Read more here.The trade press was pleasantly surprised by the announcement by Clear Channel Communications that Bob Pittman had made a personal investment in the company and would be head of its Media and Entertainment Group, which includes its digital and radio operations.
Media stories of the announcement have cited Bob's successes at MTV, Six Flags, AOL, and Time Warner, but have under-reported his successes in radio, which is typical of media coverage of radio, the Rodney Dangerfield of media.
Bob will change that perception and get radio some respect -- and radio already has gained some traction in the respect category just by the fact that a media icon, who Advertising Age honored as one of "Ten Marketers Who Transformed American Culture," has come back to radio.
Interestingly, the initial media coverage had Pittman coming to Clear Channel to oversee digital - radio didn't get any respect - because that was Pittman's perceived expertise due to his AOL success. Media memories are short; they forget that Pittman was one of the greatest programmers in the history of radio. And I can make a reasonable case for claiming he was best radio programmer ever. He won big and quickly in a variety of formats.
Most of the great radio programmers, such as Todd Storz, Bill Drake, Paul Drew, Rick Sklar, Tom Donahue, and Buzz Bennett were one-trick ponies who won in a single format. But Pittman won in many formats: Hot Hits (WPEZ-FM), Country (WMAQ-AM, the biggest and fastest turnaround in major market radio history), Album Rock (WKQX-FM), and Top 40 (WNBC-AM in some demos). He programmed WKQX-FM while he was also Program Director of sister station WMAQ-AM and he also recorded his mid-day shift (the station was automated, which was unheard of for a winning station at that time), and, furthermore, he starred in the TV commercials for WKQX. He did it all -- he knows how to win in radio, just like he knew how to win in TV and on the Internet.
Charles Warner is an active blogger at Media Curmudgeon.com and teaches in the Media Management Program at The New School and at NYU. He is also the Goldenson Chair Emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
He was a Vice President of AOL Interactive Marketing from 1998 through 2002 and taught at the Missouri School of Journalism from 1988 to 1998. Before that he was VP and general manager of WNBC-AM, New York; WMAQ-AM and WKQX-FM, Chicago; WWSW-AM and WPEZ-FM, Pittsburgh; and CBS Radio Spot Sales.
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