Tribune Company has tapped John Reardon to be the new president/CEO for its broadcast group. Reardon, a 20-year Tribune veteran, will oversee the company’s 26 TV stations, WGN Superstation, WGN Radio and Tribune Entertainment.
Tribune also named John Vitanovec to be executive VP. Both Reardon and Vitanovec have since March 2004 been group vice presidents.
Reardon takes over for former Tribune Broadcast chief Pat Mullen, who exited last month.
“John Reardon's background in sales management at WGN-TV, his experience as general manager of KTLA, and most recently his role as regional vice president make him particularly well qualified to lead our broadcasting group," Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune's chairman and CEO said in a statement. “John Vitanovec has served as general manager at Tribune stations in two of the country's largest markets, Boston and Chicago, and has overseen tremendous growth at Superstation WGN. Tribune is fortunate to have these two talented and experienced leaders as part of its management team."
Most recently, Reardon has been responsible for Tribune stations in the West and South. From 1996 to 2004, he was general manager of KTLA Los Angeles.
Vitanovec has headed up TV stations in the central and east regions, as well as WGN Superstation. From 1999 to 2004, he was GM of the company’s flagship station WGN Chicago.
