Steven Fastook, who currently has nine Emmy Awards for a variety of productions including graphics, studio production, remote production and special events, is Vice President, Technical and Commercial Operations for CNBC which airs in 80 million homes in North America and 200 million homes worldwide.
Mr. Fastook is a Nutley resident and graduate of the Nutley High School Class of 1979. As a volunteer for OBC-TV in Nutley during his high school and early college years, he engineered the relocation of their studios and directed an hour-long nightly newscast. Cable television was a new medium and OBC-TV was providing groundbreaking coverage of local news, township activities, elections and sports.
While a student at Kean College, he was recruited to design and build a studio for the college. He started a series of shows and launched a comprehensive television production curriculum. He also worked as a freelance camera operator for national shows like Sesame Street, Search for Tomorrow, and the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
In 1984 he began working for ABC television in New York as a vacation relief engineer. He repaired technical equipment and controlled the transmitter for WABC on the overnight shift.
He joined NBC in 1986 as a design engineer and soon moved to WNBC as manager of news technical operations. He was responsible for coverage of New York City events including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Happyland Social Club fire, and several general elections. He was asked by NBC to manage its Brooklyn studios, the home of its long-running daytime drama Another World. He was promoted to director of the news and entertainment studios and was actively involved in shows including Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Today Show, Dateline, and NBC Nightly News. In 1999, he advanced to become the vice-president of studio operations and design works and later became the vice-president of advanced technology.
He was asked in 2001 by Peter Smith, NBC’s senior vice president of Advanced Technology, to manage the construction project that became the massive 350,000 square-foot $137 million world headquarters of CNBC in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Mr. Fastook led the project to completion on time and $700,000 under budget.
Presently, Mr. Fastook oversees the global operations of CNBC where he is responsible for CNBC’s technical staff, 14 hours of live television daily, the Englewood Cliffs World Headquarters facility, and CNBC’s four domestic bureaus, Singapore and London locations. He has been responsible for overseeing production of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for 12 years.
Mr. Fastook is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. In May 2006, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Kean University.