Bakersfield TV Executive Awarded Broadcasters’ Scholarship to Pursue La Verne MBA

James Galindo is a single father who works with local and national businesses as an account executive for KGET in Bakersfield, a station that serves nearly half a million people. That keeps him busy enough.

But now he is taking on a new challenge: pursuing a Master of Business Administration at the University of La Verne.

The stakes are high, because he plans to be the first person in his family to receive a master’s degree. And that is saying a lot. His father has 10 sisters and brothers.

“I want to kind of set the bar for our family for education,” Galindo said.

He is receiving some tuition assistance after being awarded a scholarship from the Kern County Broadcasters Association.

Teresa Burgess, who is with the association and vice president of KBAK and KBFX, praised Galindo’s motivation to further his career.

“The Kern County Broadcasters are pleased to be able to encourage the goal of higher education in a broad variety of studies,” Burgess said.

Galindo traces his interest in the television business back to childhood memories of listening to his father play blues guitar. His love of music blossomed when he took up the drums, playing in bands in both high school and college.

Music soon pointed him toward working for radio stations, and eventually television, where he worked his way up at KGET. The station’s parent company also owns Bakersfield’s Telemundo station, which plays a large role in how he does his job because the city has one of the largest Latino populations in the nation.

That means he works closely with businesses so they can adapt their marketing efforts to target the Latino community.

Galindo received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from La Verne in 2010. He decided to take his education a step further, so he can eventually move to a station with a larger market share. KGET’s market share ranking is 126 – considered small to medium, he said. In comparison, stations in New York are ranked No. 1.

Galindo’s goal is to reach a top 50 market in the next five to 10 years. It will not be easy.

“It’s really competitive in our field to get to the top station,” he said.

Galindo has enrolled in the MBA program at La Verne’s Kern County regional campus and hopes to complete the program in two years while continuing his job.

He chose La Verne for his undergraduate and master’s degrees because the teachers have experience in the industry they are teaching.

So when is he planning to take a shot at the big time? He says it will happen soon after another family member goes off to college: his daughter.

“I love what I do and La Verne was definitely a tool to help me get to where I’m at, and when I graduate, it’s going to help me get to my next goal,” he said.