TV industry and station veteran Thomas R. Herwitz has been named president of Freedom Broadcasting, TVNewsCheck reports.

Our good friend Herwitz has a longtime relationship with Mitch Stern, who is now running Freedom Broadcasting parent Freedom Communications, when both were at Fox.

According to the story, "In a prepared statement, Mitch Stern, CEO of parent of the financially troubled Freedom Communications, said Wade will be staying on briefly to ensure a smooth transition."

Tom Herwitz:

Doreen Wade:

In the statement Stern praised both Wade and Herwitz.

The story also says, "From 1989 to 1993, Herwitz was VP and general manager of WTTG, the Fox O&Os in Washington. There, he helped develop America’s Most Wanted and the Fox Morning News and was the creator of the children’s news show Not Just the News and the political talk show Off the Record. He was executive VP for Fox from 1996 to 2000 and president of station operations from 2000 to 2005."

The article notes that the well-known and well-respected Wade is "a 26-year Freedom veteran, [and] was VP and GM of WPEC prior to being named president of the station group in 2002. Before that she held positions at two other Freedom stations. She is a board member of the CBS Television Affiliates Association, National Association of Broadcasters and the Open Mobile Video Coalition."

Freedom owns the following eight TV stations: WPEC (CBS), WWMT (CBS), WRGB (CBS), WCWN (CW), WTVC (ABC), WLAJ (ABC), KTVL (CBS, and KFDM (CBS).

WRGB, which Freedom bought in 1986, and which serves the Schenectady and Albany markets in New York, is one of the oldest and historically significant TV stations in the country. It was founded in 1928 as an experimental TV station by General Electric, and was the first TV station to be part of a "network" when it hooked up with NBC and its flagship station in New York City in 1939.