BYRON ALLEN'S ALLEN MEDIA GROUP HIRES PRINCELL HAIR AS PRESIDENT OF ALLEN MEDIA BROADCASTING

Executive Will Also Hold Title of Executive Vice President of Allen Media Group - The Parent Company of Allen Media Broadcasting, Weather Group, and All Affiliated Divisions

LOS ANGELES, April 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Byron Allen's Allen Media Group proudly announces the hiring of Princell Hair as President of Allen Media Broadcasting – the broadcast television station division consisting of 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 television markets nationwide. Hair will also hold the title of Executive Vice President of Allen Media Group – Allen's wholly-owned parent company of Allen Media Broadcasting, Weather Group, and all other Allen Media Group platforms such as The Weather Channel, theGrio, HBCU GO, Sports.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, and the free-streaming app Local Now. Hair will be based at the Allen Media Studios/Weather Group campus in Atlanta.

Hair comes to Allen Media Group from his previous two-year position as President of Black News Channel, which Allen purchased in 2022 and immediately re-branded as TheGrio Television Network. Prior to Black News Channel, Hair was Senior Vice President and General Manager for NBC Sports Boston where he strengthened relationships with the Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, the Major League Soccer franchise The New England Revolution, and the WNBA franchise The Connecticut Sun. Prior to that, Hair was Senior Vice President, News and Talent for NBC Sports Group where he served as lead negotiator for all talent contracts, including the NBC Sports Network, NBC Broadcast Network, The Golf Channel, eight regional sports networks, and the Olympics. Hair added Premier League and NASCAR talent to the network's stable when NBC acquired the rights to both sports properties. Before his tenure at NBC Sports, Hair was Senior Vice President of News Operations and Studio Programming at Comcast Sports Group, where he developed new programming for regional networks, and spearheaded all talent acquisition and contract negotiations for 11 regional sports networks and three regional news and entertainment networks. Prior to that, Hair has held Executive Vice President, General Manager, and Senior Vice President positions at CNN/Turner Broadcasting. Hair got his start in local television news, holding Vice President, News Director, Executive Producer, and Producer titles at numerous local network-affiliated broadcast television stations including KCBS-TV Los Angeles, WBAL-TV Baltimore, WMAQ-TV Chicago, WBBM-TV Chicago, WCPX-TV Orlando, WDIV-TV Detroit, and Miami stations WCIX-TV, WPLG-TV, and WSVN-TV. Hair earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Florida International University and earned his Master of Business Administration from Emory University.

"Princell Hair is a phenomenal media executive who brings an overwhelming amount of industry experience and excellent leadership skills to our 2,400-employee company," said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. "Princell's seasoned expertise now plays a crucial role in supporting Allen Media Group's acquisitions and continued expansion across our ever-increasing number of media assets and distribution platforms worldwide."

"Local news matters, and the connections these local stations have in their communities cannot be overstated. The owned-and-operated Allen Media stations are a strong broadcast group in growing markets," said Princell Hair, President of Allen Media Broadcasting. "I am excited to lead this team of accomplished General Managers as we navigate the complexities of local television management while acquiring more broadcast stations and media assets." 

About Allen Media Group 
Chairman and CEO Byron Allen founded Allen Media Group in 1993. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Charleston, SC. Allen Media Group owns 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets and twelve 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 220 million subscribers: THE WEATHER CHANNEL, THE WEATHER CHANNEL EN ESPAÑOL, PETS.TV, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV, JUSTICE CENTRAL.TV, THEGRIO TELEVISION NETWORK, THIS TV, and PATTRN. Allen Media Group also owns the streaming platforms HBCU GO, SPORTS.TV, THEGRIO, THE WEATHER CHANNEL STREAMING APP and LOCAL NOW--the free-streaming AVOD service powered by THE WEATHER CHANNEL and content partners, which delivers real-time, hyper-local news, weather, traffic, sports, and lifestyle information. Allen Media Group also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 73 television programs, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations. With a library of over 5,000 hours of owned content across multiple genres, Allen Media Group provides video content to broadcast television stations, cable television networks, mobile devices, and multimedia digital. Our mission is to provide excellent programming to our viewers, online users, and Fortune 500 advertising partners.

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In 2016, Allen Media Group purchased theGrio, a highly-rated digital video-centric news community platform devoted to providing African-Americans with compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets. The Grio features aggregated and original video packages, news articles and opinion pieces on topics that include breaking news, politics, health, business and entertainment. Originally launched in 2009, the platform was then purchased by NBC News in 2010. The digital platform remains focused on curating exciting digital content and currently has more than 100 million annual visitors.

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SOURCE Allen Media Group