CBS Radio names new chief executive after sales decline
In the wake of declining radio revenue, CBS Corp. said Monday that it was replacing Joel Hollander, chief executive of CBS Radio, with a former president of the group, Dan Mason.
The nation’s second-largest radio group announced this year that revenue declined 7% in the year ended Dec. 31 after shock jock Howard Stern was lured from CBS to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
Advertisers were not impressed with CBS’ replacement programming, which included a show hosted by singer David Lee Roth, said Jeffrey York, Washington bureau chief of industry publication Radio & Records.
Hollander was blamed for the company’s flagging financials even though any executive probably would have had trouble hanging on to Stern, who received a five-year, $500-million contract from Sirius, York said.
Hollander served as president and chief operating officer of the company from May 2003 to January 2005, when the group was called Infinity Broadcasting. He was promoted to CEO in 2005.
It’s a tough time for big radio conglomerates such as CBS that are struggling to attract advertisers at a time when listeners are eschewing radio for iPods and Internet radio.
“Radio has had some real challenges the last several years,” said Jeff Pollock, chairman of global entertainment for consulting firm Pollock Media Group in Los Angeles. “You have to be agile today.”
The company said that Mason, who served as president of CBS Radio from 1995 to 2002 and has been a consultant to the company for the last five years, was the right person to help the division flourish.
“His perspectives on how radio can thrive and grow in our highly competitive media world are very exciting,” said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp., in a statement Monday.
Separately, CBS Corp. said Monday that it had elected four directors to its board: music executive Doug Morris; film producer Arnold Kopelson; Los Angeles businesswoman Linda Griego; and Gary L. Countryman, former chairman of Liberty Mutual Group.
The appointments bring the size of the board to 13, and underscore Moonves’ goal of building a full-fledged media company with music and film divisions.
Morris is CEO of Universal Music Group and former head of Atlantic Records and Warner Music. Kopelson has produced 27 movies including “Platoon” and “The Fugitive.” Griego runs her own management company that oversees the operations of her downtown L.A. restaurant, Engine Co. 28.
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Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.
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