Ownership

RAVI POTHARLANKA

PRESIDENT AND CEO

Wine Country Radio (owned by B.C. Radio LLC) is family-owned and run by the Potharlanka family.  B.C. Radio is led by Ravi Potharlanka – a wireless telecom & media executive and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the industry.

Ravi started his career in the wireless industry in the early ’90s, working at PacTel Cellular (AirTouch) and then at Nextel (Sprint), where he led technical, product, and operations teams. In the late ’90s, he joined Teligent (a competitive CLEC) to lead market launch programs in the U.S. and international joint ventures in 7 countries. In 2001, he joined FiberTower (a seed-stage wireless company), which built bandwidth to the cell tower. He stayed at FiberTower through its merger and public listing (2006) – serving as its President and then its Chief Operating Officer.

In 2011, he co-founded LocusPoint in partnership with Blackstone to acquire, develop, and monetize spectrum assets and transition them for mobile wireless use. LocusPoint invested in 45 different  spectrum assets and exited its portfolio in 2019.

He currently focuses on advising and investing in seed and early-stage tech companies, investing in commercial real estate assets, and leading his media ventures. He is passionate about conservation, wildlife, and climate change. During his spare time, he likes to read and travel and pursue his birding and nature/landscape photography passions.

Ravi has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering (Honors) from the National Institute of Technology (NIT, Trichy), India.