The Weather Channel has hired Helen Swenson, a veteran of weather news coverage at broadcast-TV stations, as VP of live programming, a new position.
The NBC Universal-owned programmer said Swenson will be responsible for the more than 120 hours of live programming produced every week at The Weather Channel and set the editorial agenda for the network.
She reports to Geoffrey Darby, the channel's executive VP of programming.
Swenson has more than 20 years of television experience, including producing and overseeing severe weather coverage as well as building and managing weather teams. Most recently, she was a senior multimedia consultant for Frank N. Magid Associates, consulting with stations across the United States and Canada.
Previously, she served as news director at KIRO-TV in Seattle, from 2001 to 2007 and at WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., and was in senior news production roles for stations that included WSVN-TV in Miami during Hurricane Andrew.
This will be a second tour of duty for Swenson in Atlanta: she was a producer at WSB-TV in 1993 and 1994 during the so-called "Storm of the Century."
