Award-winning local news executive Rob Elmore has been named the president and general manager of ABC11/WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham, announced Wendy McMahon, president, ABC Owned Television Stations, to whom he will report. In this new role, Mr. Elmore has overall management responsibility of the station’s operations and its ancillary businesses.
Elmore is a seasoned news executive bringing extensive experience leading teams in the multiplatform space including ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles which serves the second largest market in the United States. As the vice president of KABC’s news division for the past five years, Elmore has helped cement the station’s status as Southern California’s leading source for local news and information, expanding coverage to serve audiences across broadcast, digital and social platforms. Prior to KABC, Elmore spent 17 years at WTVD where he held the position of news director serving the Research Triangle Region of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Fayetteville with the most trusted news information, entertaining content and inspiring storytelling.
“Rob has been an extraordinary and transformational leader for the ABC owned television stations, building next-generation newsrooms at ABC11 in Raleigh-Durham and ABC7 in Los Angeles,” said McMahon. “Rob leads with a sharp vision for modernization and an uncompromised commitment to our communities and audiences. As ABC11 continues to press forward in innovation and growth to serve our viewers across even more platforms, we’re thrilled for Rob’s leadership as he returns to his Raleigh-Durham roots.”
“After a great five years in Los Angeles, returning to central North Carolina and the team at ABC11 in many ways feels like a homecoming. I spent one of the most formative periods of my life and career in Raleigh-Durham, during which time I came to know and love the resiliency and the vibrancy of the community,” said Elmore. “Especially with the health and economic impact of the pandemic felt so broadly, there is never a more important time for local news to support our community and business partners by keeping our audiences informed and connected. ABC11 has been there for our viewers for every step of the journey, and I’m thrilled to be coming back to this amazing team as we see our community back onto its feet.”
At KABC, Elmore specialized in creating and executing content and format strategies to increase multiplatform viewership and engagement, helping to secure ABC7’s position as the No. 1 station in the country on digital and social. Most recently, KABC was honored in 2020 with four Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence, Breaking News Coverage, Excellence in Video, and Best Newscast in large-market television in Region 2 of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).
As news director of WTVD, Elmore spearheaded the opening of the first and only downtown Raleigh street-level studio, The Raleigh Eyewitness News Center, in 2005. In 2008, his team was the first in the country to deploy a live broadband mobile unit, Breaking News 1, for spot news and severe weather coverage. In 2011, he and the team created the Happening Now at 5 p.m. format, which has been replicated at local stations across the country.
Before joining ABC Owned Television Stations, Elmore was news director and assistant news director at News 10 NBC in Rochester, New York. Earlier in his career, he was a news producer at WSMV in Nashville, Tennessee, where produced the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts; and WHAM-TV in Rochester, New York, where he produced the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. He began his television career as a reporter at WWNY-TV in Watertown, New York, during summer and college breaks.
Elmore graduated magna cum laude from SUNY Geneseo with a Bachelor of Arts in speech communication.
About ABC11/WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham
ABC11/WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham is an ABC owned television station serving the Research Triangle Region of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Fayetteville, an area collectively known for its technology companies and scholarly institutions. In 2017, WTVD transformed into a multiplatform newsroom as the first stations selected for the UNC Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, modernizing the station and maximizing its reach and engagement across linear broadcast and streaming video on demand. ABC11 is proudly the broadcast partner for the Raleigh Christmas Parade, the largest local event in the region, and the news gathering partner with the News & Observer, the region’s paper of record.
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About ABC Owned Television Stations
The ABC Owned Television Stations includes WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, KGO-TV San Francisco, KTRK-TV Houston, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham and KFSN-TV Fresno. The eight owned stations reach 23% of all U.S. television households. The stations are consistently market leaders in multiplatform local news, collectively No. 1 in local news among Adults 25-54 for 11 consecutive broadcast seasons, and in overall digital audience, video consumption and social reach and engagement. In 2018, the Stations further expanded their content portfolio and reach with the launch of the digital-first national lifestyle brand Localish that in its first year produced over 650 pieces of digital video content, totaling more than 240 million video views. The Live Well broadcast channel was rebranded as Localish in February 2020, delivering locally sourced yet nationally relevant storytelling as long-form linear programming to more than 14 million viewers across America.
