Hearst Television has promoted the general manager of its Boston television station to serve as an executive vice president for the company.
Kyle Grimes has worked as the President and GM of WCVB (Channel 5, ABC) since 2020 and as VP of the company’s New England station portfolio since 2023, and will now oversee a broader portfolio of Hearst-owned local television stations as EVP, with his role based in New York City.
“Kyle has done exceptional work balancing the leadership of WCVB while simultaneously overseeing the strong brands within our New England footprint,” Michael J. Hayes, the President of Hearst Television, said in a statement. “He’s an executive who has spent his entire career with Hearst Television and brings with him a breadth of knowledge and experience over his career from a collection of our markets, which will serve him well in his next role.”
Grimes reported to Hayes while at WCVB, and will continue to report to him when he arrives in New York City, the company said in a statement to The Desk early Friday morning.
He is not unfamiliar with managing several stations at once: In addition to running WCVB, Grimes also oversaw the operations of WMTW (Channel 8, ABC) and WPXT (Channel 51, CW Network) in Portland, Maine; WMUR (Channel 8, ABC) in Manchester, New Hampshire; and WPTZ (Channel 5, NBC) and WNNE (Channel 31, CW) in Burlington, Vermont.
Those stations will remain under the direction of Grimes, but Hearst will also add additional stations to his responsibility. Grimes will oversee the added stations with a team of other EVPs, including Ashley Gold, Erick Meyrowitz and Nicholas Radziul, a spokesperson affirmed.
Grimes has worked for Hearst-owned stations during his entire career, starting as a newscast producer at its Central California NBC affiliate KSWB (Channel 8) in 1999 before moving to the state capital, where he reprised his role as a news producer at KCRA (Channel 3, NBC) and KQCA (Channel 58) in Sacramento two years later.
Another two years went by before Grimes packed up and headed east, joining WPTZ — one of the stations he now oversees — as an executive producer and, later, news director. He spent five years at the station before moving over to WPBF (Channel 25, ABC) in West Palm Beach, then returned to WPTZ in 2012 as its President and General Manager. He joined WGAL (Channel 8, NBC) in 2016 in the same role before heading to Boston and WCVB in 2020.
Grimes holds a bachelor’s degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University and is a graduate of the Hearst Management Institute, an executive leadership training program. He was also the prior Chairman of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, and served in similar roles in Pennsylvania and Vermont.
