Farid Suleman
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Farid Suleman is the current chairman and CEO of Citadel Broadcasting. For years at Infinity Radio, Suleman was the main assistant of Mel Karmazin, who has since made a move to head up Sirius Satellite Radio.
Farid was instrumental in radio personalities Opie and Anthony purchasing Citadel stock during the initial IPO, a move the pair have much lamented on their program on XM Satellite Radio. Citadel's stock has dropped like a stone recently. Although satellite radio has pulled a few million people away from commercial radio, the AM/FM band retains the largest bulk of available audience.
In late 2004, Suleman made headlines by cutting Howard Stern's radio show from five Citadel stations, citing Stern's frequent discussions regarding his upcoming move to Sirius Satellite Radio. In a baffling subsequent decision, he temporarily replaced Stern in the Syracuse market with Opie and Anthony, airing their XM show and thus giving satellite radio more exposure than keeping Stern would have. The following ratings books for WAQX(Citadel's Syracuse station) saw a severe drop, suffering even greater losses than stations tend to experience after dropping Stern. Arbitron data estimated WAQX lost about 80% of its audience in just one ratings period. Howard Stern claims that while working for Viacom, Suleman once mistakenly cut him a check for over a million dollars. Stern implied to his listeners on his then-syndicated radio show that he saved Suleman's reputation and career by quietly returning the check without notifying Viacom CEO Mel Karmazin.
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