Stefan Hadl, who has served since June 2019 as Hearst Television’s vice president of engineering, has been promoted to senior vice president, broadcast engineering & technology.

The announcement was made today by Jordan Wertlieb, Hearst Television president.

“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.”

As vice president of engineering, Hadl led a team that helped navigate the operation of Hearst TV stations through the pandemic both on premises and with a remote workforce, launched more than 40 additional digital multicast channels across the company’s station footprint, and drove Hearst Television’s participation in the nationwide rollout of next-generation television – aka NextGen TV – launching stations in 14 of the company’s top-20 markets with the new technology.  Hadl helped create an engineering fellowship, named for Marty Faubell, his predecessor as vice president of engineering, to attract fresh talent to the industry.

Hadl is a member of numerous key industry organizations and groups, including the Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc. (ATSC), the international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television; the National Association of Broadcasters Technology Committee; the Pearl consortium of television broadcasters helping advance NextGen TV; the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers; and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Joining Hearst Television in 1995, Hadl started as a broadcast engineer at KCRA-TV, later to become part of the company’s Sacramento duopoly, KCRA-TV/KQCA-TV. He was promoted to engineering supervisor and assistant chief engineer. After subsequently serving as director of engineering at Hearst Television’s WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH, he returned to KCRA-KQCA as director of engineering.  In 2015, Hadl became director of engineering and operations of Hearst Television’s WCVB-TV in Boston.  Prior to his 2019 promotion to vice president, he was director of engineering, eastern region, overseeing the engineering operations of 14 Hearst television stations as well as the company’s Baltimore radio stations.  Hadl began his career in broadcast engineering while in the United States Air Force, earning his discharge as a Television Equipment Specialist NCOIC (Level 7) at Los Angeles AFB.  He holds an AS degree in electronic systems technology from USAF Community College / Chapman University and is a graduate of the Airman Leadership School and the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Leadership School.

About Hearst Television

Hearst Television owns and operates 33 television and two radio stations serving 26 media markets across 39 states reaching over 22 million U.S. television households. Through its partnership with nearly all major networks, Hearst Television distributes national content over nearly 70 video channels including programming from ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, MY Net, MeTV, Estrella and more. The radio stations are leaders in Baltimore news/talk and rock music listenership. Its Hearst Media Production Group unit produces original programming across linear and streaming platforms for domestic and international distribution.  Its Very Local app, free to download on household OTT devices and available across popular streaming services, offers 24/7 access to local news, weather and an array of local and regional programming.  Hearst Television is recognized as one of the industry’s premier companies and has been honored with numerous awards for distinguished journalism, industry innovation, and community service. Hearst Television is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hearst.