CABLE WORLD STAFF
CISNEROS TELEVISION GROUP: Rodrigo Piza has been named general manager of Locomotion(tm), the only animation channel for teens and young adults. Locomotion(tm) is a joint venture between CTG and the Hearst Corporation and is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese in 27 countries. Piza had been director-Nelvana Enterprises, a U.K.-based animation content developer.
FOOD NETWORK: Bruce Seidel has been named director-scheduling; he had been with Discovery Communications where he was programming scheduling manager for Animal Planet. Sarah Cohen has been appointed director-new media; she had been director of new media at Parade Publications. Cohen has been the recipient of several online Web site awards for her technical and creative work. Jane Fletcher joins the network in the newly-created position of marketing manager-special events; she had been marketing managing at Comedy Central. Amy Morrison has been promoted from account executive, Eastern region, affiliate sales and marketing to marketing manager-affiliate sales.
FOX: Michelynn Woodard has been named manager-network distribution for the Eastern region. She will be based in New York and be the liaison for Midwest and Eastern regional affiliates, station groups, owners and personnel. Previously, she was manager, sale research and marketing at Fox. She had also been at Public Broadcasting Service in Washington, D.C. Tony Optican has joined the network as director-current programming; he had been director-creative affairs for MGM Worldwide Television Group. Matthew Cherniss has been named programming executive-current programming; he had been director-program research where he provided strategic analysis and information for each of the scheduling, current programming and marketing departments at Fox's Los Angeles headquarters.
FOXCOM LTD: John Murphy has been named director of sales, North America; he has 16 years of experience in the satellite communications field industry, and was most recently senior product support engineer and sales manager for CPI. Benjamin R. Menke is the company's director of channel sales, North America; he has 10 years of technical sales experience with such companies as Texas Instruments, IBM and Tektronik.
FOX FAMILY CHANNEL: Cari Widmyer has been named senior research analyst; she had been with Turner Broadcasting Sales where she was a sales planner for the entertainment division. Before joining the network in 1996, she was at E! Entertainment Television. Eric Rollman has been named president-Fox Family Productions, Fox Family Worldwide where he will oversee production of programming for Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids Network and Fox Kids Network International. In addition to these responsibilites, he will continue to oversee the on-air production for Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids Network. Rosslyn Forrester has been named senior director-marketing services, Fox Family Worldwide. She has been promoted from director-marketing services, Fox Family Worldwide. Before joining the network, she was senior administrator-marketing at Warner.
FOX KIDS: Kathy Abbott has been promoted from writer-producer on-air promotion to director-production and administration, on-air promotion. Prior to coming to the network, she was president of Current Media. Roland Poindexter has been named to the newly-created position of VP-head of programming. He had been VP-programming and development and replaces Carol Monroe, who has left the company.
GAYLORD ENTERTAINMENT CO.: Craig L. Leipold, chairman/CEO of the National Hockey League Predators and of the Rainfair Corp., Racine, Wis., has been named to the entertainment company's board of directors.
GREATER MEDIA INC.: Arthur F. Goody has been appointed VP-marketing and programming; he had been regional marketing manager for the company's Central Massachusetts cable systems. He will remain in Worcester, Mass. office
GREYSTONE COMMUNICATIONS: Craig Haffner, a principal of the company has been named chairman-CEO; Donna E. Lusitana, also a principal and a member of the board of directors, has been named president. The following have been promoted: Melanie Blythe, Raymond Bridges and Glenn Kirschbaum to VPs: Robert Housch to general manager of the company's American History Stores.
HGTV: Megan Daquilante has been promoted from sales planner to advertising sales account executive in the Los Angeles office. Prior to joining the company, she was with Fox's Twentieth Television syndication in Chicago.
HALLMARK ENTERTAINMENT: F. Kip Vanderbilt has been appointed SVP-worldwide advertising sales; he has been at the Weather Channel since 1985, most recently as VP-international sales. Prior to that, he was with A.C.Nielsen Company, NHI and NTI divisions. Jeffrey Johnson has been named to the new position of VP-managing director, Asia Pacific. He will be responsible for the affiliate sales and marketing of Hallmark Entertainment Network and Kermit Channel. He had been director-marketing/programming for Optus Vision in Sydney, Australia.
HOME SHOPPING CHANNEL: David Williams has been named SVP-short shopping, a new division that produces direct selling commercials for targeted audiences of various broadcast and cable networks. He began his career at HSN as a consultant working as executive producer of special projects. Most recently, he was VP-sales and marketing for Short Shopping. Before joining HSN he was with CNN, Turner Broadcasting Sales and Walt Disney Network Television.
IMEDIA CORP.: Peter van der Gracht has joined the company as president/CEO; he had been VP/GM for Scientific-Atlanta's head-end systems division. Co-founder and president of Nexus Engineering Group, van der Gracht has been honored as Entrepreneur of the Year by the editorial board of BC Business Magazine. He was awarded a Silver Medal of Entrepreneurship by Canada Awards for Business Excellence and was selected Business Leader of the Year by Vancouver's Board of Trade.
INSIDE MULTIMEDIA: Bernard J. Luskin has been named the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for seminal contributions to digital media. Given as part of the DVD Summit 2, a conference supported by the European Commission, the government of Ireland and Inside Multimedia, the award will be presented at Dublin Castle March 31, 1999. Long active in television and cable, Luskin was CEO at Jones Interactive and president of Mind Extension University and Knowledge TV. He was also president/CEO of Philips Interactive Media of America and Philips Education and Reference Publishing. He is the author of seven books, and co-director of the 1998 Task Force Report on Media Psychology and New Technologies for the American Psychological Association's Media Psychology division. He teaches at Claremont Graduate University in California and at the Fielding Institute. Inside Multimedia is a European newsletter for the interactive media industry.
INSP: Sandra S. Sims has been named executive producer of development programming; she had been VP-ministry programming for the Christian Television Network Inc. Sims has won 13 Angel Awards for excellence in Christian programming. Yolanda Middleton has been promoted from media base operator to commercial operations manager where she will be responsible for both the network and the company's new digital network Inspirational Life. Before joining the network, she was a traffic assistant with WMNX radio, Charlotte, N.C. Jacques D. Thomas has been promoted from associate producer to promotions producer where he will be responsible for the development of monthly thematic on-air campaigns for the network and Inspirational Life. He will also assist in the development of corporate videos and programming projects. Prior to joining the network, he worked for WGGS-TV 16 in Greenville, S.C. Marvin Zeigler has joined the network as master control operator; he had been a network operator for Home and Garden Television Network.
JIM HENSON COMPANY: Paula Freeman has been named SVP-corporate marketing worldwide where she will be responsible for all global marketing including theatrical, television, video, interactive and consumer products. She had been VP-marketing services for the Disneyland Resort. Freeman replaces Susan Frank who is moving to the Odyssey Channel where she will be general manager/EVP.
KNOWLEDGE TV: Susan Rook has been named host of the network's new weekly news magazine show, BizTV, the Business of Life. She had been with CNN since 1987 where she co-anchored Prime News with Bernard Shaw and was on TalkBackLive. Throughout her journalism career she has won numerous awards for her work. Jonathan Clark has been promoted from executive producer of the network to director-programming. Under his direction the network has garnered two Heartland Emmys and several Telly Awards.
KTOP: Darryl D. Anderson has been named cable television station manager for the government access facility for the city of Oakland, Calif.; he had been director-cable and television for the city of Murfreesboro, Tenn. Anderson is president-elect for the National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors for 1999-2000.
LIBIT SIGNAL PROCESSING: Larry Grunewald has been named VP-corporate development where he will be responsible for corporate communications as well as business development activities with cable operators. Prior to joining the company, he has had several executive positions with Scientific-Atlanta. Most recently he was general manager of the business unit.
LLC INTERNATIONAL: Richard Hozik has been named SVP in charge of the company's international and domestic towers business and will assume responsibility for the management and operations of the company's subsidiary, Microcell Management Inc. He will continue in his role as CFO.
LODGENET ENTERTAINMENT CORP.: David M. Bankers has been promoted to SVP-chief technology officer. Prior to joining the company in 1989, he managed Digital Data Productions for TGS Technology. Jeffrey T. Weisner has been promoted from VP-finance to SVP-CFO. He had been VP, secretary and treasurer for CompuServe Inc. before joining the company in 1994. Darla J. Werner has been named VP-corporate technologies; he had been director-systems engineering in corporate technologies. Prior to joining the company, she had been at EROS Data Center. Roger McAulay has been named VP-Internet technologies; he had been president and founder of Connect Group, which was acquired by LodgeNet.
MEDIA GENERAL CABLE: The following promotions have been announced: Christopher M. Young to SVP-technical operations; David W. Charlton to GM- high-speed data services; William R. Trimble to director-field operations and dispatch; Mark Bailous to network services manager; Claudis Pauley to repair lab manager; Timothy Willer to commercial development manager; Theresa Wright to human resources manager and Stephany Gordon to marketing services specialist. James R. Lewis has been named VP-human resources and Lee G. Kipouros has been named director-MIS. The company operates cable television systems in Fairfax County and Fredricksburg, Va.
MEDIAONE: Greater Boston Cable Advertising, a division of MediaOne, has named Scott McGavick regional sales manager of Boston Interconnect. He will be responsible for developing systems and sales tools to compete with Boston broadcast stations and create new business. He had previously been local sales and national sales manager for WSBK-TV, Channel 38 in Boston. The following personnel changes have been announced: Jane Perdue, formerly VP-human resources for the Midwest region in Detroit has been appointed corporate VP-human resources for customer care initiatives in Denver. Barbara Grigsby, former director-learning and development for the Midwest region in Detroit and the Northeast region, has been appointed VP-human resources for the Midwest region. Greg Gallegos, formerly director-human resources for Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, a Polish company in which MediaOne International has an ownership interest, has been appointed to the new position of VP-human resources for the National Markets Group based in Denver. Donna Miller, formerly director-human resources with U S West, has been named director-human resources. Heather McDougall, former staffing specialist in the Western region has been appointed manager of staffing for the corporate office in Denver.
MILITARY CHANNEL: George Finkel has been named executive producer of the sports programming division. He had most recently directed the Miami Dolphins' preseason telecasts, ESPN's football production and CBS Sports' basketball production. His experience includes 19 years at NBC Sports. He was nominated for more than 30 Sports Emmys, winning three.
MUSIC CHOICE: The following personnel changes have been announced: Adam Neiman, promoted from senior programmer to senior manager; Damon Williams, manager-R&B programming; Pablo Diaz, manager-Latin programming; Stella Crispo, manager- classical programming; Regla Gonzalez, coordinator of Latin music; Rachel Vassel, promoted to senior manager and has relocated to Atlanta; Jim Coleson, promoted from director to VP-dealer operations; Kim Winnick, promoted to director-commercial marketing and Mark Naberschnig, promoted to commercial systems engineer.
OHIO NEWS NETWORK: Eric Elwell has been named chief meteorologist; he had been with WTVA-TV, an NBC affiliate in Tupelo, Miss., and KAKE-TV, an ABC affiliate in Wichita, Kan. He has earned Television Seals of Approval from the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association.
Back to this issue
|