Sandy Breland has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Gray Television.
This is a promotion for Breland, who was the senior managing vice president at Gray. She succeeded Bob Smith, who recently retired after a long career with Gray in various capacities.
“Sandy has vast talents and experience in leading local news-focused operations that have earned her enormous respect within Gray and throughout our industry,” said Gray executive chairman Hilton H. Howell. “She is the natural choice to lead Gray’s unique portfolio of leading television stations, and we are thrilled to announce her promotion as our new Chief Operating Officer.”
Breland joined Gray in 2019 as a senior vice president of Local Media upon Gray’s acquisition of Raycom Media, where she served as a group vice president.
In her current role, she has overseen a portfolio of television stations and local digital platforms in 16 markets as well as Gray’s Washington DC News Bureau, its National Investigative Unit, and news support services for all markets. Last year, she assumed oversight of Recruiting and Gray’s new in-house News Research and Consulting operation. Sand
also has oversight of InvestigateTV, a weekly program airing across Gray’s stations.
Before joining Gray, she’s worked as general manager of WVUE in New Orleans, Louisiana, and WAFB-WBXH in Baton Rouge, executive news director of KTVK in Phoenix, Arizona, and executive news director of WWL in New Orleans.