New game plan for ESPN Radio bosses

ESPN1000Jim Pastor, who headed WMVP AM 1000 for five years before moving up to senior vice president of ESPN Radio, is taking charge of the sports/talk station again.

Under a reorganization of ESPN Audio to be announced Monday, Pastor will oversee ESPN Local, encompassing ESPN Radio 1000 and ESPNChicago.com as well as company-owned stations and websites in New York and Los Angeles. He will continue to be based in Chicago.

The role of general manager at all three stations will be eliminated in the restructuring.

Pastor had been president and general manager of ESPN Radio 1000 until 2009, when he was named senior vice president of the newly created ESPNLocal.com. At that time, John Cravens, the station's director of sales, was named vice president and general manager.

Cravens will shift to vice president of Local Revenue, while Scott McCarthy, current general manager of KSPN in Los Angeles, will shift to vice president of Local Content. Both will report to Pastor.

“The successful partnership of our ESPN local websites and owned radio stations has helped our local business thrive," Traug Keller, ESPN senior vice president, production business divisions, said in a statement. ESPN Audio consists of ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes Radio, ESPNRadio.com and ESPN Podcasts.

Jim Pastor

Jim Pastor

A 20-year veteran of ABC Radio, Pastor served as vice president of sales and marketing for Radio DIsney before he was named president and general manager of ESPN Radio 1000 and the former WZZN FM 94.7 in 2004. He previously was a media supervisor at Foote, Cone & Belding in Chicago.

In the latest Nielsen Audio Portable People Meter survey, ESPN 1000 tied for 25th place with a 1.5 percent share and cumulative weekly audience of 554,300. Its main competitor, CBS Radio sports/talk WSCR AM 670, tied for 15th with a 2.5 share and 641,200 weekly cume. Among listeners between 25 and 54, ESPN 1000 was 23rd with a 2.0 share. The Score was 15th with a 2.6 share.