John Deushane, general manager for 11Alive (WXIA-TV), is retiring after a 13-year run at the Atlanta NBC affiliate.
“As the walrus said, after 47 years in broadcasting, the time has come,” Deushane, 66, wrote to staff in a memo Tuesday. “Effective August 4th, retirement’s siren call will be answered. While there have been wonderful moments throughout my career, I can without equivocation say that the past 13 years at 11Alive have been the most rewarding. And that’s because of the opportunity to work with so many passionate and dedicated professionals like each of you.”
His tenure is among the longest ever for a general manager at any station in this market.
While the station was unable to make much progress on the ratings front over the years, typically well behind perpetual leaders WSB-TV and WAGA-TV (Fox 5), it would frequently collect the most Southeast Emmy awards. At the most recent ceremony June 17, the affiliate pocketed 17 regional Emmys including overall station excellence. Over his 13-year run, the station collected 236 regional Emmys.
The station also won two national Emmy awards and nine Edward R. Murrow awards, along with a Peabody Award.
“What has made the last few years most rewarding,” Deushane wrote, “has been to witness the respect and help you give each other to succeed. That support has led to numerous 11Alive team members being promoted within the station, to other stations, and to leadership roles within TEGNA,” the parent company.
His replacement has not yet been named.
The station has also been without a permanent news director since Jennifer Rigby left nearly five months ago to work at Atlanta-based Gray Television for its recently launched in-house news research and consulting team. Gray owns rival CBS affiliate WANF-TV.
TEGNA almost sold its TV stations including 11Alive to Standard General. But the Federal Communications Commission did not approve the merger by a particular deadline and it fell through last month.
