Darrel Lieze-Adams, the Vice President and station manager of WBBH-TV and WZVN-TV serving the Fort Myers-Naples, Florida television market, has been promoted to serve as the stations’ president and general manager.
WBBH-TV (Channel 20, NBC), which Hearst Television acquired in 2023, is the market’s leader and NBC-affiliated television station. WBBH provides programming services to WZVN-TV (Channel 26, ABC).
“Darrel knows Southwest Florida intimately and has been instrumental in helping build WBBH and WZVN into the respected brands they are today,” said Michael J. Hayes, the President of Hearst Television. “His leadership, especially in times of crisis as demonstrated through severe weather events in recent years, distinguishes him as an invested executive serving the Gulf Coast and our teams in Southwest Florida.”
Lieze-Adams came to the stations as news director in 1997, and added the title vice president, news, digital, marketing and production in 2019. Among other accomplishments during his time supervising the stations’ news operations, he expanded the number of newscasts and oversaw the recreation of the WZVN studio and set with multiple production innovations. He was promoted to vice president and station manager in 2021.
Underscoring the stations’ longstanding news leadership, WBBH/WZVN were honored with a 2024 national Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in a Small Market – marking the stations’ fifth national Murrow since 2022. Overall, under Lieze-Adams’ leadership, the stations have received nine national Murrow Awards, for Best Newscast, Investigative Reporting, Innovation, News Series, Writing and Breaking News.
Lieze-Adams joined then-WBBH owner Waterman Broadcasting in 1997 from Hubbard Broadcasting’s KSTP-TV (Channel 5, ABC) in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where he held a number of positions before ultimately becoming senior executive producer of broadcasts. While there, he received a regional Emmy for producing a presidential town hall event, “Healthcare in the Heartland,” with then-President Clinton; the event included live audience participation in Minneapolis/St. Paul as well as remotely from multiple Midwest cities. Prior to KSTP, Lieze-Adams served in various news roles at KGAN (Channel 2, CBS) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The first in his family to attend college, Lieze-Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University, through which he worked his way by producing, reporting and anchoring a 10 p.m. newscast for a local TV station. He has participated in a number of professional-development programs, including the prestigious Poynter Institute Broadcast Leadership Summit.
Among industry associations, Lieze-Adams served for 17 years, three of which as Board Chair, on the ABC Network News Director Advisory Board. Among civic and charitable affiliations, he serves as an Executive Committee Board Member of The Foundation of Lee Public Schools; he also serves on the board of Home Base SWFL, a program of the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital which supports veterans and service members in need, and on the Advisory Board of Florida Repertory Theatre. He was named a person of the year by the Southwest Florida-based magazine Gulfshore Life.
