NBC Universal has named Todd Mokhtari as president/GM of KNSD-TV NBC 7 San Diego and KUAN Telemundo 20 in San Diego. The announcement was made Friday. Mokhtari succeeds the recently retired Richard Kelley, who had served in the role since 2010.
Mokhtari was previously VP of news at KNBC-TV NBC 4 in Los Angeles, where he led the station’s newsroom since 2012. His background over the past 25 years has been in leading newsrooms in the country’s top 20 markets, including Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Sacramento.
At NBC 4, Mokhtari restructured the newsroom, launched new local newscasts and digital-mobile platforms, expanded the station’s investigative team, strengthened news collaborations with sister station KVEA-TV Telemundo 52 and oversaw the launch of state-of-the-art fixed, mobile and digital weather radars.
Mokhtari will report to Valari Staab, president, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.
“Todd is well-respected by his colleagues and peers and has done an exceptional job at KNBC,” Staab said. “He’s spearheaded a complete restructuring of the station’s news operations, which has resulted in KNBC’s local news ranking No. 1 and No. 2 in the market among its key audiences. His extensive familiarity with West Coast audiences, including communities up and down the California coast, will help to strengthen our already strong NBC and Telemundo San Diego teams.”
Manuel Martinez, president of Telemundo Station Group, said: “Todd has worked hand in hand with our Telemundo station news team in Los Angeles for the past seven years. He understands very well how important our Telemundo stations are for our Spanish-speaking communities, and look forward to seeing the great work he’ll do with our Telemundo 20 team in San Diego in his new role.”
Said Mokhtari: “I’m very excited to take on this great opportunity. It is a privilege to cover the communities we live in day to day. NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 are outstanding news organizations. From covering the effects that smoke from local wild fires may have in our communities to our KNSD and KUAN investigative teams uncovering federal agencies’ questionable practices at our southern U.S. border, I am proud to lead our San Diego stations and the important work they do to strengthen the communities we call home.”
Z90 Listener from Hillcrest Wins $10,000
Radio station XHTZ-FM Z90.3 recently presented a $10,000 cash grand prize to listener Ashley Reese of Hillcrest.
The station said Reese was randomly selected from more than 250,000 listener entries over a five-week period to win “Rick Morton’s $10,000 Pay Day.”
Listeners were encouraged to hear code words announced on the air and enter them on the station website for entry. Additional code words for additional entries were available at participating San Diego County Credit Union locations and in social media posts by the radio station.
“After weeks of words and all the buildup, it feels awesome to finally give away $10,000 to a Z90 listener,” Morton said. “I’m so happy for Ashley; she really put in the effort to listen and win, and it paid off big. It’s a great feeling to give such a massive reward to someone right here in our hometown.”
XHTZ-FM is operated by Local Media San Diego LLC, which also owns XHRM-FM Magic 92.5 and XTRA-FM 91X.
Health Care Communicators Discussing Left, Right Brain Discipline
Health Care Communicators of San Diego (HCCSD) will host “Brand Centric: A Left and Right Brain Discipline,” a presentation from Chase Design, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at Biocom, 10996 Torreyana Road, San Diego. Cost to attend is $20 for members, $30 for nonmembers. More information is available at hccsd.org/events.
Founded in 2000, Poway-based Chase Design, with four employees, specializes in branding consulting for businesses. Speakers at the HCCSD event will include Chris Chase, CEO, creative director, and Geoff Spickler, strategic services partner and VP of business development. The duo will share how they applied their separate methods of thinking for a lucrative business strategy.
Chase Design clients have included Callaway Golf, Ashworth Golf, The Los Angeles Triathlon, The Nation’s Triathlon, Scripps Hospital and Palomar Health. Services include graphic design, catalogs, brochures, corporate identity, publication design, product illustrations, 3D design, motion graphics, SEO and web design.
HCCSD is a professional networking group for communications professionals who work in the health care, wellness, biotech, medical device, health information technology and pharmaceutical industries.
San Diego AMA to Host ‘Art of Marketing’ Conference
San Diego’s American Marketing Association chapter will host its eighth annual “Art of Marketing” conference starting at 8 a.m. Friday, April 5, at the Del Mar Marriott Hotel, 11966 El Camino Real, San Diego. This year’s theme is “Challenge + Change.”
AMA officials said the one-day, interactive forum of speakers, panels and one-to-one expert sessions is an opportunity for enterprise marketers, small business leaders, agency innovators and platform developers to enhance their marketing knowledge and make career-accelerating connections.
The conference combines practical, career and brand-advancing educational opportunities with networking access to marketing leaders and innovators in a professional, fun atmosphere.
Four breakout tracks will focus on brand, leadership, digital and innovation. The also event will include 15 marketing experts leading 15-minute roundtables on marketing challenges.
Speakers will include marketing professionals who work at San Diego-based companies, including Cheryl Goodman, Sony North America; Michael Farrington, NuVasive; and Seth Odell, National University. Other speakers and panelists include Adam Fox, Qdoba; Gregg Witt, Engage Youth; Erika DiProfio, Omni La Costa Resort and Spa; and Richard Cran, The Collective.
“Art of Marketing has always been about three things for attendees, including gaining marketing knowledge, building connections and having fun,” said Bill Winn, event chair. “We’ve kept these objectives very much top of mind in developing this year’s event, with rich programming and both structured and free time for marketing leaders to talk shop.”
Cost to attend is $199 per person for members and $399 for nonmembers. For more information, visit artofmarketingsd.org.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.
