NBCUniversal names Chris Wayland to lead Local as Valari Staab retires
Chris Wayland will succeed Valari Staab as president of NBCUniversal Local, the division that runs the company's local stations and streaming outlets. Staab will retire at the end of the year after more than 15 years with NBCUniversal and 46 years in local TV, according to Variety.
Wayland is an internal appointment. He joined NBCUniversal in 2019 and has led NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston and NBC Sports Boston. He knows the local patch. His career in local media spans more than 30 years.
Staab shared her plan to retire earlier in 2026, as reported by Deadline. The formal handover will take place before the end of 2026. Wayland will work closely with Staab over the coming weeks during the transition, according to TVNewsCheck.
NBCU Local sits inside NBCU News Group, the organisation chaired by Cesar Conde. The president's brief is the business behind the broadcasts. That means staffing, budgets, programming plans and growth across many cities.
The portfolio is large. NBCU Local counts 50 local, regional and national media properties. That includes 11 NBC-owned stations and 31 Telemundo-owned stations, meaning stations owned outright by NBCUniversal rather than operated by separate affiliate owners.
The rest shows how far local television now reaches beyond a single channel. The division also holds four regional sports networks, which focus on teams and games in their home markets. It holds three national multicast networks — spare free channels carried alongside a main broadcast signal — and 17 streaming channels for phones and connected TVs.
For viewers, this is a backstage change. The stations, sports networks and streams that carry local news and games remain in place. What changes is who oversees them.
What makes this stand out is continuity. A manager who has run stations and a regional sports network together in Boston now takes on that mix at national scale. Staab leaves after 46 years in local TV, including more than 15 years with NBCUniversal. Wayland steps in with more than 30 years in the same business, including his run with the company in Boston since 2019. The two will overlap before the year-end switch to keep newsrooms and live output steady.
