Bios
Bernie Prazenica is president and general manager of WPVI-TV/6abc in Philadelphia. The top-rated news and entertainment television station in the Delaware and Lehigh Valley, WPVI-TV is an ABC owned television station in the country’s fourth largest television market. It is nationally recognized as one of the preeminent stations in news, local programming and community involvement, with a ratings dominance that spans nearly 45 years.
Under Prazenica’s leadership, the station completed construction of a state-of-the-art, 110,000-square foot, all-digital facility next to its previous home on City and Monument Avenues in 2009. He also oversees 6abc.com, its mobile applications and two digital channels. The station’s website is the most popular television website in the Delaware Valley.
Prazenica’s career in television spans 43 years and across a number of stations and markets. Prior to current role, which he assumed in 2007, he served as president and general manager of WTVD-TV, ABC’s owned station in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he guided the station in construction of the market’s first street-level studio, started a 10 p.m. News program, and brought a new commitment to local programming. In 1994, Prazenica was appointed as director of Sales for WPVI-TV, after representing ABC Owned Television Stations in the mid-Atlantic region in their ABC National TV Sales department. He began his career at Pittsburgh’s WPTT-TV as an account executive, before transitioning to WXEX-TV in Richmond, Virginia, and then returning to his college town of Philadelphia to begin a long stand with WPVI-TV.
Since returning to Philadelphia, Prazenica has continued a long tradition of WPVI-TV community involvement. He is actively involved on various boards such as Pennsylvania Visitors and Convention Bureau, Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Corporate Council, City Avenue Special Services District, and Castlemans Disease Collaborative Network Board of Advisors. He is also a past chairman of the Police Athletic League and chairman of Temple University’s Klein College Board of Advisors.
In 2009, Prazenica was the proud recipient of the Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Award. In 2014, Temple University also inducted him into its Gallery of Success in the School of Media and Communication. That same year, he was recognized by Philadelphia Magazine as one of the City’s 75 Most Influential People and in 2020 he received the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia’s highest award.
Prazenica graduated cum laude from the Klein School of Media and Communications at Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in communications, radio-TV-film.