hartford and WELI and WAVZ/New Haven. His position was eliminated, along with several thousand others, in 2009.

Pete Salant lives in North Haven, Connecticut with his wife, Stacey, a clinical psychologist in private practice, and their 14-year-old daughter, Caroline.