Sarah Smith To Retire As KMBC-KCWE Kansas City GM

Sarah Smith, who since 2011 has been president and general manager of KMBC and KCWE, the Hearst Television Kansas City ABC and CW affiliates, respectively, will retire at year-end 2021 from her highly television career.

Smith caps a television career spanning nearly four decades, 15 years of which have been spent at Hearst Television. Prior to KMBC, she was president and general manager of KETV, the company’s Omaha ABC affiliate. Her successor at KMBC-KCWE will be announced at a later date.

“Throughout her impressive career, Sarah has tirelessly advocated for the power of local television in our communities,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. “She did an outstanding job leading and growing three important properties, including two of the highest-rated ABC affiliates in the country. She has been an important voice in our company and leaves a tremendous legacy that will continue to be felt in the years ahead.  We wish her great success in her well-deserved next chapter.”

“I’ve been blessed to work with so many great people,” Smith said. “Their creativity and commitment have been crucial to the ongoing success of KMBC-KCWE, as well as KETV, and I have had the wonderful support of the nurturing culture of Hearst Television.”

Under Smith’s supervision, KMBC was recently recognized for the sixth consecutive year as the top television news organization in Kansas and Missouri by the Radio Television Digital News Association, earning three regional Edward R. Murrow awards — Including the prestigious Overall Excellence Award as well as Best Newscast. Smith also has received two regional Emmy Awards for her on-air editorials.

Both KMBC and KCWE have expanded hours devoted to news under her leadership. KMBC also has increased its output of original programming such as a recent documentary, under the banner of Hearst Television’s award-winning “Chronicle” newsmagazine brand, reflecting on the anniversary and lessons of the deadly 1981 collapse of the skywalks in Kansas City’s Hyatt Hotel.

In April 2020, KMBC and KCWE joined radio and television broadcasters across Kansas City for “OneKC: A Day of Giving” — raising more than $2 million for area COVID relief.

Before moving to KMBC-KCWE, Smith served for nearly five years as president and general manager of KETV. During her leadership, the station became the market’s local news leader across every major time period, one of the top-rated ABC-affiliated stations nationwide, and a recipient of Best Newscast Awards from the Associated Press and the Radio Television Digital News Association.  Smith herself was named Broadcasting & Cable’s General Manager of the Year, in markets 51 and higher, for 2010.

Prior to joining Hearst Television in 2007 at KETV, Smith was vice president-GM manager of both KRCR and KAEF, serving the Chico-Redding and Eureka, Calif., markets, respectively.

She rose through the industry in various sales roles. These included assignments as general sales manager for KVUE Austin, Texas, and, previously, as national sales manager for WFAA Dallas; regional sales manager for KXTV Sacramento, Calif.; and local sales manager for WISH Indianapolis.

She began her career as a local account executive at KOTV Tulsa, Okla., before moving to Los Angeles as an account executive for the national broadcast sales representation firm Telerep, where she was responsible for spot sales for 22 TV stations.

Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois.