NEW YORK—Hearst Television has promoted Joe Addalia to vice president of broadcast technology, a role in which he will have expanded responsibilities for finding, sourcing and implementing new technology to meet the station group’s TV operations requirements, the company said today.

Addalia, a frequent presenter at TV Tech summits and other industry gatherings, will continue to report to Stefan Hadl, newly appointed vice president of broadcast engineering and technology, Hearst Television said.

“For years, Joe has been an instrumental member of Hearst Television’s technology team, working with technology partners to ensure our company is well-positioned to capitalize on the rapid evolution of content gathering, creation and delivery,” said Hearst Television president Jordan Wertlieb.

“The speed of change and our company’s commitment to be on the forefront of the industry requires leadership, and Joe has always represented our group exceptionally -- and will continue to do even more in his new role, working closely with Stefan and our leaders across Hearst Television.”

Pointing to the “passion and knowledge” Addalia has for technology affecting Hearst Television’s business and the industry at large, Hadl said the newly appointed vice president “will continue to be a vital resource as we move the company into the future.”

“The entire Hearst Television technology leadership team is committed to success. I could not be prouder of the team leading our engineering and technology efforts,” said Hadl.

A broadcast engineer for nearly four decades, Addalia joined Hearst Television in 2006 when the group acquired WKCF-TV in Orlando, Fla., from Emmis Communications. Among Addalia’s responsibilities have been broadcast technology for the group’s operations, including playout, news systems, asset management and NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0). Serving as Hearst Televisions, representative on various industry technology committees, he also has overseen interactive and second-screen TV and muiticasting technology, Hearst Television said. 

At Emmis Communications, Addalia was corporate director of engineering technology. Prior to Emmis, he was corporate director of engineering for New Jersey-based broadcaster Press Communications. There he designed and constructed the studio and transmitter facilities for WKCF. (Emmis purchased the station in 1999.) He began at Press Communications in 1988 as chief engineer, the company said. 

Addalia holds an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Television and is an SBE Certified Broadcast Engineer and an active Member of SBE Chapter 42 in Central Florida as well as an SMPTE Florida Section Manager. In 2016 he was honored as a recipient of the Technology Leadership Award from “Broadcasting & Cable” magazine.

He will continue to be based in Orlando.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast has announced that eight out-of-market Hearst TV-owned stations will be removed for Comcast customers at the end of March and beginning of April. 

According to Comcast’s Xfinity website, seven markets will lose access on March 31 to neighboring Hearst TV stations, five more will lose access on April 6. According to TV Tech’s sister publication Multichannel News, this is part of a large retransmission consent agreement, which will keep almost 40 out-or-market stations available to Comcast customers.

While customers will lose access to these stations, Comcast says that the market’s local station affiliate with the same network will still be available in all of these areas.

Here are the markets that are losing an out-of-market Hearst-owned station on March 31:

• Twin City, Ga.; losing WJCL (ABC) 
• Horse Cave, Ky.; losing WLKY (CBS) 
• Newberry, S.C.; losing WYFF (NBC) 
• Tell City, Ind.; losing WLKY (CBS) 
• Connersville, Richmond, Lynn-Winchester, Ind.; losing WLWT (NBC) 
• Bedford, Ind.; WLKY (CBS) 
• Galax, Va.; losing WXII (NBC) 

The markets losing stations on April 6 include:

• Portales, N.M.; losing KOAT (ABC) 
• Chico/Oroville, Calif.; losing KCRA (NBC) 
• Las Cruces, N.M; losing KOAT (ABC) 
• Contra Costa/Solano County, Calif,; losing KCRA (NBC) 
• Santa Clara County, Calif; losing KSBW (NBC) 

Back in December, Hearst said that it would start charging for out-of-market stations, which would have resulted in Comcast dropping 38 stations in 35 markets. However, in some cases this could have resulted in certain markets losing news related to their actual state. For instance, residents in Bristol County, Mass., were in jeopardy of losing Boston’s WCVB (ABC) because it was also served but a Rhode Island ABC affiliate. Legislators representing Massachusetts sent letters to Comcast about this potential issue.

On Dec. 15, 2020, Comcast said it reached a deal with Hearst for it to continue carrying out-of-market stations free of charge.

This removal of stations, however, is part of a normal process of reviewing channel lineups, Comcast said.

The stations will be removed in the mentioned markets at 12:01 a.m. on the respective dates.

For more information, visit Comcast’s website. 

BOSTON, Mass.—Emeric Feldmar has been named director of engineering for Hearst’s Boston ABC-affiliate WCVB Channel 5. This marks Feldmar’s homecoming to Channel 5 where he launched his career in the broadcast industry more than three decades ago. Feldmar replaces Greg Turner who has been promoted to director of engineering, Eastern Region, for Hearst Television.

 WCVB President and General Manager Kyle I. Grimes said, “Emeric is an extremely talented and expert broadcast executive whose leadership experience in engineering and technical operations makes him the ideal person to lead Channel 5’s outstanding engineering department. We’re all delighted to welcome Emeric back to the WCVB family.”

 Feldmar joins WCVB from WGBH where he served for seven years as the director of engineering. While at WGBH, he helped lead the station through many technological innovations and changes, including the spectrum repack, and managed all broadcast engineering and operations as well as the station’s facilities and platforms.

 Feldmar is currently the program chair of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE Chapter 11) and is a member and former section manager of SMPTE/New England (the New England Section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers).

NEW YORK—After the protests and riots that took place over the weekend in response to the killing of George Floyd, Hearst President and CEO Steve Swartz issued a statement in which he shared that three Hearst TV journalists were injured while covering the events and that all were doing fine.

Two of the journalists were injured in Louisville, Ky., and another in Des Moines, Iowa. Swartz also said that many of their journalists were verbally abused, one news vehicle had been vandalized and a few facilities suffered minor damage.

“We couldn’t be more proud of their courage and that of all our journalists serving their communities at this time,” Swartz said in his statement. “They, like all first responders to crisis situations, deserve our admiration and gratitude.”

Swartz continued:

“Clearly our nation must come to grips with a pattern of unfair and unequal treatment that has gone on far too long, and all of us must ask ourselves as citizens what we can each do to help bring about change.

“For 133 years our journalists have covered issues of vital interest to our nation and the communities they serve. We remain committed to doing so completely and fairly, and we will take all appropriate steps to keep our colleagues safe while they fulfill their mission.”

Swartz’s full statement is available online. 

NEW YORK—Hearst Television has promoted long-time engineering executive Greg Turner to eastern region director of engineering. Turner, who has been an engineering executive with Hearst for three decades, will supervise operations at the group’s eastern stations. 

Succeeding Stefan Hadl, who was recently promoted to vice president of engineering, succeeding Martin Faubell, who will retire later in the year, Turner most recently was director of engineering at WCVB-TV in Boston. Prior to holding that role, Turner was director of engineering and operations at KCRA-TV and KQCA-TV, the company’s NBC and MyNetworkTV affiliates serving the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, Calif., market.

"Greg has done an outstanding job leading engineering teams at some of our largest stations," said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. "He has extensive operational knowledge, and he's successfully succeeded Stefan on two prior occasions; he's uniquely qualified to join our industry-leading corporate engineering team."

Earlier in his career, Turner spent eight years in New Orleans as director of engineering at the company’s WDSU-TV, an NBC affiliate. While there, Turner supervised the rebuilding of the station’s transmitter facility destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, as well as a new studio set installation and transition to HDTV.

Turner began working for Hearst in operations at KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. There, he held a variety of positions, including in master control, as an SNG and ENG operator, as an operations manager and as assistant chief engineer.

Turner graduated from Langston University in Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism. He has completed the Hearst Management Institute executive training program and the NAB Executive Development management training program.

More information is available on the Hearst Television website.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA—Hearst Television crews are in place in South Korea to provide its NBCU local affiliates with live cut-ins and recorded segments during their morning newscasts. In all, the station group has sent nine people to South Korea, including three two-person field crews made up of a photographer and reporter, two producers and an engineer/IT specialist.

Hearst TV tests of TVU One from South Korea.

While NBCU retains all rights to distribute Winter Olympics Games and ceremonies in the United States, the Hearst TV crews will focus mainly on the U.S. athletes who live in or near markets where the station group owns NBC affiliates, said Larry Vancini, manager of broadcast IT for the group. “We’re doing a few for WPTZ-TV, our NBC affiliate in Plattsburgh, N.Y., for example,” he said. There are several Winter Olympics connections for WPTZ. In December 2017, U.S. biathlete Leif Nordgren married WPTZ meteorologist Caitlin Napoleoni. Other U.S. Olympic athletes from the area include skeleton racer John Daly and cross-country skier Ida Sargent.

The crews also may cover stories about South Korea, such as the nation’s new bullet train connecting Seoul to the PyeongChang mountain Winter Olympics venue, he said during a telephone interview from Seoul.

Hearst TV is splitting its resources between the coastal city of Gangneung where events like hockey, speed skating and curling will take place and PyeongChang, which will be the site of various skiing and snowboarding events, he said.

“Right now the workspace is set up in the coastal cluster where our live position is,” said Vancini. There the station group will use a TVU Networks Transceiver to share live and recorded content with its 11 NBC affiliates via the TVU Grid. The crews will also provide content to its NBC affiliates for their local Ozone shows, which combine content from the Hearst TV crews with that of the network, he said. 

At the PyeongChang venue and elsewhere around the peninsula, the Hearst TV crews will rely on a TVU One portable streaming solution for contribution. Hearst TV is renting the unit rather than taking its own TVUPacks to South Korea, he added. “The TVU One is so much smaller and lighter [than the first generation TVUPack],” said Vancini. “That’s important to our crews that have to carry a camera, batteries and other equipment.” (The TVU One weighs 2.2 pounds and measures about 7.5 inches high by 4.75 inches wide by 2.75 inches deep.)

“TVU paired the TVU One with four wireless modems from South Korea’s wireless carriers,” he said. Despite South Korea’s mountainous terrain, the unit has provide a robust connection and performed well during testing. “I fired it up and did some testing yesterday (Feb. 2 in South Korea), and all of the air cards had great signal,” he said.

South Korea’s wireless infrastructure has been a pleasant surprise, said Vancini. “There’s not been a single place I’ve been where I haven’t been able to connect with my phone and get good throughput,” he said.

Hearst TV will rely on a combination of Wi-Fi, wired Ethernet and wireless cell service and temporary TVU hotspots if needed to contribute live and edited stories to group stations from South Korea, he added.

The setup will allow the crews to deliver live shots to its stations with only about one second of latency. IFB will be handled through the group’s news bureau in Washington, D.C., in combination with the mobile phones of the field crews. IFB latency is about 1/10 of a second, Vancini added.

“These backpacks make it so much easier for a crew to go out and cover something without having a big live truck or satellite truck,” he said. “I call it the right tool for the right job.”

CINCINNATI—Hearst Television has signed a deal with GatesAir to provide transmitters and installation services on an exclusive basis for its 13 stations affected by the FCC’s repack of television spectrum, GatesAir announced today.

The Hearst Television channels being repacked include: WCVB in Boston; WTAE in Pittsburgh; WXII in Greensboro (Winston-Salem), N.C.; WYFF in Greenville, S.C.; WISN in Milwaukee; WLKY in Louisville, Ky.; WLWT in Cincinnati; WDUS in New Orleans; WKCF in Orlando, Fla.; WMOR in Tampa, Fla.; KQCA in Sacramento, Calif.; WBAL in Baltimore and WVTM in Birmingham, Ala.

Under the agreement GatesAir conducted audits of the transmitter sites impacted by the repack, which were completed before the broadcaster’s purchase and installation of the new transmitters. The broadcaster and transmitter manufacturer have completed plans to support the channel reassignment of the channels. Site audit information was sent to GatesAir’s Quincy, Ill., manufacturing plant to begin the design of systems.

Depending on the Hearst station involved and its new channel assignment, the transmitters to be installed include the GatesAir Maxiva ULXTE liquid-cooled and Maxiva UAXTE air-cooled transmitters.

Each of the transmitters will be equipped with the GatesAir ATSC 3.0-ready Maxiva XTE exciter and the latest generation of the company’s RTAC software to deliver real-time adaptive correction for signal integrity and compliance optimization, the company said.

Hearst Television previously relied on GatesAir [Harris Broadcast at the time] for its DTV transition and values its “commitment and experience to enable us to hit our marks over the next 32 months,” said Hearst Television VP of engineering Marty Faubell in a GatesAir press release.

More information is available on the GatesAir website.

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—U.K.-based Media Asset Management and technology provider IPV has announced that it recently integrated its Curator Content Factory MAM system at Hearst Television. Serving as the core infrastructure for Hearst’s Group Registry of Content, it helps the system connect creative service producers and editors across the U.S. With the IPV Curator, Hearst has developed an internal distributed cloud environment where content is ingest and logged and available globally.

Curator features a metadata governance engine that can capture and organize metadata when added by a user or by an automated metadata extraction engine. This allows for a quick search and discovery of content, according to IPV. Curator uses open standards, like FIMS, to provide standardized integration touch-points for third-party systems. At Hearst, the Curator integrates with Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Signiant Media Exchange + Agents, Telestream Vantage and EMC-Isilon Storage.

Hearst began rolling out the Curator Content system in March 2015; it became available in all of Hearst’s 30 TV stations in February.