Sarah Smith, KETV Omaha president and general manager, takes over the presidency at KMBC-KCWE, Hearst Television's ABC-CW duopoly in Kansas City.
She starts September 6 and succeeds Wayne Godsey, who is retiring.
"Under Sarah's leadership KETV has achieved outstanding results," said Hearst Television President/CEO David J. Barrett. "The station is Omaha's local news leader, with an outstanding reputation for journalism excellence and service to the community. And KETV's consistently strong revenue and profit performance attests to her impressive business credentials. We are confident that she'll be another outstanding leader for KMBC-TV and KCWE-TV, working with our talented staff to build on our long standing legacy of leadership and service to the Kansas City community."
KETV has enjoyed a huge spike in revenue of late, according to BIA/Kelsey, jumping from 31.7% of DMA No. 76's local TV cash to nearly 35% from 2009 to 2010. In the May ratings period, KETV led all competitors in every major newscast time period, reports Hearst TV.
Before joining Hearst at KETV in 2007, Smith was vice president and general manager of both KRCR and KAEF, the BlueStone Television stations serving the Chico-Redding and Eureka, Calif. markets, respectively.
Smith is president-elect of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association.
She was named B&C's General Manager of the Year in 2010 for markets 51-plus.
