Operating since 1946, South Central Communications
takes great pride in generations of building valuable
relationships with our customers.
South Central Communications traces its history to a civil war era house overlooking a bend in the Ohio River at Evansville, IN. That’s where World War II Naval Officer, John A. Engelbrecht, incorporated then named South Central Broadcasting on June 3rd 1946. His goal was two fold; Move off his family’s apple orchard and start radio station WIKY 820AM. The later being accomplished on August 4th, 1948.
As in most entrepreneurial ventures the first years were tough. John A’s wife, Bettie, taught at a local grade school to keep the new business afloat. However as the business grew healthier, so did John A’s appetite for new ventures. With some modest success in radio and creative financing he was able to enter both Television Broadcasting in the 1950’s and the Muzak franchise system in the 1960’s.
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, John A. and Bettie’s only child, John David, began working in the business on a full time basis while in college. He began and the University of Evansville, but transferred to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to oversee South Central’s local TV, Radio, and Muzak operations. Fortunately, this prepared John David to take the reins when his father passed away unexpectedly in November of 1974.
After his father’s death, John David set a course to dramatically grow the newly named South Central Communications. He continued to operate and expand into Radio, TV, and Muzak properties whenever the right opportunity came along. For the next 30 years, he would start up or purchase a new business nearly every 24 months. It was also during this time that John David would embark on a journey that few family owned and operated companies achieve; setting up a full operation outside Board of Directors.
In the 1990’s, John David’s son, JP, began showing more and more interest in joining the family business. He took a further step by purchasing a radio station of his own outside of South Central. This early learning opportunity coupled with years of working inside South Central in various capacities led JP to the role of COO in 2002 and then to CEO in 2008. While JP has taken on day to day management of South Central, John David remains focused on acquisitions and strategy as Chairman of the Board and President.
South Central has had much success in over 60 years in business and the future looks bright as we continue to grow in the current businesses as well as new avenues that have yet to be explored. One way for South Central’s shareholders to gauge success of the company is to hold up major strategic issues to the Shareholder Vision Statement that was recently created by John David and JP.
The shareholders of South Central Communications believe that we have a unique opportunity to go above and beyond the bounds of a normal institution. We wish for South Central Communications to be a socially conscious company and excellent corporate citizen through the stewardship of our social and economic resources to effectuate positive and meaningful opportunities for our communities, employees, and shareholders. We realize that our social goals can only be realized through, and are dependent on, continually striving to create wealth through fiscal responsibility and profitability. Further, we wish the ownership of South Central Communications to be kept in family hands across future generations to provide a stable platform for this vision to live on into the future. Lastly, for our vision to be completely fulfilled, we must always remain true to our core beliefs and principles.
Core Beliefs & Principles
Click Here to watch our Core Principles Video