Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 15, 2008 at 09:40:14:
In Reply to: Joe Ahern fired by CBS posted by chicagomedia.org on October 14, 2008 at 15:41:37:
Ahern departs ratings-challenged Channel 2
Building gleaming new headquarters for WBBM-Ch. 2 turned out to be easier for Joe Ahern than rebuilding the infamously hobbled CBS-owned station he ran for a little more than six years.
Replacing Ahern as WBBM president and general manager is long-time news and programming executive Mark "Bruno" Cohen, 57, who has run the two CBS-owned stations in Sacramento in recent years.
Ahern, 63, who ran ABC-owned perennial market leader WLS-Ch. 7 from 1985 to 1997, was unable to reverse Channel 2's long-standing ratings woes.
His expensive hire of Channel 7 star newscaster Diann Burns, Chicago's highest paid anchor, failed to pay the dividends he expected. Burns was among several front-line news staffers axed this spring in a cost-cutting move, although her guaranteed $2 million-per-year contract was to expire only this month.
"Bruno Cohen is one of our finest and most innovative general managers and has done a tremendous job of building our Sacramento duopoly, growing our business and creating a strong identity for our stations in the marketplace," Tom Kane, president and chief executive officer of the CBS Television Stations, said in a statement.
"Throughout his career, he has been a winner everywhere he has been, from local stations to national cable news," Kane said. "We are confident that his breadth of experience and outstanding leadership abilities will be extremely well received by our employees as well as business and community leaders in Chicago and will help us to raise the bar considerably in this important market."
Before joining CBS, Cohen was senior vice president of programming and executive vice president of Business News for CNBC and served as vice president and news director for NBC's New York flagship WNBC-TV. He also was a syndicated programming development executive for Buena Vista Productions, and had stints in the news departments of KPIX-TV in San Francisco, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KEZI-TV in Eugene, Ore.
"We would like to thank Joe Ahern for his many years of service," Kane said. "We sincerely appreciate his many contributions, including the development of CBS 2's new state-of-the-art broadcast center, and wish him the best in his future endeavors."
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)