Wade Hargrove grew up in Clinton, N.C. and was graduated with Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

While there, he worked in radio and television and was inducted into The Order Of The Golden Fleece, the University’s highest honor society. He later chaired the University’s Board of Trustees and received its law school’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

He practiced media law in Washington, D.C. and Raleigh and represented some of the nation’s largest radio and television broadcast companies. He is listed in Best Lawyers In America in media law and was named one of the nation’s top ten media lawyers by The National Law Journal. He is also listed in Who’s Who In America.  He is now retired, but among his clients was the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters whom he served as Executive Director and General Counsel.

He was inducted into the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and received its Distinguished Service Award. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Broadcast Foundation of America.

In 1983, Mr. Hargrove was appointed Special Counsel to the United States for international treaty negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland for the allocation of orbit positions for direct satellite to home broadcasting. Active in public service, he was awarded the Order Of The Long Leaf Pine by North Carolina’s Governor.