CBS’s San Fran GM Bruno Cohen To Retire

Veteran broadcast, cable and syndication executive Bruno Cohen today announced his intention to retire later this year, coinciding with his 40th anniversary in the television industry.

Cohen has been president and general manager of the CBS Television Station group’s San Francisco Bay Area properties (DMA 6), KPIX (CBS) and KBCW (CW), as well as KSTW, the CBS-owned CW affiliate in Seattle, since September 2012. He will continue in these roles until a successor has been named by CBS Television Stations President Peter Dunn.

Cohen has been part of the CBS Television Stations family for the past 13 years, beginning in 2004, when he joined the company as GM of KMAX Sacramento, Calif., and a year later became president-GM of KOVR Sacramento and KMAX following CBS’s acquisition of KOVR. In 2008, he was named presidentGM of WBBM Chicago, a position he held for four years prior to returning to Northern California.

Cohen, who grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from Palo Alto Senior High School, previously worked for KPIX from 1979 to 1986, first as the station’s executive news producer and later as news director.

In all, Cohen has spent almost a third of his 40-year career with KPIX.

“I feel extremely fortunate to have had the privilege of working for CBS and with a best-in-the-business group of colleagues here in San Francisco, as well as in Chicago and Sacramento,” Cohen said. “As someone who grew up in the Bay Area and raised my sons here, it has meant a lot for me to be able to return to KPIX, put the exclamation point on an enjoyable and fulfilling career and now bow out on my own terms.”

“Bruno has long been one of our top general managers and has done a tremendous job for us everywhere he’s been,” Dunn said. “He has always been great at staying ahead of the curve and finding innovative ways to grow our local businesses. While we wish he would stay, we respect his decision to retire while he’s still at the top of his game. We hope Bruno and [his wife] Lydia enjoy this next chapter of their lives. They deserve all the best that life has to offer.”

Before joining the CBS Television Stations group, Cohen was SVP of programming and EVP of business news for CNBC from 1996 to 2002.  During this time, he oversaw the development of CNBC’s primetime and signature daytime business news coverage. Prior to that, Cohen was VP and news director for WNBC New York from 1992 to 1996.

Cohen’s background also includes work as a syndicated programming development executive for Buena Vista Productions in 1987-92.  Prior to his first stint with KPIX, he served as a news producer for KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh from 1978-79, and he got his start in television as a news producer for KEZI Eugene, Ore.