Hearst Television has promoted David Callahan to the corporate role of director, broadcast information technology. He had been IT manager at WXII-WCWG Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and will continue to be based at the CBS-The CW duopoly.
Callahan takes on his new role Dec. 1, following the retirement of 49-year Hearst veteran Larry Vancini. He will report to Vice President, Information Technology Kenneth Murphy.
“David is an extremely talented systems engineer who has been an invaluable member of the Hearst Television technology team for many years,” Stefan Hadl, Hearst Television senior vice president, broadcast engineering and technology, said in a statement. “His diverse experience in the broadcast industry affords him a special vantage point and understanding of our operations and technology, making him the perfect individual to help lead our television properties’ IT needs into the future.
“We congratulate David on this well-earned promotion, and we thank Larry for all his many contributions to our company and industry, and we wish him all the best in retirement,” Hadl added.
The son of a mobile truck engineer at North Carolina’s UNC-TV, Callahan joined Hearst-owned WXII-TV in 2002 as a maintenance technician. There, he played a key role in the station’s analog-to-digital transition.
Later, as IT manager, he adopted server-virtualization technologies at the stations, as well as newsroom, production and master-control automation systems, Hearst said. He recently led one of the station group’s first implementations of a new standard enabling transmission of uncompressed video over IP networks, the company said.
Prior to joining Hearst, he served in various production and engineering roles within the market at WXLV-TV.
Hearst TV owns or operates 35 TV stations and two radio stations in 27 markets across 39 states, reaching more than 24 million U.S. TV households.
