There were still more key changes in CBS station management Monday, as the group replaced
Joel Cheatwood as WCBS-TV news director with Dianne Doctor, who has been
news director at Swanson's former shop, top-rated WNBC(TV).
The station group said Cheatwood will continue with the group overseeing news
research and special projects -- a job description likely to continue the
speculation about Cheatwood's future with the group that began when Swanson took
over.
WCBS-TV general manager Lew Leone -- who only last month left the NBC group
along with new Viacom Inc. executive vice president Dennis Swanson, who had been
Doctor's GM at WNBC -- called Doctor "a proven news executive who
played a key role in leading NewsChannel 4 to the top of the ratings in New
York."
Since Swanson's defection to CBS, WNBC had brought back Dan Forman as station
manager with news oversight -- he had left the station to run news at
WABC-TV.
Sources at WNBC had said at the time, though, that Doctor and Forman had
worked well together in the past and that Forman's return would not cause Doctor
to leave.
