Dan Mason Addresses Post-Imus CBS

Dan Mason

The NY POST's PETER LAURIA writes in today's issue that DAN MASON has jumped head-first into the post-IMUS world of CBS RADIO. MASON will add the task of rehabilitating CBS RADIO's public image to a laundry list of other remedies for the group that includes growing revenue, gaining traction on the Internet and finding a way to remain relevant against satellite radio and mobile music competition when he officially takes the helm today.

"It's been an unusual chain of events, there's no doubt about that," MASON said in an interview with the POST. So unusual, in fact, that though MASON reported to work all last week to help deal with the fallout from the IMUS scandal, he dealt only with CBS management and has yet to address employees of the radio group.

I'm going to give the programmers and general managers at the station level a lot of autonomy over content...

When he does speak with them today, he plans to tell them that he wants his leadership at CBS RADIO to be marked by a focus on local content and worldwide distribution.

MASON freely admits, for instance, that many of the company's 144 stations are "ratings challenged," but said that wasn't due to format changes or market competition but rather to programming inertia.

"I'm going to give the programmers and general managers at the station level a lot of autonomy over content," MASON said. "I want the focus to be local and have the corporation pull up rather than push down programming."

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