Debra O'Connell To Manage WABC-TV7 NYC

Debra O'Connell

ABC veteran Debra O’Connell has been tapped to lead the network’s flagship WABC-TV7 New York as president and general manager.

O’Connell has been with ABC for more than 20 years, starting out as a marketing executive in radio.

She spent the past 14 months as exec VP of Disney/ABC’s consolidated advertising sales group. Before that she served as president of sales for the ABC Owned Stations Group, and she was a VP of marketing for WABC.

O’Connell succeeds Dave Davis, who retired in February after 15 years as WABC-TV GM. ABC Owned Television Stations president Wendy McMahon called O’Connell “a well-respected, highly strategic and driven leader that brings an impressive range of experience to this position.”

According to Variety, O’Connell will oversee all operations of the stations as well as “Live With Kelly and Ryan,” the syndicated morning show that is produced out of the station.

The move came months after Davis and news director Camile Edwards were the subjects of a discrimination lawsuit filed by Laura Behnke, a former sports reporter at the station who claimed she was not promoted because she is a white woman.