Audacy Shifts To Content-First Model, Realigns Regional Leadership.

Audacy CEO Kelly Turner has unveiled a major organizational overhaul aimed at modernizing the company’s operations and positioning the broadcaster for growth in a digital, multi-market environment. In a memo to staff, Turner outlined a shift away from the traditional market-based structure toward a content-first model organized by format verticals, along with changes to regional leadership responsibilities.

Under the new approach, Audacy will organize its programming and content teams by verticals such as news, sports, country, and alternative, rather than by geography. Turner said the move is designed to better leverage the company’s scale and talent, while enabling stronger collaboration and resource sharing across markets.

“For decades, radio has been organized by market geography,” Turner wrote. “This legacy model doesn’t best serve our business in today’s digital, multi-market landscape, or leverage the extraordinary talent and scale we have within our formats.”

Beginning this week, all programming teams and content operations will be aligned by vertical. The change is intended to unlock greater scale, enhance expertise for brand managers, and allow market leaders to focus more intensely on revenue generation.

To lead the restructured content organization, Chief Business Officer and New York Market President Chris Oliviero will oversee Programming, Podcast, and Product, continuing to report directly to Turner. Reporting to Oliviero will be Leah Reis-Dennis, who will continue to lead podcast strategy; John Pacino, overseeing product; and Jeff Sottolano, who will continue to run programming in collaboration with Audacy’s central team and format vice presidents. Brand Managers will now report directly to their respective Format VPs.

On the revenue side, Turner announced that Chief Revenue Officer Bob Philips and EVP of Revenue Operations Liz Mozian will now report directly to her, a move she said ensures Audacy’s sales strategies evolve in step with its content operations.

In addition, Turner confirmed changes to Audacy’s regional leadership structure following Brian Purdy’s transition from Regional President to Senior Advisor. The markets previously overseen by Purdy have been redistributed among the company’s remaining Regional Presidents, creating larger regional groupings.

Under the updated structure, Jeff Federman will oversee the West region, including Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Seattle. Mark Hannon will lead the East and Central region, covering Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Hartford, Houston, Kansas City, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, Richmond, Rochester, Springfield, St. Louis, Washington, DC, Wichita, and Wilkes-Barre. Claudia Menegus will oversee the Southeast region, including Chattanooga, Gainesville, Greensboro, Greenville, Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, and Orlando.

Turner said the changes are designed to support Audacy’s long-term strategy of building a more agile and future-facing organization, while maintaining a strong commitment to local radio.

“Both of these changes — being content-first and creating larger regional groups — continue to support our goals of creating an agile, dynamic, future-facing Audacy,” Turner wrote. “Local radio remains a lifeblood, and this helps make us even stronger and better as the business evolves.”