The rotating door at Cumulus AAA 104.5 KFOG San Francisco/97.7 KFFG Los Altos CA continues to turn as Mat Bates joins the station as Program Director.
Bates, formerly known on-air as ‘Mat Diablo’, joins KFOG from Pandora where he was Director of Rock & Alternative. He also worked at streaming platforms Rdio and Slacker in senior management positions. In his previous radio industry run, Bates programmed Alternative “91X” XETRA-FM San Diego, “100.3 The X” KQXR Boise, and 100.9 KRZQ Reno.
Bates succeeds Bryan Schock, who quietly exited recently.
Cumulus Media announces that it has appointed senior programming professional Mat Bates as Program Director of KFOG-FM in San Francisco, effective Wednesday, August 2, 2017.
Mat Bates was most recently Head of Programming- Rock Formats at Pandora. He was previously Global Head of Music and Curation at Rdio, Sr. Manager/Radio Programming at Slacker Radio, and prior to that, spent a decade in broadcast radio at 91X, KXTE, KQXR, and KRZQ.
Justin Wittmayer, Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Media-San Francisco, said: “Mat Bates is poised to take the Bay Area’s most indelible Rock brand, KFOG, into the future with his unique professional background and successes marrying broadcast radio with digital platforms. He lives the format, is well connected in the Bay Area, and brings a new mindset to KFOG. Mat will work with the KFOG team to bring Rock’s past and future together in a powerful alchemy that listeners and advertisers will respond to in a big way.”
Bates said: “I’ve spent the last decade applying the best parts of broadcast radio to emerging digital platforms. I’m really excited to now take the things that music tech does well and apply those to such a legendary and beloved radio station. KFOG already has all the necessary pieces; it’s up to us to assemble them correctly now.”
He added: “Lots of gratitude towards Justin Wittmayer, Mike Anthony, Mike McVay, Dave Milner, Troy Hanson and Aaron Roberts for their trust and leadership. It was working with Cumulus on behalf of the RDIO joint venture that made me realize that I never shook the radio bug, so it’s perfect to be coming back with this specific crew.”
