The first recipient of the NAB Digital Leadership Award, James F. Goodmon Jr. was Vice President and General Manager of Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) New Media Group. A lifelong broadcaster, he spent his entire career working in various roles at CBC. He formed CBC New Media Group in 2005 with the goal of growing digital audiences and revenue by putting content and cutting-edge advertising solutions on digital platforms. Under Goodmon’s leadership, the company acquired Local TechWire, a nice technology site, launched a directory site, Triangle411.com, and took on oversight of News Over Wireless, a CBC unit devoted to building some of the earliest mobile websites and TV station apps. He spearheaded a year-long effort to rebuild the WRAL.com website, and launched new niche websites and apps including HighSchoolOT.com, WRALSportsFan.com, GoAskMom, SmartShopper and Albright Digital, as well as building technology to help broadcasters confine streaming of their signals to the local DMA.
Adam Symson was senior vice president and chief digital officer at The E.W. Scripps Company, overseeing the strategy and execution across product development, content, revenue and marketing for Scripps' portfolio of web, mobile and over-the-top businesses. Responsible for leading the company’s efforts to develop new businesses in emerging media through investment and acquisition, under his leadership, the company sustained consistent growth of its digital properties through bolstering sales and content teams, introducing consumer-friendly digital apps and other products for local and national markets, launching the nation’s first membership-based service on a local TV station website and furthering national investigative reporting. Symson spearheaded the acquisitions and growth of Midroll Media, a leading podcasting company, and Newsy, Scripps’ millennial-focused over-the-top video news service. He joined E.W. Scripps in 2002 as an Executive Producer for KNXV in Phoenix, becoming Scripps’ SVP and Chief Digital Officer in 2013, and previously worked for WBBM, KCBS, KNBC and KCAL.
Catherine Badalamente was vice president of digital media for Graham Media Group, overseeing digital sales, content and technology. Under her leadership, Graham Digital transformed from a small group of part-time employees to a leading digital development company, with top rated digital platforms in most markets. Badalamente began her television career at WKYC in Cleveland as an Account Executive in 1997. She joined Graham’s WDIV in Detroit in 2000, serving in a variety of roles including Director of New Business Development. She became Graham’s VP of digital media in 2012. She also served as chair of the NAB Digital Officer Committee.
Roger Keating, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer for Hearst Television, joined Hearst Television in 2008 as Senior Vice President, Digital, overseeing the company’s growing digital media unit and leading product development, business development and corporate development. He also served as the first chairman of Pearl TV, was a leader in the Dyle mobile DTV project, a strong supporter of the NAB SPROCKIT program and helped in the launch of NewsON, the mobile-only app for local news aggregation. His long history in Internet media goes back to launching the Internet Division of Comcast in the mid 1990’s, founding the streaming video company Zatso in 1998, and holding executive posts at AOL and Time Warner Cable before joining Hearst Television.
Wendy McMahon was President of ABC’s Owned Television Stations, leveraging her digital leadership background to expand content production and engage audiences online. Starting her broadcast network career in 2002 with CBS Corporation as Director of Creative Services at the Boston and Minneapolis CBS stations, she moved to the Disney-owned KABC-TV in 2009 as VP of Programming and Creative Services, building the station’s brand strategies and content marketing initiatives for all platforms. Promoted to Senior VP, Digital for the ABC owned TV Station Group in 2015, she led the digital content, product, technology and audience development teams for Disney’s owned ABC stations. She was promoted to President of the ABC Owned TV Stations Group in 2018, where she launched the digital brand Localish in 2018, producing local stories with national appeal and driving the expansion of local content into OTT environments.
J. D. Crowley, the Chief Digital Officer or Entercom, oversaw the strategy and operations behind Entercom’s digital portfolio. Key initiatives included expanding Entercom’s podcast division through the several acquisitions and providing content driven listening through RADIO.COM, the company’s audio streaming service. Crowley joined Entercom in 2017, having held several digital and content leadership positions at CBS, including executive vice president of digital for CBS Radio, senior vice president of CBS Brand Studio, and senior vice president and general manager of digital for CBS Television Distribution.
Adam Wiener was Executive Vice President and General Manager at CBS Television Stations Local Digital Media. He began his career at CBS News in 1987, moved to Gilda’s Club as General Manager of Digital from 2001 to 2003 and then spent five years at NBC from 2004 to 2009. He joined CBS Local Digital Media n 2009 where he set and executed the company’s local online media strategy for CBS Local Digital Media, CBS Radio and CBS Television Stations, becoming Executive VP and General Manager in 2016. Among his accomplishments, he helped launch the “Up To The Minute” website UTTM.com, the first ever network broadcast website in 1994, built plans and budget for CBSN Local OTT with the first streams launched in 2018 and grew the CBS O&O TV digital audience to an all time high while managing a fully remote workforce.
Jeremy J. Sinon, VP of Digital Strategy for Hubbard Radio spent 15 years as a guiding light helping Hubbard Radio navigate the challenges and opportunities provide by digital platforms. He joined Hubbard in 2006 to lead a small digital department for a 3-station cluster in Minneapolis. With Hubbard’s growth, Jeremy’s vision and leadership also grew, developing an internal Hubbard platform with one cohesive, user-friendly user interface for streaming and mobile apps, which then expanded to encompass station websites, Alexa skills, hybrid radio support, podcasting and other features. The result was hundreds of thousands of registered users racking up millions of listening hours across Hubbard’s platforms every month. An active participant in industry groups and NAB committees, he also served as vice chair of the NAB Digital Officers Committee. Prior to Hubbard, he worked for Clear Channel Communications from 2002 to 2006 as Web Manager and Creative Director at Omnera Interactive from 2000 to 2002.
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