Times staff report
James S. Gettys III joined The Birmingham Times Media Group this week as sales director.
Gettys spent 13 years as a Senior Account Executive and Local Sales Manager with Summit Media radio stations – 98.7 Kiss FM, 95.7 Jamz, and 610 AM Gospel.
Gettys, who grew up in Aberdeen, MS., began working for Cox Media in Atlanta in 2001 and moved to Birmingham in 2003.
As a senior account executive with Cox, Gettys worked on a number of accounts across the Birmingham metro area.
“I can honestly say I am excited to be part of one of the most historic organizations still in existence,” Gettys said.
Sam Martin, publisher of the Birmingham Times said, the company “is fortunate to have a sales professional like James join our team. Since we took over the Times earlier this year we have been trying to build and reintroduce the paper to put it back into the community, and one of the pieces we have been missing is a sales director.”
Martin added, “We’re excited about being able to match up what we’ve been able to do on the content end with the sales effort out in the community; James is the perfect person to do that.”
In 2012 Gettys was given Cox Media Group’s first annual National President’s Circle Award which recognized him as one of the Top 60 marketing executives in the country out of over 2,500. He was named Summit Media’s Local Sales Manager for all of their Birmingham Urban stations.
Gettys was also elected and served on the board of directors for the city’s oldest non-profit organization, The Gateway Foundation. He sits on the advisory board for A.G. Gaston Boys & Girls Club. Gettys was voted one of Alabama’s select 40 under age 40, and has been featured in several magazines for his positive works in the state, all while receiving a certificate of special congressional recognition by Congresswoman Terri Sewell for outstanding and invaluable service to the community.
Gettys has a 17 year-old daughter, Kayla Riggs, and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, where he pledged at Stillman College. Gettys enjoys to travel, especially around South America and the Carribbean. He has visited several countries and islands: Jamaica, Mexico, Aruba, the Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
“It’s an honor to be welcomed in, and I look forward to helping The Times continue to growing in a progressive and upward movement,” he said.
