WRAL Steps Up to Help Military Families with “Hiring America”

In the summer of 2011, Bill Deutch, an entrepreneur living in New York, had the idea of producing a local TV program to help transitioning military veterans find employment. However, it wasn’t until a meeting at WRAL with Station Manager Jim Rothschild that it shifted from merely an idea to one that could actually happen.

Considering the importance of the military community in our viewing area, Jim said that this was precisely the type of program that WRAL wanted to support. WRAL offered to provide studio space and technical support to produce the show, and with WRAL’s commitment and Bill’s persistence and drive, “Hiring America” launched in syndication in the fall of 2013. It is on more than 30 television stations in key military markets and on the Pentagon Channel.

With the help of WRAL-TV News Production Manager James Ford and WRAL-TV Crew Chief Stuart Todd, the first thirteen episodes of the program were shot in WRAL’s mini-studios and featured executives and employees from local companies and organizations such as Lenovo, Novozymes, and the USO of North Carolina, each with a story to tell. Nationally, “Hiring America” attracted the support of corporate sponsors such as Edward Jones, Wells Fargo, AT&T, and Target, and recently joined forces with the largest military organization that supports veterans, the VFW.

The crew from “Hiring America” was back at WRAL last week shooting segments with North Carolina representatives from Lenovo, Sears, and Wells Fargo and featuring those companies’ military hiring initiatives.

WRAL airs “Hiring America” at 5:30am leading into the Saturday morning news. The program is available in more than 25 million homes over local stations, and can be seen by all 2.6 million men and women on active duty around the globe and in 30 million cable and satellite homes on the Pentagon Channel.

Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Jim Rothschild for this capcom story & for these capcom photos.