By Eric Berman
7/6/2009
 Tom Severino, WIBC's general manager for the last 15 years, is dead at age 57.
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Severino died five months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Severino was Emmis Communications CEO Jeff Smulyan's first hire after Emmis bought WIBC in 1994. In 2004, he became vice president and general manager of Emmis's other three Indianapolis radio stations: 1070 The Fan, HANK 97.1 and B105.7.
"Tom was somebody people were naturally attracted to," Smulyan says. "We always say the most important thing is to be likable, somebody people want to see walking into a room, and nobody fits that description more than Tom Severino, one of the most likable people you ever met.
"I think that was probably the quality that made him such a great leader."
In an Internet posting soon after Severino's diagnosis, he vowed to "fight the fight with all that I have," and characteristically, added that "the good news is my cholesterol is in great shape."
A later posting suggested his radiation treatments would cut down the office electric bill. "I will personally generate enough energy to power four or five light bulbs," Severino wrote.
"I am not asking, 'Why me,'" Severino wrote. "It was my choice to live my life the way I have, and that included cigarettes and cigars."
Severino's first Indianapolis post was as general manager of the old WIRE radio in 1981. He left Indy to run Cincinnati's WCKY before returning to Indianapolis with WIBC.
Severino oversaw the transition of two Emmis frequencies: the migration of WIBC from 1070 AM to 93.1 FM, with sports station The Fan taking over the AM slot, and the shift to a country format (HANK-FM) at the former WENS-97.1, Emmis's first station.
In 2005, he was at the helm as WIBC received the National Association of Broadcasters' top honor, the Marconi Award, as the year's outstanding news/talk radio station.
Severino continued to work from home until he entered the hospital for the last time on Thursday.
One of his last public appearances was at the American Lung Association's Lung Walk in Carmel on May 30. He rode the three-mile course in a golf cart, leading an Emmis team that raised more than $4,000 of the event's $55,000 total.
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