Al Tedesco directed the Paul F. Harron Graduate Program in Television Management and advised the Graduate Television Association. He conducts research into the impact of digital media on broadcast television, and is the recipient of a Faculty Development Committee grant to study broadcasters’ response to the challenge of new media. He has worked for more than twenty-five years in television and related communications fields and has extensive experience in the management of publicly and privately held communications companies. He is the president of Medianex, Incorporated, a marketing communications and management-consulting firm, and directs The Documentary Laboratory there.
Before joining WWSG-TV in Philadelphia, Al created and directed the foundation-supported and award winning Video Documentary Laboratory at Drexel, where he served as a member of the faculty and designed the university's first communications curriculum. He was the founding Vice-President and General Manager of WWSG-TV57, Philadelphia's first hybrid television station. Channel 57 broadcast FNN (the predecessor to CNBC) during daylight hours, and subscription television in the evening. At Pennsylvania Pay TV, the sister operation of Channel 57, Al managed the Philadelphia metro area's first addressable subscription television service that reached more than 50,000 subscribers. He introduced the first broadcast-based digital electronic billboard system in Philadelphia, and designed and managed its subscriber/advertiser supported infrastructure. He later served as VP for Marketing for Popvision, Philadelphia’s first multi-channel multipoint wireless cable television system.
Al has conducted research into network television news for the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and served as television and new media consultant to The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He is co-author, with Charles T. Meadow, of Telecommunications for Management, published by McGraw-Hill, one of the first texts to explore the impact of emerging media technologies on the management process. He is the author of studies and papers on new media, television news and drama programming, and has addressed regional and national groups including the NCTA, the Institute for the Future, the American Society for Information Science and Technology, and the International Communications Association. He serves on the Media Advisory Council of American Insight, a non-profit producer of historical documentaries.