CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO SECURES TOP PROGRAMMING TALENT TO LONG-TERM
CONTRACTS; EXPANDED ROLES FOR FOUR
Darren Davis, Brad Hardin, Clay Hunnicutt, Phil Hunt and Tom Poleman
Promoted
Alfredo Alonso, Tom Owens, Gene Romano, Alan Sledge Sign Multi-Year
Contracts Along with Senior Programming Team
Clear Channel Radio moved to further lock in its executive and senior
talent today, announcing long-term contracts with its senior programming
team: Alfredo Alonso, Darren Davis, Brad Hardin, Clay Hunnicutt, Phil
Hunt, Tom Owens, Tom Poleman, Gene Romano and Alan Sledge. In addition,
the company promoted Davis, Hardin, Hunnicutt, Hunt and Poleman to
positions that expand each programmer's role.
"Unique, innovative programming engages our
audience and creates long-term loyalty to our station brands and this
team is the best in the business," said John
Hogan, President and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. "We
continue to push the envelope in AM/FM, on-demand, mobile and online
content and take an expanded view of radio's
audience. This is the team that will lead us into radio's
programming future."
The announcement comes in the wake of the signings of Clear Channel
Radio president and CEO John Hogan and the entire executive management
team.
AM/FM radio now attracts a listening audience of 235 million per week,
according to new research from RADAR.
EVPs lead cross-platform programming efforts
Tom Owens, EVP of Content Development, oversees the acquisition and
deployment of talent and other content services, such as the launches of
Steve Harvey, Ryan Seacrest, and Sean Hannity. Additionally, he has
supervised the rollout of HD Radio programming, including the
co-development of the Clear Channel Format Lab, which created more than
75 original formats and supplied programming to more than 300 HD Radio
multicast channels, numerous terrestrial signals, and Sprint mSpot
wireless phones. Owens also oversees Clear Channel Radio's
research units -- Critical Mass Media and
Broadcast Architecture -- along with the
Hispanic programming division. He was recently honored as Radio &
Records Radio Executive of the Year.
Recently promoted to Executive Vice President of Programming, Gene
Romano oversees the west major markets and helps coordinate company wide
programming initiatives such as recruiting and developing top talent in
programming. Romano will work directly with programming teams in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, and
Minneapolis, among others. Previously serving as SVP of Programming, he
developed an overall programming strategy in New York, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, DC and Atlanta, and also created tools
and systems as resources for local programming teams.
Contract expansions & five promoted to regional positions
Alfredo Alonso joined Clear Channel Radio in 2004 and currently serves
as Senior Vice President, Hispanic Radio. He is responsible for leading
the Spanish-language programming initiatives, including expanding the
availability of Spanish-language programming into markets of all sizes.
For mid-major markets, Darren Davis is promoted to SVP of Programming
for the North, South and West, guiding programmers at 148 stations
across 25 markets. Davis previously served as Regional Vice President of
Programming for Clear Channel Chicago and formerly held cluster
programming roles in Houston and Detroit.
Brad Hardin is now SVP of Programming for the east, guiding programmers
at 52 stations across 8 markets. Hardin previously served as Regional
Vice President of Programming for Clear Channel's
radio stations in Florida and formerly held cluster programming roles in
Tampa and Cincinnati.
Also getting upped, Clay Hunnicutt serves both as SVP of Programming for
the eastern region, and also Vice President of Country Programming.
Within his 20-year radio career, Hunnicutt most recently served as
Director of Programming for the Atlanta six station clusters, and
Regional Vice President of Programming in the southeast. He was also
program director for US-101/Chattanooga, the nine-time Country Music
Association Radio Station of the Year.
Phil Hunt is promoted to SVP of Programming for the northeast and
central regions, guiding 40 markets. Previously, he served as Regional
Vice President of Programming in Little Rock, where he was responsible
for strategic initiatives and programming for 19 markets of all sizes.
Expanding his role from SVP of Programming and Marketing for six major
stations in New York, including Z100 (the most listened to station in
the U.S.) and WKTU, Tom Poleman has been upped to SVP of Programming for
Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and New York. He will guide programmers
while continuing to serve as Operations Manager for the Clear Channel
New York cluster. In the September 2008 PPM book, he helped lead the
Clear Channel New York stations to become #1 through #4 among persons
aged 25-54, and #1 and #2 among persons aged 18-34.
Hunnicutt and Poleman both cover the east major markets.
SVP Alan Sledge takes responsibility for markets in the South and West
Regions. He has successfully created programming for radio stations in
Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle and Detroit and, recently,
helped launch and expand the popular Phoenix-based Johnjay and Rich
in the Morning show to Portland, Oregon and Colorado Springs.
The promotions are effective immediately.