This should generate a lot of talk at the National Association of Broadcasters convention taking place this week in Las Vegas. CBS Radio chief Dan Mason says today that he’s retiring after running the No. 3 radio operation since 2007 — his second time around after serving as its president from 1995 to 2002. He’ll be replaced next week by Andre Fernandez, who comes to the company from Journal Communications where he was COO.
“Dan is a legendary leader in the radio business,” says CBS chief Les Moonves. “His passion for the business is well-known, and is a major reason why he’s been able to turn around so many of our major market stations.”
CBS Radio has 117 stations in 26 markets. It reaches 72 million people a week and recently added digital properties including Play.it.
Fernandez will report to Moonves, who has said that he’d consider selling some of CBS’ smaller radio stations. The new radio chief “brings a wealth of experience to this role – operations, financial management, programming and digital distribution, among many other attributes,” Moonves says. “He has had great success working in large and mid-sized markets, which has primed him to lead our major market operations.”
Before joining Journal, Fernandez was an exec at General Electric and Telemundo, United Technologies, Merrill Lynch, and Bros Brothers Harriman.
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