John Verrilli has been named news director at WBZ Boston and its sister WSBK. He starts Feb. 2.
Verrilli comes from another NBC-owned duopoly, KDKA and WPCW Pittsburgh, after joining CBS in 2002 as managing editor at WCBS New York.
He succeeds Jeff Kiernan, who starts at WBBM Chicago Jan. 19.
“John is a smart and experienced news executive with nearly two decades of major market experience who, over the course of his career, has earned an excellent reputation as a leader and a winner,” said President/General Manager Ed Piette. “He has excelled everywhere he has been.”
Verrilli said taking over the WBZ news department is “the opportunity of a lifetime” and expressed his eagerness to return to his home market.
“I know what it feels like to work hard alongside an excellent team of journalists to build newscasts back to their rightful number one position in a marketplace,” he said. “I am particularly thrilled to be coming back to New England because both my wife and I grew up in Connecticut, in fact our families still live there, and we vacation in Hyannisport each summer with our boys.”
WBZ has been on the rise in the #7 DMA.
