My dad built an LA radio empire but his greatest legacy never came through a speaker

My dad, Michael Horn, passed away earlier this month.He was a pioneer in broadcasting, in LA and nationwide.Long before the media industry embraced the idea that radio and audio could live across multiple platforms, Michael Horn was already imagining that future.He didn’t see broadcasting as something confined to a frequency, a transmitter or a voice coming through a car speaker.

He loved that, but he saw possibilities everywhere.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story He believed radio was about people, personalities and human connections that could evolve and reach people in new ways others hadn’t yet imagined.He pushed beyond the traditional boundaries of radio and pursued ideas that were ahead of their time.In 1983, that vision became CRN Digital Talk Radio, the business he created and led as CEO.He was an early pioneer in expanding radio beyond the AM dial, bringing CRN to television and then expanding talk programming across multiple platforms long before it became the standard.California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!CRN was a pioneer in reaching audiences on cable, then streaming and eventually on digital apps.But if I measure my dad’s life only by what he built, I miss the part of his story that mattered just as much.My father was a visionary, an entrepreneur whose passion was inseparable from his identity and a man who simply refused to give up.

If one idea didn’t work, he looked for another way.If someone told him something couldn’t be done, that only made him more determined to prove...