TV Veteran Reaches Goal as General Manager at KWHY

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The first day that Araceli De Leon walked into a television station she met the general manager and thought to herself, “I would love to do his job.”


Now that De Leon has been promoted to vice president and general manager of KWHY (Channel 22), an NBC Universal property under the Telemundo banner, that dream has been realized.


De Leon’s responsibilities include programming, sales and going out into the community to meet viewers. “For me it’s a new challenge,” De Leon said. “Something I’ve never done before.”


De Leon, who has been in television for 27 years, joined NBC in 2003 as vice president and general manger of KDRX in Phoenix and KHHR in Tucson, NBC’s two Telemundo stations in Arizona. Previously, she was general manager for two Univision stations in Corpus Christi, Texas.


Throughout her career, she has moved through different departments, including production, accounting, news, operations and engineering, in order to understand the jobs of the people she’s coordinating. It was an unusual strategy, she said, because most general managers move up the ranks of the sales department.


KWHY’s previous general managers also oversaw more than one station at the same time, said De Leon.


De Leon will live in the Glendale area, just a few miles from the station. “Everything is right” about this move, she said, even her house. She came here one day with five hours to choose her house, she said, and the first one she looked at was available.


Her hobbies include going antiquing, playing golf and decorating the house with her dog Frankie.

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