Joel Chaseman, of North Bethesda, died on Jan. 11. He was 93.
He was a broadcasting executive who became chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co.’s broadcasting subsidiary, Post-Newsweek Stations Inc.
Chaseman, who had risen through the broadcasting ranks from news to program syndication, had been president of the Westinghouse Television Station Group when he left New York in 1973 to take the same title at Post-Newsweek Stations. He also became a board member of The Washington Post Co.
During his 17-year tenure leading the company’s broadcasting arm, including four television stations, he had a leading role guiding policy and development. The stations’ operating margins, former Post publisher Katharine Graham wrote in her memoir, “Personal History,” “grew competitive with the best in the business.
Joel Alan Chaseman was born in Trenton, N.J., on Feb. 18, 1926, and grew up in
Albany, N.Y. After service as a Navy radar technician in World War II, he graduated from Cornell University in 1948 and became an announcer at radio stations in Elmira, N.Y., and at a TV station in Baltimore.
In addition to his two daughters, survivors include a brother and two grandchildren. His wife of 58 years, Marlene Meyerson Chaseman, died in 2014. Their son, Michael Chaseman, died in 1975.
