Franz Joachim

Franz Joachim is the General Manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS, serving Albuquerque, Santa Fe, central and northern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. He has been involved in television production for over 45 years, starting in high school as an AV nerd and then on the student production crew at the University of Arizona PBS station KUAT-TV. He barely graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Radio/ Television with an emphasis on Electrical Engineering, having squandered much of his college experience playing with video cameras rather than studying.

Franz continued work in television production as a photographer, editor, director, and manager in a variety of production environments, including industrial, commercial, news, studio, and long-form documentary production.

Franz is also an accomplished underwater videographer, shooting in diverse locations from the Andaman Sea, to Turks & Caicos, to the Sea of Cortez. He has spent time chasing Whale Sharks, saving Sea Turtles, and running from a Sea Lion Bull who thought Franz was flirting with one of his does. All while trying not to lose very expensive underwater camera housings.

Franz started with KNME-TV as Production Manager in 1999, served as Manager of Production and Broadcast Operations from 2003 until 2010, where he oversaw the conversion to file based editing and the first multi-stream digital master control. He was promoted to Director of Content in 2010. Franz was named General Manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS in 2013.

Under Franz’s leadership NMPBS has become the alpha station in the PBS system for implementation of the sIX Interconnection, the first PBS station to fully implement ATSC3.0 broadcasting, and one of a few stations to offer Datacasting services for both Education and Public Safety.

Franz has served as Chair of the University Licensee Association, Chair of the Affinity Group Coalition, a Trustee of APTS, Board Secretary for Vision Maker Media, member of the 2019 CSG Review Committee, and AGC Representative to the PBS Interconnection Committee.

Franz has been married to Dr. Lorna Joachim for thirty years and they have one son, Gabriel. Lorna’s career as a field primatologist makes Franz’s career seem tame. Ask her about the alligator sometime. Gabriel is a Field Ecologist and Entomology Tech for Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Of Franz’s many accomplishments raising Gabe to help save the planet is his most significant.