Paula Madison Is KNBC’s New President, GM

Paula Madison, news director of NBC-owned-and-operated WNBC in New York, and the network’s vice president of diversity, has been named president and general manager of KNBC Channel 4, executives announced Wednesday. Her appointment is effective immediately.

Madison will replace Ray Heacox, who is leaving KNBC to head up a new technology company.

In an interview Wednesday, Madison, who will become one of the few minorities to be in charge of a major broadcast station in Los Angeles, expressed enthusiasm for her new duties.

“I am very excited,” she said. “Six months ago, being in Los Angeles is not where I had my sights set. But as I have gotten more involved with what’s happening in Los Angeles, it became an intriguing possibility. So when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it.”

One of Madison’s principal priorities at the station will be to “get out into the community to find out the issues that are most important to the people of Los Angeles.”

She said she will keep her executive diversity position, which she has held since February, and continue to work with a diversity council composed of NBC executives from around the country to increase minority representation in network prime-time programming.

According to ratings during the last major ratings period in May, KNBC had the top-ranked newscasts at 5 a.m., 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m., and 11 p.m. The station’s afternoon news block is second to top-ranked KABC Channel 7.