Idler Returns to WTVD Raleigh-Durham as President, GM

John H. Idler, vice president and general sales manager at WLS Chicago, was named president and GM at WTVD Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Both stations are ABC-owned affiliates.

Idler returns to the station where he was sales manager from 2000-02. He’ll oversee not just WTVD but three digital channels and the ABC11.com Web site. He succeeds Bernie Prazenica, who moved to WPVI Philadelphia.

“John Idler has had an outstanding track record in management at WLS-TV in Chicago for the past five years,” ABC Television Stations Group president Walter Liss said in a statement. “We congratulate him on this promotion as he returns to WTVD in Raleigh-Durham now as president and general manager.”

Idler serves on the board of the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) sales advisory committee, as well as the Broadcast Advertising Club of Chicago.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.