CBS Radio taps Michael Weiss, Reorganizes

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Reorganizes market responsibilities as CBS Radio announced Interep’s CBS Radio Sales President Michael Weiss is being hired by the company to be in charge of sales for all CBS Radio-owned stations. Weiss replaces Michael Kincaid who has resigned due to medical reasons. Kincaid will be taking on a new position within CBS to be announced. Interep says it has begun the process of finding a new President for CBS Radio Sales.


CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason is taking a more hands-on role, overseeing 57 stations in 10 top markets, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, LA, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, DC. Scott Herman, who had been EVP, Eastern Region, now takes the role of EVP/Operations, overseeing 87 stations in the other CBS Radio markets.

In addition, the Regional Director role is being eliminated. Regional Vice Presidents Don Bouloukos and Lisa Decker will remain as SVP/Market Managers for New York, and Seattle and Portland, respectively. Bouloukos will also assume the role of GM for top-10 billing WFAN-AM NY (former GM Chuck Bortnick is no longer with the station). We had mischaracterized these moves as "demotions" yesterday in our bulletin, but in fact, they’re sharing the responsibility with Herman in the markets and just doing away with the extra layer of management.

RBR/TVBR observation: It’s really a more direct form of management, moving away from the Clear Channel style of RVP roles. The changes have Market Managers now reporting directly to top management at CBS Radio, providing faster response and more efficient communications. This is a big leg up for Herman, who adds Riverside, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Denver, Rochester, NY, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Orlando, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Tampa, West Palm, Hartford, Charlotte, Atlanta, Baltimore, Minneapolis, San Diego and St. Louis. At the top, though, it emphasizes again what a hands-on guy Dan Mason is. He’s already been dealing personally and directly with re-formatting stations in the largest markets that have been the biggest problems for CBS. How’s that working out? We get his latest report card a week from today when CBS reports its Q3 results.