Tom Rounds

Tom Rounds was a transformative figure in American radio.  He was known as an executive, an innovator, and event promoter. After graduating from Amherst College with degrees in English and Music, Rounds began his career in the late 1950s managing the campus radio station WAMH-AM.   He then worked at 1010 WINS‑AM in New York before moving to Honolulu’s KPOI-FM where a publicity stunt of staying awake for 260 hours made him a regional celebrity and paved the way to becoming program director. 

In 1966, Rounds was hired as program director of San Francisco’s KFRC-AM, where in June 1967 he organized the Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Festival—recognized as the first rock festival in U.S. history, preceding Monterey Pop by a week.    The year following, he co-produced the successful 1968 Miami Pop II Fest featuring the Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac.

In 1969, Rounds co‑founded Watermark Inc. with Ron Jacobs and launched American Top 40 in 1970 alongside host and Radio Hall of Fame inductee Casey Kasem and Don Bustany.    The program would go on to define the Top 40 genre in a variety of music formats, most notably Top 40 radio.

Tom Rounds also played a pivotal role in the success of Country Countdown USA with Bob Kingsley, a nationally syndicated country music countdown show that launched in 1992.

Country Countdown USA was distributed by Westwood One and quickly became a staple of country radio, thanks in large part to Kingsley’s warm, authoritative voice and engaging interviews with top country artists.

After ABC acquired Watermark in 1982, Rounds and his wife, Barbara, founded Radio Express in 1985, syndicating hit shows and global events like Live 8 and Live Earth to over 5,000 stations across 130+ countries.  He remained CEO until his death in Los Angeles at age 77, four days shy of his 78th birthday.

In 2023, Tom Rounds received a Legends Induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.