WPVI GM Bernie Prazenica Announces Retirement

WPVI station president and common supervisor Bernie Prazenica has introduced his retirement.

Prazenica has been the longest serving gm on the Philadelphia ABC owned station. He instructed staffers that it’s “been one of many nice privileges of my life to be a part of the unimaginable legacy of WPVI, and an honor to work alongside all of you.”

“Once I began my first job at WPVI again in 1982, I felt like I had actually arrived within the huge time. Few stations within the nation may match Channel 6’s scores, fame for excellence, and spirit of innovation,” Prazenica wrote in an inner memo obtained by TVSpy. “Forty-three years later, I’ve determined to retire on the finish of this yr. It’s a tough resolution, however I’m prepared – and I’m excited to see what the following chapter brings.”

He was named president and common supervisor of WPVI-TV/6abc in 2007.

“What a run!  If it had been as much as me it could be one other 4 many years,” mentioned ABC Information Group & Disney Leisure Networks president Debra OConnell. “Bernie is that fantastic mixture of no-nonsense, roll up your sleeve practicality, aggressive drive and compassion that make an amazing chief. Whether or not he’s serving to to provide a Presidential debate as he did final Fall, broadcasting the nation’s oldest Thanksgiving Day parade or arising with a novel and artistic hometown story angle for Abbot Elementary, his contributions have been immense.”

“Bernie is among the many better of one of the best – a champion of innovation, a deeply concerned member of the Philadelphia neighborhood and a tenacious normal bearer for the simple, important journalism that’s our lifeblood on the ABC Owned Tv Stations,” wrote ABC Owned Tv Station president Chad Matthews. “He’s the longest serving GM within the station’s historical past and is answerable for modernizing its information operations with the development of a state-of-the-art, 110,000-square foot, all-digital facility in 2009, and the launch of the stations cell and streaming choices. His workforce has described him as caring about 6abc and Philadelphia greater than anybody they’ve ever met.  And that has definitely shone by within the caliber of his work and the station’s efficiency because the primary station out there for many years.”

Prazenica mentioned he’d be round for a couple of extra months earlier than leaving.  

He additionally oversees 6abc.com, its cell purposes and two digital channels. The station’s web site is the preferred tv web site within the Delaware Valley.

His profession in tv spans greater than 4 many years, principally at The Walt Disney Firm. Earlier than being named gm of WPVI, he served as president and common supervisor of WTVD, ABC’s owned station in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1994, Prazenica was named director of Gross sales for WPVI-TV, after representing ABC Owned Tv Stations within the mid-Atlantic area of their ABC Nationwide TV Gross sales division. He started his profession at Pittsburgh’s WPTT-TV as an account government, earlier than transitioning to WXEX-TV in Richmond, Virginia.