The year 2010 was, for almost all TV stations, a very good one. The Olympics kicked off the year with a bang for NBC affiliates, before another pack of slick, fast-moving players known as politicians sent a few billion in ad revenue to local broadcasters. Only the most inept of general managers failed to improve on 2009's historically dismal figures.
Yet, to really succeed in 2010 required much more than just taking calls from big political spenders. Some station bosses took their outlets several pegs higher with savvy moves that tapped new sources of advertising, monetized digital platforms effectively and put the stations in a favorable position for the coming challenges of 2011. And our 2010 honorees for General Managers of the Year excelled several notches beyond the norm.
Local television continues to redefine itself, with stations recast as round-the-clock media outlets, delivering breaking news, entertainment and information on the user's digital device du jour. The savviest GMs not only redefined the role a station plays, but broke it down and remade it with that new model in mind.
No one knows what the future holds for local TV, but in the content-is-king world, viewers' hunger for well-produced, enriching local news grows in the increasingly cluttered media quagmire. Our 2010 honorees were unparalleled in getting that content in front of the public they serve-whether those people were at home, were on the go, or, in the case of one multiplatform broadcaster, were on a Caribbean beach a few thousand miles from home.
All our 2010 honorees were nominated by B&C readers. When held up for closer inspection, all revealed themselves to be best in class. Read about them below.
- WFSB Hartford's Klarn DePalma (GM, Markets 26-50)
- KETV Omaha's Sarah Smith (GM, Markets 51-plus)
- WCBS New York/CBS Television Stations' David Friend (News Director of the Year)
