Early in Scott Herman’s freshman year at Brooklyn College in 1976, the newcomer was having a rough time adapting. “I wanted to drop out,” Herman remembered. “My father suggested I join a club.”
Scott’s first inclination was to join the school newspaper to write about sports, but “I didn’t like the kids,” he said, “so I didn’t join.”
He saw a sign for WBCR, the college radio station, which ended up giving him a weekly 45-second sportscast. It turned out to be a bit of work.
“I’d sit in that student union building for four hours to write that 45 seconds to make it perfect,” said Herman, who as a kid would call New York Mets games into his tape recorder while watching on television with the sound off.
If it weren’t for that pivot, broadcasting might have lost out on a beloved executive, who retired in 2017 as chief operating officer of CBS Radio, where he spent 39 years.
Herman became GM of WBCR in his junior year. His professor hosted a religion program for the all-news AM station WINS New York, at the time owned by Group W. “I was [Sister Camille’s] favorite student,” said Herman, who asked her for a recommendation letter. “The [WINS] news director asked me, ‘Do you know how to cut tape? Do you know news?’ ”
Instead of an internship, Herman received a job working Saturday mornings as a news production assistant at $3.85 an hour in 1978. “I basically never left the company,” said Herman, who ended up overseeing all operations for CBS Radio’s 117 radio stations in 26 markets.
I’d sit in that student union building for four hours to write that 45 seconds to make it perfect.”
Scott Herman
He went on to work in television as well. In 1987, he became news director of KYW Philadelphia. Earlier in his career, he held the title at its sister radio station. “I probably would have never left television if it wasn’t for [former CBS Radio CEO] Dan Mason offering me in 1993 to be general manager of WINS, where I started my career,” Herman said, seizing the opportunity to return to New York.
Mason recognized Herman as “an up and coming rock-star who others gravitate to by spreading confidence all over the room,” Mason said.
Herman’s lead-by-example style made an impression early in the career of Jennifer Donohue, now a senior VP at The Walt Disney Co. “Scott was always the first to arrive at the office or early for a client meeting,” she said, recalling meeting him in the early 2000s at CBS in New York. “Scott provided me validation that I could be myself in the industry, an Asian-American female leader.”
Audacy market president Chris Oliviero noted Herman mentoring “coast to coast” radio professionals. “Most importantly, [Herman] achieved that success while maintaining compassion, decency and a genuine caring for all that crossed his path,” said Oliviero, who worked with Herman at CBS Radio for almost 20 years.
At the time of his retirement seven years ago, he was leaving “an incredibly profitable” company, he said, that did $300 million in cash flow and almost $2 billion in billings.
“I’m very lucky that I made a great living,” Herman said.
A Life’s Work of Helping
Herman had been offered a high-level executive position with Entercom (now Audacy), which bought CBS Radio from CBS Corp. (now part of Paramount Global) in 2017. “The more I thought about it the more I didn’t want to do it,” he said, without regrets opting for retirement and the foundation instead.
These days, Herman’s “life’s work,” he said, is chairing the Broadcasters Foundation of America (BFA), a voluntary position he began four years ago. The foundation gives annual grants totaling $2 million a year to several hundred industry professionals dealing with debilitating illnesses or in financial need as a result of natural disasters.
He has another two years to go in the chairman role. Herman remains a dedicated radio listener in retirement. In the car, he goes back and forth between a dozen Sirius XM and over-the-air radio stations, including WINS and WFAN.
Many years after his sportscast debuted on WBCR, Herman remains a fan of the medium. He said, “I’m still a huge consumer of sports radio.”
