Broadcasting & Cable is out with its annual “Local TV Executives of the Year” list (subscription required). B&C contends that 2011 was a remarkable year for the local landscape — with tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and Joplin, with Hurricane Irene, and with the ever-present problem of how to make it all work on a shoestring budget:

From floods to wildfires, and even that once-in-a-century earthquake that rocked the East Coast, local stations were at times forced to report under the most trying circumstances. Because that is what their FCC license mandates, and that is what their DNA tells them to do.

After the jump, read the full list of B&C winners.

• WJBK (Detriot) vice president and general manager Jeff Murri
• WTHR (Indianapolis) vice president and general manager John Cardenas
• WITN (Greenville, NC) vice president and general manager Chris Mossman
• Scripps chief digital officer Adam Symson
• WCVB (Boston) news director Andrew Vrees