Dan Mason: 'Don't Write Radio's Obit Just Yet'

Dan Mason

For all the challenges it faces, including ever-growing competition for listeners, retiring CBS Radio president and CEO Dan Mason says that if radio keeps its ear to the ground, it will stay vital.

“Nothing duplicates what radio can deliver when it’s live and local,” Mason tells David Hincklyat The NY Daily News. “AM/FM will continue because that’s where so much content still comes from.

“It’s the hub of the wheel. The spokes fan out from there.”

Mason said Monday he’s leaving the job he has held since 2007, and previously from 1995 until 2002. His successor will be Andre Fernandez.

Mason says he’s confident CBS Radio is well positioned.

“The main goal when I came back was creating unique content,” he says, and he cites several steps including switching WCBS-FM back from the “Jack” format to “classic hits” (in 2007) was “a 400-foot home run.”

After he leaves, he plans to keep a hand in radio with the Broadcasters Foundation.