NEW YORK CITY—Hearst Television has promoted Stefan Hadl, who has worked for the past three years as vice president of engineering, to senior vice president of broadcast engineering and technology, Hearst Television president Jordan Wertlieb said today.

“Stefan is an outstanding leader. He has been instrumental in advancing Hearst Television technology, leading our teams in the rollout of next generation television, and synthesizing the distribution of all our video assets on current and emerging platforms,” Wertlieb said. “Thanks to Stefan’s vision, our company is well-positioned to meet the expectations of the consumer while concurrently leading and attracting extraordinary talent to embrace the industry’s important and rapid video transformation.” 

Hadl led a team that helped navigate the operation of Hearst Television stations through the pandemic, including workflows involved with people working remotely and onsite. The same team under his leadership launched more than 40 new digital multicast channels across Hearst TV’s footprint and drove the company’s participation in the nationwide rollout of NextGen TV—with 14 of its 20 largest market stations taking part, the company said.

A member of multiple industry organizations, including ATSC, NAB, SMPTE, SBE and the Pearl consortium, Hadl joined Hearst Television in 1995 as a broadcast engineer at KCRA-TV (now the KCRA-TV/KQCA-TV duopoly) in Sacramento, Calif. 

Since then, he has held several engineering leadership positions at the company, including director of engineering at WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H.; director of engineering at KCRA-TV/KQCA-TV, after returning to the station; and director of engineering and operations at WCVB-TV in Boston. Before becoming group vice president of engineering, he served as director of engineering of Hearst Television’s eastern region stations, including its Baltimore radio stations. 

More information is available on the broadcaster’s website.

NEW YORK—A passing of the torch is taking place at Hearst Television, as the broadcaster announced that Stefan Hadl has been promoted to vice president of engineering, taking over the role from Martin Faubell, who plans to retire in 2020. Faubell will remain on staff with the position of senior director of engineering.

Hadl began with Hearst Television as a broadcast engineer with KCRA-TV in 1995. He held a number of roles at stations across the country before becoming the director of engineering, eastern region, for Hearst in 2017, where he oversaw the engineering operations of 14 TV stations and the company’s Baltimore radio stations.

Faubell served as the vice president of engineering for Hearst since 1997 and supervised the stations’ transfer from analog to digital television broadcasting, as well as arranging dedicated satellite access for newsgathering and content-sharing between all Hearst stations.

“Marty Faubell has led our company and the entire industry in the evolution of television in the digital age, laying the foundation for the next generation of leadership,” said Jordan Wertlieb, Hearst Television president.

He continued: “We are truly fortunate to be able to seamlessly transition our best-in-class engineering leadership over the next 18 months.”