Seeman says sayonora to Clear Channel

GM and Veep for Minneapolis radio division is leaving

With all the talk about Clear Channel's new talk-radio endeavor, things couldn't have appeared to be going better for Dan Seeman, the local exec who has been overseeing the building of KTLK. That's why this afternoon's internal announcement that he was leaving came as a surprise.

"It's with regret I announce the departure of Dan Seeman as VP/General Manager of Clear Channel Radio Minneapolis," wrote regional Clear Channel vice president Mick Anselmo in an e-mail to regional general managers and all local radio employees of the company. "He will be missed at many different levels across our enterprise."

Update: "It was not my decision," Seeman says, calling from his office late Monday evening. "My position was eliminated."

Seeman, a veteran of local radio who started at the old WLOL-FM in 1982, says that the company simply decided that it couldn't carry what essentially amounted to two general managers--Seeman and Anselmo--in one market. (The decision was not Anselmo's either.) "They offered me another market, they asked 'Would you move?'" Seeman says. "I told them it was not an option for me."

A native of Arlington, Minnesota, Seeman has always stayed local. After WLOL, Seeman also did stints at the proto-alterna station, Modern Rock 104, and worked for KFAN-AM, one of the nation's first sports-talk stations, before Clear Channel acquired it in 1999. His next big adventure was KTLK, and Seeman notes, "I've been neck-deep in it."

Seeman, by all accounts reported for this story, was a friendly face in an evil empire, the world's largest radio-station owner. News apparently hit many employees at 1600 Utica, CC's local offices in St. Louis Park, rather hard.

(I've found him to be a total, but benign, pro: adept at deflecting direct questions, but able to give good quote that revealed just enough, but never too much.)

Because of his local roots, and the fact that he didn't come into the market as strictly a corporate pawn, Seeman was generally well regarded by local radio and music scensters who otherwise would spit at the mere mention of Clear Channel's name.