• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 2, 2008

Just days after renewing his contract for another five years, Clear Channel Radio's President and CEO John Hogan unveiled a new management structure for the company, with the hierarchy organized by the size of different markets.

The reorganization is the culmination of a long-term plan formulated by Hogan several years ago, aiming to make regional management more accountable and the company in general more nimble, with faster decision-making and more flexible allocation of resources.

At the top of the totem pole are Tom Schurr and Susan Karis, who will serve as executive vice presidents of operations for the Eastern and Western regions, where most of the big radio markets are located. Schurr will oversee East Coast markets, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Boston. Karis will oversee West Coast operations, including Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco.

Beneath Schurr and Karis, Senior Vice Presidents Mark Kopelman and George Toulas will have responsibility for mid-sized markets, operating out of Houston and Miami, respectively. There are also two promotions in the mix: Tom Thon and Dave Crowl have both been named senior vice presidents of operations, responsible for overseeing smaller markets from their respective headquarters in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.

In a parallel structure, Hogan is bringing back the position of senior vice president of programming, with responsibility for specific regions, to work alongside the sales executives. Brad Hardin, Darren Davis, and Clay Hunnicutt are all being promoted to the revived position, and will assume programming responsibilities at the three regional tiers listed above. It's still unclear to which regions each executive has been assigned.

The reorganization based on market size comes as the radio business seems to have split in two, with smaller markets faring better, on the whole, than larger markets. Clear Channel's new management structure is probably intended, in part, to allow closer scrutiny of struggling big-market stations, and facilitate intervention if needed.