Cynthia DeLuca New GM Of WGAL Lancaster

Cynthia DeLuca, a 28-year Hearst Television veteran who since October 2017 has been general sales manager of WGAL, Hearst Television’s NBC affiliate in the Lancaster-Harrisburg-Lebanon-York, Pa., television market, has been promoted to the station’s president and general manager.

She succeeds Justin N. Antoniotti, who has been named president and general manager of Hearst’s KMBC-KCWE ABC-CW duopoly in Kansas City, Mo.

“Cindy brought passion, creativity and community focus to her roles at three different Hearst Television stations, two of which, are in Pennsylvania,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. “She has been an instrumental part of the WGAL senior management team the past four years, and she and her colleagues are in excellent position to build upon WGAL’s history of unmatched leadership in Central Pennsylvania.”

WGAL offers 42 hours of weekly newscasts and a freshly launched weekly community affairs program. WGAL’s 14 news specials in 2020 included several devoted to COVID while others explored the issue of race among other topics.

WGAL’s specials raised more than $1.5 million to feed families, provide medical care for children and to help support Lancaster’s main venue for live performances, The Fulton Theater. Earlier this year, WGAL launched 8 On Your Side Responds, for which it enlisted medical experts to answer viewer questions about COVID vaccines and related topics.

In November, WGAL was instrumental in helping raise more than $15 million during the day-long fundraiser, “The Extraordinary Give,” Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania’s largest day of giving, helping more than 500 area community organizations.

At WGAL, DeLuca led the sales team to new revenue benchmarks. Prior to becoming general sales manager at WGAL, DeLuca held the same role at WPTZ, which, with WNNE, forms Hearst Television’s NBC and CW duopoly in Burlington, Vt./Plattsburgh, N.Y.

DeLuca began her media career in her hometown of Pittsburgh, serving clients of Hallmark Advertising with media buying and client-service responsibilities. She moved to sales in 1993 when she joined Hearst, soon becoming director of business development for the then-Hearst-owned Pittsburgh radio stations WVTY-FM and WTAE-AM. In 1997, she became a sales account executive for Hearst’s ABC TV affiliate in Pittsburgh, WTAE, later becoming that station’s director of business development and, subsequently, its local sales manager, before moving to WPTZ.

DeLuca is a two-time recipient of internal Hearst awards for sales achievement.  She was awarded the Pittsburgh Radio and Television Club award for Best Professional for Internet Media in 2004, was named one of 20 Women in the Nation Who Rule in Sales and Marketing by American Women in Radio and Television in 2005, and received the 2012 Outstanding Achievement in Media Award for Television from the Media Association of Pittsburgh.

She is a 2013 graduate of the NAB Education Foundation’s Management Development Program and a member of the 2019 Broadcast Leadership Training graduating class, sponsored by the NAB Leadership Foundation.