Marty Franks is on the last leg of his journey as CBS Executive Vice President, Planning, Policy and Government Affairs. The 25-year CBS veteran will be retiring 9/30/13 in order to start checking items off his non-CBS to-do list.
He said that CBS is a special place, and that he will miss everybody “from the board room to the mail room.”
CBS’s Leslie Moonves said he accepted the resignation with reluctance. “The CBS we know today would not have been possible without Marty’s contributions over the past 25 year. He was instrumental in enacting Retransmission Consent, and then helped turn it into what is now a fast-growing, nine-figure revenue source for our Company.”
Moonves also hailed Franks’ role in allowing networks to own their own programming, resulting in new domestic and international revenue streams.
NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith also weighed in, saying, “If there was ever an unsung superstar in the broadcast business, it was Marty Franks. For a quarter of a century, Marty has personified professionalism at CBS. His wise Washington guidance helped broadcasters procure retransmission consent fees in the 1992 Cable Act; as Leslie Moonves’s ‘go-to guy’ in New York, Marty has provided counsel and advice as solid as a Black Rock. The NAB family wishes Marty a long and active retirement.”
