Megan Billingsly

By Andrew Purcell

On July 20, 2009, the legendary Washington D.C. based talk superstation, WJFK-FM, shifted its programming to an all sports talk format after over twenty years, leaving the careers of many dedicated employees hanging in the balance. The change came after the long success of some of radio’s most notorious disc jockeys, which included such cornerstones as Howard Stern, G. Gordon Liddy, and Don and Mike.
One particular individual directly affected by this event was George Mason University graduate, Megan Billingsly. She began her academic career as Chemistry major before abandoning the goggles and a lab coat all together in favor of public relations and radio workshops. Billingsly has been a member of the WJFK team since her final semester at Mason in 2003 where she began her journey in radio as an intern to the National Sales Manager before ultimately accepting a fulltime role in June of that same year.
After less then a year Billingsly’s production had been so superior, that the station promoted her to the National Sales Coordinator in which she managed the station’s monetary assets while making sure that they were being handled both properly and efficiently. She cites that her mastery of managing relationships with the fundamentals of organizational communication has given her a competitive edge when dealing with clients and has therefore catapulted her to the next level.
Even though her future still loomed in the distance with uncertainty, Billingsly didn’t ever feel as though her position had been compromised. What seemed to be another life changing event on the horizon for the calm and collected Fairfax native, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. She transitioned to a different side of radio into the role that would eventually fully connect her with the true passion she developed for the industry as the current Promotions Director of 106.7 The Fan.
Now settled in at her new post for the young CBS Radio station she boasts that, although most of her experience has been learned at the station, the “overall exposure to mass marketing, mass communications, media, and radio workshops that Mason provided has helped to create a picture that allows me to be successful in this world.” Billingsly’s current goal is to shift perceptions and return the new 106.7 to the legendary status that WJFK once commanded, but to do so as the areas premier sports talk radio station and “the voice of the fan.”