Teater, With TV in Her Blood, Becomes First Female News Director at KTHV

Shayla Teater, news director at KTHV, Channel 11, and Martha Myrick, the station's new assistant news director.

Shayla Teater was named Tuesday as news director of KTHV, Channel 11, in Little Rock, becoming the CBS affiliate’s first female news chief and only the second ever in the Little Rock television news market.

Teater cut her teeth on TV news as the daughter of longtime Little Rock anchor Doug Krile, who finished his career as executive director of the Arkansas Broadcasters Association before retiring in 2017.

KTHV President and General Manager Marty Schack announced Teater’s appointment on Tuesday. A North Little Rock native and University of Missouri graduate, Teater started at KTHV as a producer in 2007, rising to be senior executive producer and assistant news director over the past seven years. She became interim news director after the departure of Dave Parker in late November. Parker has not announced his career plans.

Schack noted Teater’s major accomplishments, including a regional Emmy Award and a key role in launching multiple newscasts and coaching rising journalists.

“She has led teams that garnered regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and many Associated Press awards,” Schack said, adding that she is the station’s first female news director.

She is the second female news director in the market. Ginger Daril, now an account executive at the Sells Agency in Little Rock, broke the glass ceiling in 1999 as news director of KARK, Channel 4, where she had worked as an executive producer.

Martha Myrick, executive producer of special content, has been named Teater’s assistant news director. She did a stint as a producer for WESH in Orlando, Florida, coving breaking news like the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting and Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. A Hot Springs native and Henderson State University graduate, she returned to Channel 11 in 2018, launching KTHV’s lifestyle program “The Vine,” and has been honored for innovation by both the station and the chain that owns it, Tegna Inc. of Tysons, Virginia.

Teater and Myrick are a good team, Schack said, devoted to keeping their viewership safe and informed. “They’re natural fits to lead our evolving and innovative newsroom. I’m proud that we were able to promote from within, and look forward to big things in 2020.

Their new duties become official this week, Schack said.

(Arkansas Business and KTHV have a news-sharing agreement.)