SHELBURNE — Wendy Mays, a native of Middlebury, has been hired by the Vermont Association of Broadcasters to be the organization’s new executive director, the board of directors announced Jan. 9.
Mays, a Shelburne resident, has been the promotions and special events director at Hall Communications Radio Group in South Burlington for 20 years. Elected to the VAB Board of Directors in 2012, Mays has served as member at large and vice president and has been the chair of the Events Committee, which produces the VAB’s annual meeting and convention in May as well as the Hall of Fame Awards Banquet each December.
After the death of long-time VAB Executive Director Jim Condon this past August, Mays was instrumental in maintaining operations along-side fellow board members and Interim Director Eric Michaels.
“No one could ever replace Jim, he was one in a million, but I am honored to have earned this opportunity and excited to get to work and make my own positive impact on our industry!” says Mays, who officially starts Feb. 1.
“We are thrilled to have Wendy come on board as the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Executive Director, only the third in our 65-year history. Her experience as a board member the past six years combined with her enthusiasm, ideas and goals promise a vibrant new era for the VAB and its membership” said Wally Caswell, President of the VAB.
Wendy Naylor Mays graduated from Middlebury Union High School in 1992. She went on to graduate from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas with a degree in Mass Communications. She entered the broadcast industry in 1997 as an intern at KXTE-FM in Las Vegas and became their first-ever Public Service Director. But it was love for family and the quality of life in Vermont that made her return home. In 1998, Hall Communications Vice President/General Manager Dan Dubonnet hired Mays as the Promotions Director for WOKO-FM, WKOL-FM and AM1230 WJOY. Over the next two decades, she co-produced ten successful Country Club Music Festivals, 20 Wedding Expos and dozens of station birthday parties and charity golf tournaments, including those for rock stations WIZN-FM and WBTZ-FM, which joined Hall Communications in 2005.
Mays resides in Shelburne with her husband Kevin and daughters Olivia, 7, and Maggie, 6.