Cook, Frey, Thomas To VP As Cumulus Grows Programming:  

Cumulus/Nashville OM Charlie Cook has been named VP/Country, Corporate PD Greg Frey has been upped to VP/Programming Operations and Corporate PD/Country & Classic Hits Brian Thomas has been named VP/Classic Hits in a massive reorganization of the company's programming department. Joining Cumulus are VP/Ratings & Research Dr. Ed Cohen, VP/Programming Operations Doug Hamand, VP/CHR & Hot AC Cat Thomas, VP/Analytics Ralph Cipolla and VP/Urban Ken Johnson. Additionally, format VPs have been promoted from within for AC, Rock, News Talk and Classic Rock. John Kilgo continues as VP/Label Relations.

"Who knows their markets better than the people who live and work there?" CEO Mary Berner says in a lengthy statement from the company. "We believe that the injection of more local insight and more effective corporate support into our programming decisions will drive improved ratings outcomes for our stations. Consistent with this view, Cumulus program directors will now report to market managers and will have control over the day-to-day programming of their stations, which has not been the case in the past. Our corporate programming team, with its specialized resources and expertise, will be led by Mike McVay and will support the markets in the execution of this content strategy and in the creation of programming that surprises and delights—and delivers ratings.”

McVay, SVP/Content & Programming, says, "Our goal is to create a high caliber group of corporate programming talents and resources that can be deployed efficiently and expeditiously to the benefit of local markets. We firmly believe that by rooting programming decisions in the markets, we are taking best advantage of local knowledge and insights while giving local decision-makers access to resources they might not otherwise have."

Reach Cook here, Frey here and Thomas here.