Board Member

Jon Heidtke
Senior Vice President and General Manager
FOX Sports Southwest

Widely recognized as one of the Southwest's leading sports executives, Jon Heidtke is Senior Vice President and General Manager of FOX Sports Southwest and FOX Sports Oklahoma. The networks are part of the vast FOX Sports television family and affiliates of FSN, which consists of 19 regional sports networks from coast-to-coast specializing in home team coverage.

Heidtke manages the Southwest and Oklahoma operations that reach over 10 million cable and satellite television homes in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of New Mexico.

Heidtke became one of the youngest general managers in the regional sports television industry in October 1994 when as a 34-year-old he was promoted to the top post at Home Sports Entertainment, the predecessor to FOX Sports Southwest. He was elevated to Senior Vice President/General Manager in November 1996 when FOX combined the nation's top regional sports networks under one banner and created FSN.

He has worked diligently behind the scenes to upgrade the network's regional focus through rights acquisitions and marketing strategies that have positioned FOX Sports Southwest as the leader in local sports programming. Under his guidance, FOX Sports Southwest has secured long-term programming agreements with the Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Stars and the University Interscholastic League, the governing body overseeing Texas high school sports. He also negotiated long-term television rights deals with the Houston Astros and Houston Rockets and helped re-brand and transition FOX Sports Houston into a standalone regional sports network.

Heidtke successfully oversaw the network's re-launch in Oklahoma to FOX Sports Oklahoma in September 2008 when FOX acquired the rights to the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) high school athletic events.

He also has been instrumental in developing multi-faceted programming and marketing partnerships with the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, and helped to create the University Interscholastic League Corporate Partner program for Texas high school athletics.

Heidtke is actively involved in the communities served by FOX Sports Southwest, supporting many local civic groups. He sits on the board of directors of several leading sports organizations, including the National Sports Marketing Network, the SMU Athletic Forum, the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the Dallas All Sports Association. He is a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Sports Commission and his alma mater's Texas A&M 12th Man Foundation Advisory board. In 2002 the 12th Man Magazine named Heidtke "The Most Influential Aggie in Sports," and in 2005 Heidtke entered the Texas A&M Former Journalism Students Association Hall of Honor.

The Texas High School Coaches Association recognized Heidtke for his passionate contributions to promoting and supporting high school athletics by naming him the 2007 recipient of the prestigious THSCA Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor given by the association to individuals outside of the coaching profession.

Heidtke joined the network in March 1989 as Home Sports Entertainment's Director of Affiliate Sales and Marketing. He was promoted to Assistant General Manager in January 1991 after guiding HSE's successful conversion from a subscription pay channel to a basic cable TV service. Under his leadership, the network's viewership has grown from 1.2 million subscribers in 1989 to its current reach of over 10 million.

With more than two decades of experience in the sports television industry, Heidtke has gone from an on-air personality to a top management position. Prior to joining FOX Sports Southwest, Heidtke successfully managed a 15-state region for ESPN as a Southeast account manager where he was responsible for securing the network's distribution. He also spent three years as regional sales manager for Chicago-based regional sports network SportsVision.

Heidtke's career as a sports television executive started in 1983 as an eastern region account executive for SportsTime, a regional sports network launched in St. Louis by Anheuser-Busch. He began his television career in June 1981 as a sports anchor/reporter for KBTX-TV in Bryan, Texas. In 1983 he was the radio play-by-play voice of the Texas League champion Beaumont Golden Gators minor league baseball team.

A native of Amarillo, Texas, Heidtke holds a bachelor of science degree in broadcast journalism from Texas A&M University.