retiring

Rob Stoddard, senior VP of industry and association affairs at NCTA-the Internet & Television Association, is retiring after two decades at the association. Stoddard told staffers that he would be leaving Jan. 3, 2022.

Beth Courtney, president and CEO of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, will retire at the end of January. Courtney, who has worked in public broadcasting for more than 45 years, has led LPB since 1985.

In a move that many were expecting, Alan Horn, 78, is retiring as chief creative officer of Disney Studios Content, effective Dec.31. It will end a nine-year run at the Burbank, Calif., lot in an executive TV and motion picture industry career that has spanned close to 50 years. The news comes in the long wake of Bob Iger’s retirement from Disney which will be at the end of this year.

Don Roy King, who has won 11 Emmys for directing Saturday Night Live, is retiring and is set to be replaced by The Ellen DeGeneres Show director Liz Patrick. King, who is thought to have directed more hours of live U.S. network television than anyone else, has been the director of the long-running NBC series since 2006. He previously directed CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CBS This Morning and Good Morning America.

The veteran programmer who has helped guide numerous television shows and careers caps more than four decades in the industry including 32 years at Hearst Television.

CBS Sports said long-time director Bob Fishman will retire following next year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. In 50 years with CBS, Fishman has directed nearly every sport televised by the network and has been the lead director on college basketball since 1982. He also directs CBS Sports’ No. 2 NFL broadcast team.

The tech company’s VP of Sales Brett Benson will succeed him as president on Oct. 1 and president and CEO on Jan. 1, 2022. Above, Dave Burand (l) congratulates Benson on his new position.

The regional VP of the station group held management positions at television stations in Nashville, Tulsa, Cleveland and Raleigh, N.C., before joining WKOW Madison, Wis., in 2008.

The longest serving general manager in the CBS Stations group is retiring at the end of the month. Walt DeHaven, vice president and general manager of the CBS Denver O&O KCNC, is retiring on July 30 after what he called a “long and wonderful career in broadcasting.”

Walt DeHaven, VP and general manager of KCNC Denver, marks his last day on the job July 30. He has spent 20 years atop the CBS O&O, and 14 more with other stations in the CBS group, including ones in Chicago and Boston. The longest-serving general manager in the CBS Stations group, DeHaven has spent 34 years with the Viacom and CBS groups. His successor has not yet been named.

He will be succeeded by Mark Greatrex, the current EVP and chief sales and marketing officer, who will become president.

National Basketball Association broadcasting legend Marv Albert signed off for the final time on July 4, his final words a simple “good night” to his legion of fans. Albert, whose 55-year-career was punctuated by his trademark “Yes!” call when someone made a crucial jump shot, finished his career with TNT, as the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Atlanta Hawks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Keith Kelly, the widely read and much-feared media reporter and columnist for the New York Post, is planning to retire on July 23 after more than two decades at the tabloid, according to an individual with knowledge of his plans. Since joining the Post in 1998 after stints at Magazine Week, Advertising Age and the New York Daily News, Kelly has been a key figure breaking scoops on the media beat.

The force behind the station group’s retrans efforts and station acquisitions will become a consultant next month.