Laura Williamson New KSBW Monterey GM

Laura Williamson, for nearly 25 years a senior sales executive at KCRA-KQCA, Hearst Television’s NBC and MyNetworkTV duopoly in Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, Calif., today was named president and general manager of KSBW  Monterey-Salinas, California which provides NBC, digital ABC and Estrella TV programming.

Williamson, whose appointment is effective Sept. 8, succeeds Joseph W. Heston, who recently announced plans to retire after more than three decades with Hearst Television.

“Laura has been instrumental in the growth of our Sacramento duopoly,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. “A native Californian, her familiarity with the region and her management experience at one of the nation’s leading local stations make her ideally suited to work with the outstanding team in Monterey in achieving even greater success.”

A Bay Area native, Williamson most recently served for a dozen years as general sales manager of KCRA; she previously was the station’s local sales manager. She joined Hearst Television in 1996 as an account executive at KCRA sister station KQCA and was promoted to local sales manager in 2000.

She began her sales career in the hotel industry, initially in her hometown of San Francisco at that city’s Fairmont Hotel. She later held positions at the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Hyatt Regency Sacramento, where she was sales manager.

Williamson is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in liberal arts.