Janene Drafs runs a truly extraordinary content-production outfit. KTLA Los Angeles, part of Nexstar Media Group, cranks out a staggering 112 hours a week of local programming, among the highest levels in the nation. It is local from 4 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. weekdays. After The CW primetime, it’s another 90 minutes of local news.
Drafs was named KTLA GM in 2020, succeeding the retiring Don Orsini, who was something of an L.A. television legend. She previously was VP and general manager at KOMO-KUNS Seattle, where she began her career as an account executive in 1992.
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Drafs, who is the B+C Multichannel News 2024 Los Angeles-based Woman of Influence, spoke about being the first female GM at KTLA, the loss of beloved colleague Sam Rubin and how she helps young women in television work toward leadership roles. An edited transcript follows.
B+C MCN: Can KTLA’s 112 weekly hours of local possibly go up, or is that the magic number?
Janene Drafs: I think for now it’s the magic number, but [OTT product] KTLA Plus is such an amazing opportunity for us. That’s where we have been developing more programs.
B+C: The station recently lost a beloved colleague in [entertainment anchor] Sam Rubin. Tell me what he was like.
JD: While Sam loved entertaining and loved Hollywood, he was really a journalist. It’s what endeared him to his colleagues who are also journalists. He was a fantastic writer. He had an incredible wit. I think he was the class clown, but in the very best way. To be funny, you have to be really, really, really smart. And Sam was really, really, really smart.
B+C: When you took this job in 2020, you became the first female GM in KTLA history. What was the feeling when you were coming on board? Excitement? Anxiety?
JD: I knew that there had been other female general managers in the market, and I came from a market that also had one other female general manager. So I wasn’t intimidated. On my first day I said, ‘I can’t be Don Corsini. I’m never going to be the person who was here before me because I lean in a different way. We’ll get to know one another and you’ll figure out how that works for you.’ Don was definitely an iconic person, but I just needed to make sure everyone knew that I wasn’t going to try and be the same person.
B+C: Who’s been a mentor for you in your career?
JD: Colleen Brown, who was the CEO of Fisher Broadcasting before [KOMO-KUNS was] purchased by Sinclair. [Former Graham Media Group president and CEO] Emily Barr and I met at an industry conference and right away we hit it off. She would be the person that I would call with strategic things, when I was struggling with something, when I had some ideas and needed someone to bounce them off of.
In the GM role, it’s really hard to find colleagues. You can’t have those kinds of conversations with your employees. So we all have to have those people that we reach out to.
BC: How do you help a young woman who might someday want to be a GM?
JD: Representation is so important. When I was growing up, I played guitar, and I never thought that I could play an electric guitar. Then I saw Heart, Ann and Nancy Wilson, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Women?’ I don’t know why I didn’t think I could do it, but it was all about representation.
Seeing females in leadership roles is the very first step, because that means females can envision themselves in leadership.
The second thing is to have that board of directors for yourself. Who is that person who’s going to call you on your BS, call you when you’re not being real? That might be a really good friend that you’ve grown up with who knows you well, it might be a sister or a brother. It’s going to be someone who knows you well, who doesn’t mince words, who knows you’re not going to take it personally.
That’s what I encourage young women to do — find people who will be your advocate. Find people who tell you what you don’t want to tell yourself. When people who are too close to you are telling you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear, have that other person who is just your 100% go-to for solv-ing problems.
