When the official announcement finally came out Friday afternoon, it confirmed much of what RBR reported Friday morning (8/25/06 RBR #166): Bill Gentry has been named Sr. VP East, reporting to Exec. VP Tom Shurr. Dave Crowl has been named Sr. VP Central, reporting to Exec. VP Charlie Rahilly. Ed Krampf and Mark Kopelman have both been named Sr. VP West, reporting to Exec. VP Susan Karis. And while the managers of CC Radio's most important big markets are no longer overseeing smaller markets in their region, they have been given the new title of President & Market Manager, which CC Radio CEO Hogan says is "a new approach to focus the full undivided attention of a local manager on our most crucial markets."
The announcement also confirmed RBR's previous report that Sr. VPs of Programming Jack Evans and Bill Richards had been let go. The four Sr. VPs of Programming remaining in the latest reorganization are Marc Chase, Eastern; Michael Martin, Western & Central; Gene Romano, Eastern & Central; and Alan Sledge, Western & Central. "This new approach has fewer layers of management. We've made enormous progress creating and deploying outstanding decision-support systems. Today, our decision-makers are better informed, more experienced, and as a result, more autonomous," Hogan told his staff.
Those 10 new Pres./MMs are
Earl Jones, Chicago;
Mike Kenney, Cleveland;
JD Freeman, Dallas;
Til Levesque, Detroit;
Manuel Rodriguez, Philadelphia;
Rob Williams, New York;
Mick Anselmo, Minneapolis;
Greg Ashlock, Los Angeles;
Kim Bryant, San Francisco;
and Dave Pugh, Washington, DC.
Many former Regional VPs no longer have that title, with only a dozen in the new organization so designated, including former Sr. VPs Lee Larsen, Bruce Demps and Alene Grevey. The others are Morgan Bohannon, Linda Byrd, Michael Crusham, Dan DiLoreto, Michele Grosenick, Jeff Holden, Dick Lewis, Matt Martin and Tom McConnell.
RBR observation:
Clearly Hogan is reconfiguring Clear Channel Radio to focus on the big bucks - trying to drive ratings and revenues in the largest markets. The 10 big market Pres./MMs are being told to focus exclusively on building ratings and revenues in the big bucks markets, while no longer having to worry about overseeing other markets - and, in most cases, fewer layers of management between them and Hogan. Will LESS layers of management produce MORE cash? One wag sent RBR an email questioning whether any layers of management had been eliminated. He or she noted that the old structure was Pres./CEO, SVP, RVP, me, while the new one is Pres./CEO, EVP, SVP, RVP, me. "Must be the new math," that CC manager concluded.
Regardless, the real issue is the payoff. Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays has been telling Wall Street that his company is not like other radio companies and will continue to outgrow its peers. 2007 will be the test of that. Less is More will have completely lapped itself, the easy comps will be history and investors will be looking for the Mays boys and Hogan to deliver on their claim that Clear Channel can outperform the rest of the industry on a consistent basis. Last note as RBR continues to only hear that Clear Channel has a list of stations ready for sale, but this is unconfirmed. But if Clear Channel takes step as ABC and CBS in selling unwanted stations no matter the size it makes sense as it takes money to run any operation. RBR can not wait to see how Wall Street spins the happenings from last week and if May's words are true that Clear Channel is not like other radio companies.
