page_title: Bartell Group
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Bartell Group / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Bartell Theatre
context_page_description: The Bartell Group, later known as Bartell Broadcasters, Bartell Family Radio, Macfadden-Bartell, and the Bartell Media Corporation, was a family-owned company that owned a number of radio stations in the United States during the 1940s through the 1960s.
  Family members involved in the radio operations included five siblings, Gerald "Jerry" Bartell, Melvin Bartell, Lee Bartell, David Bartell, Rosa Bartell Evans, and one sibling-in-law, Ralph Evans. Several of them got their start in while attending the University of Wisconsin and participating in the operations of university-owned station WHA. They entered the radio business with Milwaukee station WEXT in 1947, on the belief that between them they had expertise in law, engineering, music, writing, and acting, all of which would prove useful in the field. Some of the more well-known stations the Bartell Group owned include WOKY in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, KCBQ in San Diego, California, KRUX 1360 in Phoenix, Arizona, and Spanish-language WADO in New York City. The family also owned a few television stations, including WMTV-TV in Madison, Wisconsin and Telecuraçao and Telearuba in the Caribbean.
context_section_description: The Bartell Group is credited with being one of the inventors of the Top 40 radio format.
  In 2010, a monument to KCBQ was put up in the Santee suburb of San Diego, honoring the station and Lee Bartell's role with it.
  While many of the Bartell-owned radio stations have switch formats since that era, WADO in New York is still a Spanish-language station.
  Gerald Bartell and Rosa Bartell Evans have both been inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame, as has Ralph Evans.
  The Bartell Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin is named after Gerald and is run by the Gerald A. Bartell Community Theatre Foundation.  Gerald Bartell has been described in that city's Isthmus newspaper as a "Madison theater legend and arts supporter."
  The Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts is given out yearly by the University of Wisconsin, as one of several awards with which the university's Arts Institute "recognizes achievements and professional service, along with supporting future creative endeavors and research."
caption: The Bartell Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, here seen in 2013, is named after Gerald Bartell.
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