NEW YORK — He is a member of IEEE, SMPTE and SBE; and he has served within the SBE’s Mentor Program since the program’s inception in 2016.
This engineering pro is also a two-time Emmy Award winner in the Outstanding Technical Team Remote category, for his work on the 1998 Summer X Games and the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Now, he’s rising to the role of co-Regional Director for Engineering at Hearst Television.
Earning the promotion is Michael Saffell, who since 2015 has served as the Director of Engineering for Hearst Television’s politically important WMUR-9 in Manchester, New Hampshire, which has hosted primary debates for years and is a key factor in shaping the presidential races for many Republicans and Democrats.
Saffell will be splitting his time between Manchester and Hearst’s flagship station, ABC affiliate WCVB-5 in Boston. He will share direct engineering oversight across the station group with fellow Regional Director of Engineering Greg Turner.
Saffell succeeds Joe Balkan, who is retiring at the end of this year after 24 years with Hearst Television and nearly five decades in broadcast television.
“Michael is a versatile broadcast TV industry veteran with valuable experience spanning production to distribution,” Hearst Television SVP of Engineering Stefan Hadl said. “He’s been instrumental in managing the technology at one of our company’s most high-profile stations and he’s the right person to succeed Joe in this important position.”
Before joining Hearst Television in 2014 as Assistant Director of Engineering at WMUR, Saffell served for seven years as director of technology for New Hampshire Public Radio, with management responsibilities including IT, studio facilities and remote transmission sites.
Before that, he developed deep experience in mobile television production, serving for eight years in various roles.
