Cap Cities /ABC Radio Shake-Up Affects L.A.

In the wake of Walt Disney Co.’s recent acquisition, the radio division of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. underwent a shake-up Wednesday with the company’s three Los Angeles stations getting a new chief executive.

She is Maureen Lesourd, 47, senior vice president of affiliate relations for ABC-TV in New York and a longtime radio executive, who on Monday becomes president of KABC-AM (790), KMPC-AM (710) and KLOS-FM (95.5).

KABC and KMPC President and General Manager George Green, who has been with KABC since 1960 and station head since 1979, was named vice president for sales training for ABC Radio. Bill Sommers, who joined KLOS in 1973 and became general manager in 1978, is retiring, having announced his intention to do so last year.

The moves, coupled with changes at ABC stations in New York and in the executive ranks of the radio division, were announced by Robert F. Callahan, president of ABC Radio, who oversees the company’s 10 FM and 11 AM stations across the nation. Callahan took his new position on April 8.

Talk-radio station KABC ranked 12th in the most recent Arbitron ratings for the Los Angeles market, below third-ranked talk rival KFI-AM (640), whereas KMPC, also a talk outlet, didn’t make the Top 25. Rock station KLOS was 16th, trailing other pop music outlets such as KPWR-FM (105.9), KIIS-FM (102.7) and KROQ-FM (106.7).

Lesourd said she was “looking forward to really continuing the great tradition of quality broadcasting that this incredible team of stations has given Los Angeles for so many years. I’m thrilled and excited. My son lives in California. I know a lot of people at [the stations] already. . . . I’ve spent most of my career in radio and was successful at it, and [Callahan] liked that success.”

Lesourd had been vice president of WQCD-FM in New York from 1993 to 1995. Before that she spent 12 years at ABC, including five years as president and general manager of WRQX-FM in Washington.