Cocoa Beach Chooses Rotary Club for Beach Safety Program

The City of Cocoa Beach is moving forward with a new partnership to restore life-saving flotation rings along local beaches following a legal dispute over ownership of the equipment. City leaders selected the Rotary Club of Cocoa Beach to manage the rescue stations, replacing the nonprofit Drown Zero. New stations will need to be installed while the ownership battle continues in court. Officials hope to have the life-saving equipment back on the beach within the next several weeks as dangerous rip currents continue along the Space Coast.

Ed Histed

Ed launched his radio career in 1975 and has spent more than five decades in the broadcasting industry. During that time, he has served in a wide range of roles including Air Personality, News Director, Sales Manager, Operations Manager, and General Manager at numerous radio stations in various markets across the country. Beyond on-air and management responsibilities, Ed has also worked extensively on the technical side of broadcasting. His background includes RF engineering and information technology, with particular experience configuring digital automation systems and remote voice-tracking platforms used by stations across the country. Ed was also among a select group of industry professionals invited by Google to its California headquarters following the company’s acquisition of Scott Studios. He was one of just 12 broadcasters nationwide chosen to participate in discussions and provide input during the design and rollout of Google’s digital broadcast automation platform. Although the majority of Ed’s career—spanning roughly four decades—was rooted in music radio, he transitioned into news and information programming in 2012. He says the move into spoken-word broadcasting was a natural evolution after decades of experience in multiple areas of the industry.