In late July, Bob Philips relinquished his role as Chief Revenue Officer for Audacy Inc., thanks to his appointment by the company as President of Audacy Networks and Multi-Market Sales.
Subsequently, a search for his successor began, with Audacy seeking an individual who could “drive this growth and expansion, especially in the digital arena.”
In the end, Audacy selected the founder and former President of Katz Digital — an individual who also served as President of Christal Radio within the Katz Media Group and General Sales Manager for iHeartMedia‘s East Coast Top 40 flagship, “Z100.”
That would be Brian Benedik, who excelled as the head of sales for WHTZ-FM in New York for iHeartMedia, among other key highlights across a nearly 30-year career in radio. He begins his new role as Audacy’s Chief Revenue Officer on December 1.
“As a key member of the executive team, Benedik will lead all aspects of revenue generation across corporate, national, regional and local levels and develop fully integrated, multiplatform sales solutions and breakthrough strategies to attract new revenue streams,” Audacy says.
He reports to Chief Operating Officer Susan Larkin, who was thrilled to be welcoming Benedik to the C-Suite. “His resume speaks for itself, with key roles at audio publishers like Spotify, iHeart Radio, Audible and Katz Media, where his strategic vision enabled the former to quickly elevate from a newcomer in our industry to a multi-billion dollar leader in the audio streaming space. Brian’s considerable expertise and experience will amplify our revenue generation efforts as Audacy continues its upward trajectory.”
Benedik added, “The audio industry is booming with innovation and consumers are enjoying wonderful content experiences across a number of platforms. The Audacy re-imagination efforts are beyond impressive and the portfolio of assets across radio, streaming, podcast, live events, sports play-by-play and sports betting are best in class. I’m looking forward to working with David Field, Susan Larkin and the Audacy executive team to drive value to marketers and our loyal users.”
Benedik joins Audacy from Niantic, an Augmented Reality (AR) developer platform and real world gaming publisher, where he served as VP/Global Head of Revenue.
Before that, he spent seven years at Spotify. There, he was SVP/Global Head of Sales and Operations, leading a team of over 550 people in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. As the leader of the Spotify Global Advertising Business, Benedik oversaw the direct, programmatic, podcast, re-seller and self serve platform teams as well as ad and sales operations, trading, global agency and accounts and training groups.
Audacy requires all incoming employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. As such, Benedik is required to provide proof of vaccination, which will be kept confidential.
How much will Benedik earn?
When Philips was CRO, his salary was $715,993 — the fourth-highest salary by job title in the telecommunications industry as measured by Salary.com for FY 2020.
Of Philips’ total earnings in 2020, $555,900 was received as a salary, $138,986 was awarded as stock and $21,107 came from other types of compensation, SEC filings confirm.
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