Citadel Broadcasting remains mum on any public announcement of its top leadership structure following next week's acquisition of ABC Radio, but we have gotten some details from announcements made to ABC Radio staffers. Veteran ABC Radio President John Hare is indeed retiring after nearly four decades in radio and serving in his current position since 1999.
ABC O&O stations boss Mitch Dolan will continue to oversee the big market stations that Citadel is acquiring in the ABC deal. We understand that he will report directly to CEO Farid Suleman, while COO Judy Ellis continues to oversee the current Citadel portfolio. ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson will stay put as the network operation moves from Disney to Citadel.
RBR observation: As we noted before, don't look for a lot of changes. Suleman didn't buy these beachfront properties as fixer-uppers. He may have some ideas about how to tweak operations to boost cash flow, but these are definitely not stations in need of overhauling.
