Belo’s Allan Cohen retires as president and general manager of KMOV-TV St. Louis, effective May 31 … Livewire Mobile adds Pat Bennett, consultant, to board.

Quarterly cable programming results: Fiscal Q2 sales at Viacom increased 2 percent from a year earlier to $3.3 billion, while profit from continuing operations increased 56 percent to $588 million. Ad sales at Nickelodeon remain strong even though the network’s ratings have decreased dramatically, CEO Philippe Dauman said. “We've seen this level of ratings impact on some other major networks in the past and we've overcome it,” he said. “The Nick issue is complicated. There are ratings measurement issues and there certainly has been some compelling programming on some of our competitors.” But not all of Nickelodeon’s competitors sell advertising, leaving marketers few alternatives for reaching that demographic, he said. Dauman said the drop in ratings isn’t the result of viewing shifting to Netflix. “The time spent on Nickelodeon content on Netflix is approximately 2 percent of the time spent on our Nickelodeon channel,” he said. “Even if you view that as being completely cannibalistic [to ratings], which it is not … it would have a minimal impact here” … Q1 sales at Scripps Networks Interactive gained 11 percent from a year earlier to $535 million, the company said. Profit increased 14 percent to $115 million. Digital revenue, which includes sales at its networks’ websites, gained 16 percent to $22.4 million … Q1 sales at Crown Media Holdings gained 14 percent from a year earlier to $83.7 million, the company said. Profit dropped sharply to $12.3 million from $47.5 million on income tax expenses.

Broadcast Q1 financial results: Radio One sales rose 59 percent from the year-ago quarter to $103 million on revenue from its TV One cable programmer and what CEO Alfred Liggins called “strong ratings related growth in Atlanta and our newly revamped Detroit cluster” of radio stations. Operating income more than doubled to $13.8 million. Political revenue will give the stations “some lift” this year, Liggins said (http://xrl.us/bm55g3). ... Fisher Communications revenue fell 10 percent to $33.9 million from Q1 2011 because Fisher Plaza in Seattle was sold. Retransmission consent revenue rose 8 percent, Fisher said without giving a total, and political ads weren’t “meaningful” as they usually are in election years. The net loss widened to $1.9 million from $1.7 million.

LIN Media moves Gary Yoder to vice president and general manager of Mobile, Ala./Pensacola, Fla., stations WALA-TV and WFNA-TV … NBCUniversal names David Sussman, ex-Skadden Arps, senior vice president-chief legal officer for content distribution division, including TV Everywhere, VOD and broadband.

Cable programmer Q1 results: HSN sales rose 5 percent to $747.3 million, from the year-ago quarter, as the average price for which the home-shopping channel sold products rose 2 percent to $64.69. Operating income rose 20 percent to $49.7 million. … Martha Stewart Living sales fell 5.3 percent to $49.8 million amid “an anticipated decrease” of 31 percent to $5.4 million in cable sales “due to lower levels of new programming for Hallmark Channel,” the company said Wednesday. The company should return to profitability this year because of reduced costs for that platform, it said. The operating loss narrowed to $4.2 million from $6.8 million.

Sprint Wireless hires Stephen De Wees, ex-DBSD North America, as senior vice president-corporate development … Fiber-to-the-Home Council Latin America chapter elects committee chairmen: Eduardo Jedruch, Wiltel, for technology; Liza Poe, Corning, marketing; Reinaldo Jeronymo; Prysmian Group, finance; and Jorge Rivadulla, Calix, regulatory.

Charter Communications hires John Bickham, ex-Cablevision, as chief operating officer … Turner Broadcasting System promotes Michael Wright to president and head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies … Spring Wireless hires: Kevin Lee, ex-Axeso Payment Solutions, to chief financial officer; Conor Keane, ex-Global 360, to senior vice president for marketing and business development.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski hires Renee Wentzel, ex-Wiltshire & Grannis, as legal adviser, and names Charles Mathias, an acting aide, special counsel … AMC Networks promotes Jennifer Caserta to IFC president-general manager … Crown Media Family Networks moves Chad Harris to senior vice president-business development, new position; hires Rob Perna, ex-Universal Music Group, as vice president-financial planning and analysis … Cox Enterprises elects Christopher Williams, Williams Capital, to board … Internet2 hires: Danielle Rodier, ex-NTIA, named director-government relations; Erin Moore, ex-Booz Allen Hamilton, hired as an attorney … Comverse Technology hires Philippe Tartavull, ex-Hypercom, as president, CEO and director of its Comverse Inc. business … DirecTV promotions: Tony Goncalves to run new Digital Entertainment Products organization as senior vice president; Paul Guyardo adds to duties in also running traditional ad sales and new addressable and digital platforms, named executive vice president-chief revenue and marketing officer.

Entravision Chief Operating Officer Philip Wilkinson resigns, effective May 31, remains on board … Lumos Networks changes: Timothy Biltz, ex-iPCS, hired as CEO, replacing James Hyde who had been interim CEO and will remain a director; Michael Moneymaker retiring as a director and as president … CTAM Educational Foundation board elections: John Lansing, Scripps Networks, chairman; David Watson, Comcast Cable, vice chairman; Bob Benya, In Demand, and Jill Campbell, Cox Communications, new directors.

Federal Emergency Management Agency promotes Tony Russell to superintendent of its Emergency Management Institute, effective May 6 … NAB radio board adds Erik Hellum, Townsquare Media … PBS NewsHour hires Tom Kennedy, multimedia consultant, to head online news operations as managing editor of digital news … Lobbyist Registrations: Alcatel-Lucent, Mayer Brown, effective March 1 … Huawei, Canyon Snow Consulting, effective April 2. … Turner Broadcasting System promotes Jason DeMarco to vice president of strategic marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.