TVSpy
Peter Dunn, the president and general manager of CBS flagship station WCBS in New York, has been named president of CBS Television Stations. CBS chief Leslie Moonves announced on Monday that Dunn would be replacing Tom Kane, who had headed the station group since 2005.
“Peter has been a terrific leader in every role he’s had at our station group,” Moonves said in making the announcement. “He knows how to deliver results and inspire the best work from his people, and knows the local marketplace as well as anyone.”
Dunn will remain at WCBS while taking on operations of the 28 other CBS stations. He has been with CBS since 2002, when he became president and general manager of Philadelphia stations KYW and WPSG. For Dunn, working for CBS television is a family tradition–his father served as an engineer for WCBS and the network.
While Dunn’s ascension to the top of CBS may come as a surprise to some, Kane’s exit from the post, according to reports, is not. Paige Albiniak of Broadcasting & Cable points out that people within CBS have been speculating about Kane’s departure for the last year. The rough economy certainly must have weighed on Kane with the CBS station group showing a 30% drop in revenues in the second quarter right around the same time that he agreed to a short-term contract extension. “Tom has navigated our stations through the roughest economy weve known, and he has done so with a sure and steady hand,” Moonves said in a statement.
Maybe the person least surprised by Dunn’s promotion is Kane, a 40-year industry veteran. In an interview last year, Kane praised Dunn for his “devilish persistence.”