Pappas Names New President

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/12/2004 9:42:00 AM

Dennis Davis, senior executive vice president, strategy and investments for Pappas Telecasting Cos., has been named president and chief operating officer of the Visalia, Calif.-based station owner.

That post has been vacant since January 2004, when Peter Chrisanthopolous abruptly resigned after only a few months on the job. He had been brought in to lighten the management load on Chairman Harry J. Pappas, who then reassumed some of those duties.

Davis has been with Pappas for more than 20 years, joining in 1983 when the company comprised a single station. The company owns 25 TV stations and operates another three through local marketing agreements.

Howard H. Shrier, Senior Executive VP and COO of the TV stations division (Pappas also owns radio stations), will keep the COO title but report to Davis.

Davis takes over a Pappas group that has been much in the news of late, including publicly supporting the FCC's crackdown on indecency, getting into hot water with some candidates for a donation of airtime that favored Republicans, and most recently for joining other groups in preempting Saving Private Ryan.

As part of its stand on indecency, Pappas argued strongly that the networks did not give stations sufficient power to preempt objectionable programming.