Dan Mason began his career in radio doing overnights at WKLO in Kentucky. In 1974 he moved to nights at Z-93 / WZGC-FM in Atlanta. He was later named Asst. PD and became Program Director in 1975.

Dan joined WPGC in May of 1977 when the Great Strike That Struck Out occured. He continued as Program Director after being named the National Program Director for First Media until he left for the General Manager position at KTSA / KTFM in San Antonio in 1979.

He later returned to First Media where he was named Executive Vice President. When First Media became Cook Inlet Radio Partners, he was named that organization's President in 1988. In 1993, he joined Westinghouse as President of Group W Radio.

He was named President of CBS Radio (renamed Infinity Radio) in November of 1995 where he was responsible for the operation of the group's 184 stations in the largest markets across the United States. As President of Infinity Radio, he successfully integrated the original CBS, Group W and American Radio Systems stations, among the most venerable radio broadcasting groups in the country, by merging operations, blending business styles and increasing profitability.

He currently serves as an advisor and consultant to companies in the radio broadcasting industry since his retirement from Infinity Radio in 2002 and also serves on the Board of Directors of Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. He has previously served on several other boards including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and CBS Marketwatch.com. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Dan Mason graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcasting. He was named that university's "Outstanding Alumnus of the Year" in 1995.

In 2002, he was named Radio Executive of the Year by Radio & Records Magazine.

Dan then formed a partnership with longtime radio programmer, Walt Sabo, Sabo-Mason International Inititatives.

In March 2007, he was once again named President and CEO of CBS Radio, overseeing 144 properties nationwide.

Read legendary consultant Kent Burkhart's article on Dan from 2006.

Read an interview with Dan in Friday Morning Quarterback in 08/24/07.

 

 

Dan writes:

On the Strike and its aftermath in 1977

In the beginning it was total chaos...I got into town about midnight just as the strike began...I did morning drive the first morning and Bill Prettyman was reading the news believe it or not.....He sounded pretty good by the way...Little by little we hired new people...Dave Foxx came from our Provo station...we hired Brandt Miller to do afternoons...Waylon Richards had worked with me a few years before in Kansas City and finally Liz Kiley came from Grand Rapids,. I believe she was a former school teacher.

Within 4 months, the staff began to gel and within a year, WPGC had tied WMAL for the number one position in the market....It was quite an accomplishment...I left to take a VP/GM job at KTSA / KTFM in San Antonio and Scott Shannon came in and even made it a better station.

On Becoming National PD for First Media

My duties had increased when I was the National PD for First Media...We had acquired KOPA in Phoenix, WZLX in Boston, WUSN in Chicago, KFMK in Houston and KUBE in Seattle....That meant much more travel and I wasn't physically there to do an airshift at WPGC anymore...I still did Thanksgiving and Christmas shifts so the full timers would have some holiday time off...And I did afternoon sports on Brandt Miller's show when I could...We sold that report at 5:30PM.

On Memorable Station Promotions

Toys for Tots - Major, major success....We had some big groups and gathered so many toys for kids around the area...we filled the Cap Center every year we did the show...

Unknown Star - Overwhelming number of entries...hey..does Fox give us any credit for this idea?....We did the record company contract as the Grand Prize...We had a couple of really good people...One I remember very well..Andris Plavnicks (sp?)...He was a Steven Bishop sound alike...

Uncle Richard - When Star Wars came out..we went out and got a 55 gallon drum and painted it blue...Smitty and Newt put lights all,over it and we had a triple decker cart machine with Star Wars type respones ...We actually had someone get into the drum to run the equipment...We took it on remotes...Last I heard, the drum is still at the transmitter building ...no doubt gathering a lot of dust.

On the Format Change

Many stations at that time were successfully coverting to AC from CHR..WNCI in Columbus is the best modern day example of this...They have great adult numbers...It was a gamble but with Q107 pounding us on the younger end, we thought we could migrate to the 25-34 women demo.

 

 

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