Fates Roundup, Aug. 26, 2014

Discovery announced Aug. 26 that Eileen O’Neill will take charge of its studio and production divisions as global group president, Discovery Studios. Taking her place as head of Discovery Channel in the interim will be Marjorie Kaplan, group president, TLC and Animal Planet.

The FCC had added a new chief technology officer. Taking over for Henning Schulzrinne as the senior technical adviser to the whole agency will be Scott Jordan, a computer science professor at UC Irvine with vast experience with Internet pricing, differentiated service and platforms.

Tom Cibrowski has been promoted to senior VP of news programs, news gathering and special events, ABC News president James Goldston announced Aug. 26. Cibrowski, senior executive producer of Good Morning America since 2012, will be Goldston’s No. 2. Taking over for Cibrowski at GMA will be Michael Corn, executive producer of World News, who will be replaced by Almin Karamehmedovic.

Six months after Tribune acquired Gracenote from Sony for around $170 million, the video metadata and tech company has a new CEO in John Batter, who will also serve as executive VP of Tribune Media. Previously the CEO of streaming service M-GO, Batter will take over on Sept. 2 and report to Peter Ligouri, president and CEO of Tribune Media.

Les Vann is the new president and general manager of WISH-WNDY Indianapolis. Vann, who had been president and general manager of WJCL Savannah since January 2013, will report to Jay Howell, VP of television at LIN, which owns WISH.

Genius Brands International has hired Lloyd Mintz to be VP of consumer products, the global brand management company announced Aug. 25. Mintz, previously the executive VP of licensing for Galaxy Brands, will report to Stone Newman, president, global consumer products.

Jaz Wray has joined Ross Video as regional sales manager for Southern California. Wray had been regional sales manager at Clear-Com for the past six years, covering the Southwest United States and Latin America.

11th Street Productions has appointed Joshua Asen as VP of development. Asen, formerly the director of development at unscripted production company Eastern, will be responsible for all unscripted development at 11st Street Productions, which produces MTV’s Teen Mom and 16 & Pregnant.

Scripps Networks Interactive has promoted two executives: Mike Donovan is now senior VP of international operations and distribution technology, while John Ajamie is senior VP of U.S. operations. Donovan will oversee operations in London as well as the unit’s global satellite distribution partnerships. Ajamie is responsible for American broadcast origination and internal production units.

J.C. Lowe is moving to WEAR-WFGX in the Mobile-Pensacola DMA, an ABC-MyNetworkTV duo, where he will serve as general manager. Lowe was previously general manager of WTTO-WABM Birmingham. Meanwhile, WTTO and WABM have been added to the duties of MIke Murphy, WBMA-WCFT Birmingham general manager.

WPTV West Palm Beach is getting rid of the “interim” in Dan Wilson’s news director title. He had been running the Scripps-owned station for the past month after serving as assistant news director of sister station KNXV Phoenix since 2008. Wilson takes the news director place of Mike Garber, who departed in July for CBS-owned KTVT-KTXA Dallas

Sinclair has named James Killen as group manager, a role in which he will oversee Tulsa, Little Rock, Roanoke-Lynchburg among other markets. Killen was local sales manager at WNBC New York before supervising seven stations, Politico and NewsChannel 8 as VP of sales for Albritton beginning in 2004.

The champion is now a judge: Two-time Dancing With the Stars champ Julianne Hough will be a judge for the fourth season of the ABC series, which premieres Sept 15. The other judges are Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

Kevin Frazier will join Nancy O’Dell as co-host of CBS’ Entertainment Tonight, taking the place of Rob Marciano who has left for ABC’s Good Morning America. Frazier was a correspondent and weekend anchor for ET before heading to The Insider in March 2011 to serve as co-anchor and managing editor. He is being replaced at The Insider by Louis Aguirre, the longtime co-anchor of WSVN Miami’s Deco Drive.

Entertainment creative agency mOcean has moved up Danielle LaFortune to senior VP of entertainment marketing. LaFortune, previously the VP of print creative services, will oversee theatrical and broadcast print and on-air creative projects and teams, from budgeting to pitching to delivering.

ESPN has upped Stephanie Druley to senior VP, production for its College Networks. Druley, who had been VP, production college networks, will be in charge of all studio and remote events, editorial and creative content, and personnel for the SEC Network and Longhorn Network, which she helped launch in 2010 as senior coordinating producer.

Dan Mellon, Sinclair group manager since 2008, has been elevated to serve as general manager of WJLA Washington and sister cable network NewsChannel 8. In turn, Tony D’Angelo has also moved up, as the longtime director of sales at WSYX-WTTE-WWHO is the new general manager of WSYX Columbus, with responsibility over WTTE, which is programmed by Sinclair.

Mark Effron, WPIX New York VP/news director since April 2013, is leaving on Oct. 31. The former VP of news and daytime programming at MSNBC and president and COO of TitanTV, Effron told the staff he originally saw the position at the Tribune station as a two-year role.

A. Smith & Co. Productions has upped Katie Hash and Steve Miller, the company announced on Aug. 20. Hash, who most recently was director of development, will now serve as VP of development, while Miller will head creative services. The duo are longtime staffers at the reality production shingle.

King and Country has tapped Lisa Miller as managing director of networks and brands. Miller joins the design-centric production company from mOcean, the entertainment creative agency where she served as VP of integrated marketing.

Fujifilm Optical Devices Division has welcomed Bret Shisler to the company as south central regional sales manager. Shisler, sales support manager, acquisition products, at Sony Electronics for 13 years, replaces the recently retired Dave Waddell after 30 years at Fujifilm.