WASHINGTON – September 7, 2022 – America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) today announced the election of Franz Joachim, General Manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS, as the new Professional Vice Chair of the APTS board of trustees.
“We are delighted that Franz Joachim has been elected as the professional vice chair of our board of trustees,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of APTS. “Franz has served on our board for the past three years, providing wise counsel, strategic guidance and innovative thinking to our organization.
“As the general manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS, Franz’s extraordinary leadership has substantially enhanced his station’s services in education, public safety and civic leadership for his State. In 2021, New Mexico PBS became the first public television station in the nation to fully convert to the new ATSC 3 Next Gen broadcast standard, creating more channel capacity for local programming and more spectrum capacity for remote learning, public safety communications, and datacasting applications of all kinds.
“Franz is one of the most future-oriented general managers in our system, and as professional vice chair of our board he will play an important role in inventing the future of public television.”
“America’s Public Television Stations is a vital component to the health of the public television system,” said Franz Joachim. “Educating our State and national delegations on the value of our mission, helping define and refine that mission as technology evolves, and ensuring support from our State and federal delegates, are all part of ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system. I look forward to helping APTS and the system I love continue to provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people.”
Franz Joachim is General Manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS (KNME-TV). He has been involved in television production since high school in Tucson, Arizona.
Joachim graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Radio-Television and a minor in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics. While there, he worked for KUAT-TV (PBS), first on its student production crew and then as Studio Supervisor. He has worked in television broadcasting for 45 years as a photographer, editor, director and manager in a variety of production environments, including Industrial, News, Studio and Long Form Documentary production. Joachim is a certified diver, shooting for documentaries from the Sea of Cortez to the Turks and Caicos and Virgin Islands.
In 1999, Joachim became Production & Operations Manager for KNME-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In this position, he supervised an extensive build out of automated on-air operations and developed the digital file based production workflow for KNME production.
Joachim was designated as a National Association of Broadcasters’ DTV spokesman for New Mexico and traveled the region, giving talks on the transition to digital television, showing people how to hook up converter boxes, and explaining the vagaries of the DTV transition.
In 2010, Joachim was promoted to Director of Content for New Mexico PBS/KNME & KNMD overseeing the scheduling, production, promotion and distribution of content on-air and online. In 2013, Joachim was appointed General Manager & CEO of New Mexico PBS.
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org