Leadership
keith Shipman
President & CEO 2016-present
Washington State Association of Broadcasters
Keith Shipman was named President & CEO of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters (WSAB) on January 1, 2016. WSAB represents local radio and television stations and advocates to protect free, over-the-air broadcasters’ interests before Congress and the State Legislatures.
Shipman has four decades of broadcasting experience. He began his career as an on-air personality at KPUG-AM in his hometown of Bellingham, WA, and upon graduating from Washington State University, he embarked on a 17-year stint in Seattle at KOMO-AM, KCPQ (FOX) Television and KJR-AM. In 1999, he co-founded Horizon Broadcasting Group (which owns and operates a group of radio stations in Bend, OR) and has been the company’s President & CEO since 2003. Three of Horizon Broadcasting Group's stations (KQAK-FM, KWPK-FM and KLTW-FM) have been honored as the Oregon Radio Station of the Year, recognized by the Oregon Association of Broadcasters for their extraordinary community involvement. He also founded Summit Broadcasting Group, licensee of KBNW-AM in Bend.
Shipman is a past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Association of Broadcasters and serves on the Professional Advisory Board for the Murrow College of Communications at his alma mater, Washington State University. He served on the MultiCare Health Foundation Board of Directors in Tacoma, WA from 2019-2020. He is past Chair of the Board of Governors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Oregon and past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Deschutes Children’s Foundation. Shipman served as President of the Rotary Club of Bend - Mt. Bachelor in 2014-15 and is a past member of that organization’s Board of Directors. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of Deschutes United Way, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon, the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
Shipman was inducted into the Washington State University Edward R. Murrow College of Communication Hall of Achievement in 2009.
mark allen
President & CEO Emeritus 1990-2015
Mark Allen is the WSAB’s President & CEO Emeritus. He served the WSAB for a quarter century before his retirement on December 31, 2015.
Allen practiced government relations and broadcast communications law for four decades, first with the Seattle law firm of Ogden Murphy Wallace where he served WSAB as Assistant to the President and General Counsel and lobbyist. In 1990, he was appointed WSAB’s Chief Executive Officer. He also served as Legislative Counsel to many trade and professional associations through his own firm, Mark Allen Government Relations from 1987 to 1990. Following his retirement as President & CEO of the WSAB, Mark resumed his contract lobbyist career and represented broadcasters in Olympia from 2016 - 2022.
Allen spent fifteen years on-the-air at radio and television stations in Washington, Oregon and California, including the Spokane, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles markets. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1970 with a B.A. in Communications; was a 1980 cum laude graduate of Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles; and, is admitted to practice law in the State of Washington (1980) and Washington, DC (1995).
In his spare time, Allen also served as the play-by-play announcer for many of the unlimited hydroplane races throughout the country, including Seattle’s Seafair; Tri-Cities, Washington’s Columbia Cup; Thunder on the Ohio at Evansville, Indiana; the American Powerboat Association Gold Cup in Detroit, Michigan; and, the San Diego, California Thunderboat Regatta. He was also one of the play-by-play announcers on the nationwide Unlimited Hydroplane Radio Network.
Mr. Allen was among the inaugural group to be inducted into the WSAB Hall of Fame.
Karmi Speece
President & CEO 1988-1990
A graduate of the University of Puget Sound, Ms. Speece joined the WSAB after serving as a staff member of the California Broadcasters Association. She was WSAB President & CEO from 1988 to 1990.
james a. murphy
President & CEO Emeritus 1961 - 1988
James A. Murphy served as President & CEO of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters from 1961 until his retirement in 1988.
Under his leadership, the WSAB was instrumental in the formation of the Bench-Bar-Press Committee of Washington and was the principal moving force behind the effort to have broadcast cameras and microphones admitted into the courts of Washington State. He led the Committee that conducted a cameras in the courtroom experiment and made the presentation to the State Supreme Court that resulted in the Court changing its cameras in the courtroom rule in 1976.
Murphy was the Association’s lobbyist from the 1961 through the 1980 legislative sessions and created, through the Association, a statewide radio news feed network at the State Capitol to provide broadcasters with daily reports and sound bites throughout the legislative session.
A native of Yakima, Murphy grew up in a family rooted in broadcasting. Jim’s father, James A. Murphy, was a founding member of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters as the Manager of KIT-AM Yakima.
Murphy attended Stanford Law School and moved to Seattle in 1956 to join the law firm that would later become Ogden Murphy Wallace.
During his tenure with the WSAB, he became a nationally-recognized authority on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and authored several books on the subject. He passed away in 2011.
Mr. Murphy was among the inaugural group to be inducted into the WSAB Hall of Fame.
Ronald Murphy
President & CEO 1956 - 1960
Ronald Murphy served as President of the WSAB from 1956 to 1960. A prominent Seattle attorney, Mr. Murphy passed away in 1983.
Kenneth Davis
President & CEO 1935 - 1955
Mr. Davis was a Seattle attorney who became the first staff member of the WSAB. He had previously served as counsel for ASCAP.