Meet CBS Radio’s New Traffic Cop

CBS Radio continues to bolster its executive ranks leading up to its impending IPO and split from Viacom and rebranding — Fred Bennett joins the company as Vice President and General Manager, Traffic Operations and Partnerships, effective Monday, November 21. In this newly created role, Bennett will be charged with building an in-house traffic content and sales operation to serve CBS Radio’s 117 radio stations in 26 markets and corresponding websites. He will be based at the company’s NYC headquarters and report to Scott Herman, Chief Operating Officer, CBS Radio.

Bennett will also be working to create a content-specific group — composed of reporters and editors — which will create comprehensive local traffic reports to air on CBS Radio stations and their online properties. A dedicated sales team will focus on selling sponsorships within and around the traffic reports to regional and local advertisers. Bennett will also oversee CBS Radio’s relationship with Radiate Media, its new traffic content partner that will supply customized data and also sell national sponsorships within traffic reports. The Radiate deal is scheduled to launch on April 1, 2017.
Bennett most served as the President/CRO of Townsquare Media’s WKXW (New Jersey 101.5)/Trenton, NJ. Before that he was Chief Business Development Officer for Jelli, Inc. and he held a number of executive roles at Westwood One, including President of Metro Television, EVP of Affiliate Sales & Business Operations of Metro Traffic and SVP, Advertising Sales of Metro Traffic. Earlier in his career, Bennett held various senior level sales and operations positions with WABC/New York, Pamal Broadcasting and Shadow Traffic. Herman said, “Fred’s 20-plus-year background in the traffic business coupled with his experience in radio station sales and management make him uniquely qualified to lead our traffic content and sales operations.”