Nexstar Broadcasting Promotes Mike Spruill to Vice President and General Manager of its Springfield, Missouri Broadcast and Digital Operations
Veteran Broadcasting Executive with More Than 30 Years of Sales Experience to Lead KRBK-TV, KOZL-TV, and Ozarksfirst.com
SPRINGFIELD, MO and IRVING, Texas – Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST), announced today that it has promoted Mike Spruill to Vice President and General Manager of its broadcast and digital operations in Springfield, Mo., (DMA #73), overseeing KRBK-TV (FOX), KOZL-TV (MyNet), Ozarksfirst.com, and their related social media channels. In his new role, he will also be responsible for overseeing Nexstar’s relationship with Mission Broadcasting’s KOLR-TV (CBS) under a joint operating agreement. Mr. Spruill will assume his new responsibilities immediately and report to Mike Vaughn, Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for Nexstar Broadcasting.
Mr. Spruill’s promotion follows the retirement of Leo Henning, who oversaw Nexstar’s Springfield operations beginning in 2012 and enjoyed a highly successful broadcasting career that spanned five decades.
Mr. Spruill brings more than 30 years of experience in broadcast television marketing and sales to his new role at Nexstar, serving most recently as General Sales Manager for Nexstar’s broadcast and digital operations in Nashville, TN (DMA #28), where he oversaw all sales functions for WKRN-TV (ABC) and WKRN.com. During the course of his career, Mr. Spruill has consistently demonstrated the ability to grow revenue and profitability by identifying new streams of revenue, cultivating new business, developing a variety of innovative cross-platform solutions for advertisers and marketers, creating sponsorship opportunities, and deepening his ties to the communities in which he has worked.
During his tenure with Nexstar Broadcasting in Nashville, Mr. Spruill and his sales team grew broadcasting and digital revenue at WKRN-TV and WKRN.com every year from 2017 through 2019. He also oversaw the redesign of WKRN.com’s digital sales processes, resulting in a five-fold increase in the station’s digital revenue from 2015 to 2019. Mr. Spruill was instrumental in forging an important local partnership between WKRN-TV and the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, building a regional network of television stations that carried the Titans’ pre-season games in nine markets across five states. In association with the team, he also created and helped implement the “Take a Titan 2 School” program, designed to promote education and core values among local school age children. “Take a Titan 2 School” was recognized by the NFL as a best practice among its broadcast partners.
Prior to joining Nexstar, Mr. Spruill held a series of local sales and management positions of increasing responsibility in both medium- and large-sized markets across the country, including Houston (DMA #8), Orlando (DMA #18), and Kansas City (DMA #32). Throughout his career, he has worked to establish and execute successful, exclusive client and community partnerships, while delivering increased sales revenue and market share growth.
“We are deeply indebted to Leo Henning for his legacy of leadership in the broadcast industry and for his service over the last seven-plus years as Vice President and General Manager of our Springfield, Missouri operations,” said Mr. Vaughn. “Nexstar and the staffs of KOZL-TV and KRBK-TV share this sentiment, and we wish him the best of many years to come, enjoying his free time and family in retirement. As we transition to our next leader and following in the footsteps of Leo, we are confident and proud to promote Mike. He is the ideal executive to lead Nexstar’s operations in Springfield and continue to build upon the success of his predecessor. He is a highly qualified sales professional who has generated strong results everywhere he has worked for more than three decades. His expertise in creating, developing and executing exceptional local multi-platform solutions for advertising and marketing clients, as well as driving new business opportunities and forging important community partnerships, has resulted in deeper client relationships and an even stronger commitment to viewers. We are very much looking forward to working with him in his new role.”
Today’s announcement marks a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Spruill, who attended college at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, where he was a starting offensive lineman for the Griffons football team.
Commenting on his new role, Mr. Spruill said, “I am extremely grateful to Nexstar for giving me this opportunity and very excited to be moving back to Missouri and working in my new role, alongside the talented and experienced staff at KRBK-TV, KOZL-TV, and Orzarksfirst.com. These television stations and their digital operations have been delivering outstanding journalism and superior service to viewers and advertisers, while forging strong relationships in the Springfield community for more than 65 years. Nexstar’s commitment to hyper-local content both on-air and on-line, coupled with the unique and customized advertising and marketing solutions we offer creates a distinct advantage for our viewers and advertisers.”
Mr. Spruill is a veteran of the Unites States Navy, where he served as an Aviation Electronics Technician, Third Class. He has been very active in local civic and community initiatives, working most recently with the Tennessee Titans Foundation, ALS Association of Tennessee, Red Cross, Nashville Rescue Mission and Second Harvest Food Bank in Nashville, TN.
Mr. Spruill graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a degree in liberal arts. He and his wife Cassie, who is a cardiology nurse practitioner, have six children and two grandchildren. They will be immediately relocating to the Springfield, Missouri area.
About Nexstar Media Group, Inc.
Nexstar Media Group is a leading diversified media company that leverages localism to bring new services and value to consumers and advertisers through its traditional media, digital and mobile media platforms. Nexstar owns, operates, programs or provides sales and other services to 196 television stations and related digital multicast signals reaching 114 markets or approximately 38% of all U.S. television households (reflecting the FCC’s UHF discount). Nexstar’s portfolio includes primary affiliates of NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MyNetworkTV and The CW. Nexstar’s community portal websites offer additional hyper-local content and verticals for consumers and advertisers, allowing audiences to choose where, when and how they access content while creating new revenue opportunities. Nexstar also owns WGN America, a growing national general entertainment cable network and a 31.3% ownership stake in TV Food Network, a top tier cable asset. For more information please visit www.nexstar.tv.
Nexstar Media Contact:
Mike Vaughn
SVP & Regional Manager
Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.
501/340-4962 or mvaughn@nexstar.tv
Gary Weitman
EVP & Chief Communication Officer
312/222-3394
Investor Contact:
Joe Jaffoni or Jennifer Neuman
JCIR/212/835-8500 or nxst@jcir.com