Kirk Black

Meredith Local Media management sees a rising star in Kirk Black and continues to expand his leadership responsibilities. Black has been on a fast track at Meredith since he joined the company as general manager of WNEM Flint- Saginaw in 1998, shifting to Kansas City in 2001 to run two stations, then adding a senior VP title in 2008 with additional oversight of Meredith’s stations in Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas.

Realizing he had Top Ten-market talent, Meredith Local Media President Paul Karpowicz in 2009 moved his star GM to WGCL Atlanta, Meredith’s flagship. Black rebranded the station as CBS Atlanta, remade the newsroom, and has posted best-ever ratings in multiple dayparts for the longtime also-ran. He also helped launch a hub out of his Atlanta facility, with traffic, master control, business functions and research operations for eight Meredith stations centralized at WGCL. Meredith brass lets Black identify and cultivate creative new business opportunities, such as a recent deal with Turner Broadcasting for WGCL to manage Turner’s WPCH, known as Peachtree TV.

Black also serves as vice chairman of the CBS affiliate board. In case the affable young GM didn’t have enough on his plate each day, Black has six children to boot.

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.