Fox names manager for its new Charlotte stations

Fox Television Stations has named a veteran North Carolina broadcaster to lead the two stations it is acquiring in Charlotte.

Karen Adams, now general manager of the Fox affiliate in Greensboro-High Point, will take over when the Fox network group takes control of WJZY (Channel 46) and WMYT (Channel 55) in June. Fox is buying the two stations from Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting in an $18 million transaction announced in January.

Karen Adams

Fox's programming lineup will move from longtime affiliate WCCB (Channel 18) to one of the former Capitol stations in June.

Adams was an executive at the Greensboro station, WGHP (Channel 8), when it was  owned by Fox from 1996 to 2008. It was sold as part of transaction when parent company News Corp. was raising money to purchase The Wall Street Journal.

"I couldn’t be happier to welcome her back," Jack Abernethy, chief executive officer of Fox Television Stations, said in a statement Thursday.

Adams, 58, started at WGHP in 1976 on the production floor as a camera operator and worked up into other positions including program director, anchor and producer on the station's morning show and vice president of creative services before becoming general manager, a post she has held for 16 years.

"North Carolina is my home and I look forward to rejoining my Fox Television Station colleagues," Adams said in a statement.

Adams has a BA in theater arts from High Point University, where she serves on the advisory board of the communications department. She is also on the advisory board of the Salvation Army of High Point and  Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem.