There are four phases to the career of broadcaster and entrepreneur Paul Drew: early in his career, Drew influenced teenagers in Atlanta and the South as a disc jockey introducing the new sounds of Top 40 radio and traveling with the Beatles. Later, his influence extended to the broadcast industry in the United States and Canada as a vice president of RKO General Radio. He formed several companies that linked the United States and Japan in entertainment ventures. And he was the first director of Radio Marti, establishing Voice of America broadcasts to Cuba.

On the Air

     As an Atlanta disc jockey, Drew avoided the "hyped'' sound fashionable at Top 40 radio, opting instead for a soft, conversational approach that won him high ratings among teenagers on three stations. After stints at stations in his home state of Michigan, Drew moved to Atlanta in 1957 to join WGST, where he was advertised as "Atlanta's most music-wise DJ."

     In 1961 Drew joined Atlanta's WAKE at the invitation of his neighbor, WAKE Program Director Bill Drake. His show was a combination of tidbits about the artists whose records he played and descriptions of mythical "submarine races in Piedmont Park," an excuse for teenage sweethearts to sit in their cars by the park's lake.

     It was his move to WQXI in 1964 that gave Drew his national reputation for picking hits. First as music director and later as program director, Drew attracted the attention of both the record industry and the radio industry. Because of that early visibility, he called his ten years in Atlanta radio his most important, because "I came in as nobody and left as somebody."

     During the 1960s, Drew was dubbed "the Fifth Beatie" (and occasionally "the bald-headed Beatie") because he was the only broadcaster to travel with the Beatles on all their American tours. His daily reports from the tours were heard by millions of radio listeners. On Christmas Eve 1964, Drew produced a worldwide special with the Beatles from London.

Executive and Entrepreneur

     For five years during the 1970s, Drew was vice president of programming for the radio division of RKO General Corporation, supervising formats as diverse as talk, Top 40, oldies, adult contemporary, and classical. At the time, RKO owned stations in Boston, New York, Memphis, Miami, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

     The connections Drew made with recording artists throughout his years in radio resulted in a series of live concerts and artist specials produced for both radio and television. Featured were Neil Diamond, Chicago, Elton John, Olivia Newton­ John, Cher, Frank Sinatra, and a long list of others.

     He introduced the Japanese singing group Pink Lady to the United States and established them as the only Japanese artists to have both an American hit single and their own prime-time network TV show (on the National Broadcasting Company [NBC]).

     His business interests expanded beyond broadcasting and music to specialize in Japan with a variety of companies, including Paul Drew Enterprises, The USA Japan Company, the Mobotron Corporation, and the 2.151 Corporation (the last two in partnership with Sony Corporation and the family of Sony founder Akio Morita).

     Concurrently, Drew was commissioner to the California Motion Picture Council and served under two California governors. He was also a White House adviser for President Jimmy Carter's energy program and served on the Commission of Ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

     In 1984 Drew received a nonpolitical appointment from President Ronald Reagan to be the first director of Radio Marti, which established broadcasts of the Voice of America aimed at Cuba. When he received the call from a friend of President Reagan, Drew had just returned from one of many trips to Japan, where he had accompanied California Governor Jerry Brown and introduced Brown to Japanese business opportunities for the state of California. Drew described himself as a "life-long Democrat" but accepted the appointment from a Republican administration because, as he stated, "I was doing something for my country." After the Radio Marti experience, Drew confessed: "The radio part was easy. The political party was not."

     During his years in broadcasting, Drew guided and developed many well-known air talents and programmers. In Network 40 magazine, Gerry Cagle noted, "Perhaps Paul's greatest legacy lies in the success of those he hired." The list of broadcasters who worked for Drew includes consultants Jerry Clifton, Don Kelly, and Guy Zapoleon; industry writers Gerry Cagle, Jerry Del Colliano, Walt "Baby" Love, and Dave Sholin; and air personalities Rick Dees, Charlie Van Dyke, Jay Thomas, and Dr. Don Rose.

     In 1999 Drew and his wife Ann moved from their longtime home, Los Angeles, to Forsyth, Georgia, where he claimed he "was not officially retired."