Jeff Littlejohn is retiring from iHeartMedia

Steve George will be his successor

Jeff Littlejohn, one of the best-known and most influential engineers in the US radio industry, is retiring. The company announced Monday that Littlejohn is stepping down from his position as executive VP of engineering but will continue in his advisory role.

Steve George will succeed him with immediate effect.

The development caps what iHeart called an “extraordinary 32 years,” which began in 1992 with a job as chief engineer for Cincinnati.

“He rose through the ranks as he helped expand the company following the 1996 Telecommunications Act. He was part of the team that created the first version of the iHeartRadio app and worked with Toyota and Ford on the initial integration of iHeartRadio.”

More recently, he was said to have spearheaded the modernization of iHeart's studio facilities and the move to cloud-based audio systems.

Littlejohn received the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award in 2008 and the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award in 2014.

[Read our 2014 profile of Littlejohn upon his receipt of the NAB award.]

He was also Chairman of the NAB Radio Technical Committee. This summer, Littlejohn and Jurison were among the engineers who met with FCC officials in a meeting hosted by NAB to discuss virtualizing the EAS system.

Hartley Adkins, President of Markets Group at iHeart, was quoted as saying, “There are few people in the industry with the expertise and longevity of Jeff and we are grateful for the incredible work he has done for iHeart.”

George will lead the entire technical operations, systems and engineering teams supporting iHeart's 860 broadcast stations in 160 markets.

George began his career at iHeart in 2001 as chief engineer for the Sioux City, Iowa market. He was regional engineering director in Omaha, Neb.; regional vice president of engineering for the Midwest; and most recently Vice President of Engineering and Systems.

As has been widely reported, iHeart has made a series of layoffs in recent weeks to cut costs. But Littlejohn told us that this move was his initiative and that he would support the transition.

The pool of technical executives at U.S. commercial radio companies is relatively small, and this is the second notable departure of a senior technical executive in the past three months. As we reported in August, Mike Cooney left Beasley Media Group in August when the company eliminated his position.

Separately, Radio World learned today that Alan Jurison, senior operations engineer for iHeart's Technical Operations group, was fired last week. The company did not immediately respond to our request for comment, and Jurison declined to comment.