Byron Allen has tapped Princell Hair as the new president of Allen Media Broadcasting and executive vice president of Allen Media Group.
“Local news matters, and the connections these local stations have in their communities cannot be overstated. The owned-and-operated Allen Media stations are a strong broadcast group in growing markets,” Hair said in a statement. “I am excited to lead this team of accomplished General Managers as we navigate the complexities of local television management while acquiring more broadcast stations and media assets.”
Hair joins the company from Black News Channel, where he served as president for the last two years. The channel was purchased by Allen in 2022 for $11 million and immediately rebranded as theGrio Television Network.
Prior to the Black News Channel, Hair was senior vice president and general manager for NBC Sports Boston, where he strengthened relationships with the Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, the Major League Soccer franchise The New England Revolution, and the WNBA franchise The Connecticut Sun.
Prior to that, Hair was Senior Vice President, News and Talent for NBC Sports Group where he served as lead negotiator for all talent contracts, including the NBC Sports Network, NBC Broadcast Network, The Golf Channel, eight regional sports networks and the Olympics. Hair added Premier League and NASCAR talent to the network’s stable when NBC acquired the rights to both sports properties.
Before his tenure at NBC Sports, Hair was Senior Vice President of News Operations and Studio Programming at Comcast Sports Group, where he developed new programming for regional networks, and spearheaded all talent acquisition and contract negotiations for 11 regional sports networks and three regional news and entertainment networks. Prior to that, Hair has held Executive Vice President, General Manager, and Senior Vice President positions at CNN/Turner Broadcasting. Hair got his start in local television news, holding Vice President, News Director, Executive Producer, and Producer titles at numerous local network-affiliated broadcast television stations including KCBS-TV Los Angeles, WBAL-TV Baltimore, WMAQ-TV Chicago, WBBM-TV Chicago, WCPX-TV Orlando, WDIV-TV Detroit, and Miami stations WCIX-TV, WPLG-TV, and WSVN-TV.
Hair will be based at the Allen Media Studios/Weather Group campus in Atlanta.
“Princell Hair is a phenomenal media executive who brings an overwhelming amount of industry experience and excellent leadership skills to our 2,400-employee company,” Allen, said in a statement. “Princell’s seasoned expertise now plays a crucial role in supporting Allen Media Group’s acquisitions and continued expansion across our ever-increasing number of media assets and distribution platforms worldwide.”
Allen Media Broadcasting consists of 27 ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 television markets nationwide. In addition to theGrio, Allen Media Group oversees platforms including The Weather Channel, HBCU Go, Sports.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, and the free-streaming app Local Now.