Accomplished Broadcast Executive with over 35 Years of Broadcasting and Operational Success to Lead WFFF-TV, WVNY-TV and MyChamplainValley.com
BURLINGTON, Vermont and IRVING, Texas (September 29, 2015) – Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST) announced today that Craig Marrs has been named Vice President and General Manager of WFFF-TV (FOX) and associated digital and mobile services of MyChamplainValley.com, which serves the Burlington, VT and Plattsburg, NY markets (DMA #98). He will also oversee WVNY-TV (ABC) through a joint operating agreement with Mission Broadcasting. Mr. Marrs will assume his new responsibilities immediately and will report to Theresa Underwood, Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for Nexstar Broadcasting.
Mr. Marrs’ career in broadcasting spans over three decades, with expertise in multi-market television station operations and management along with leadership experience in the creation of market-leading local content and news programming. Mr. Marrs began his broadcast career as an Assignment Editor and Producer at KOCO-TV (ABC) while attending the University of Central Oklahoma, working his way up to News Director for KWTV-TV (CBS) in Oklahoma City. From 2000-2006, he served as VP / Station Manager of the Emmy Award winning KRON-TV, where he led the station’s affiliate switch from NBC to an Independent. He served as General Manager of WHNT-TV in Huntsville, AL and KTEN Media in Sherman/Denison, TX. Most recently, Mr. Marrs was the VP and General Manager of KMIR-TV and KPSE-TV in Palm Desert, CA. Mr. Marrs founded NorthWest Cable News (NWCN) in Seattle and worked for several years as Senior Media Consultant Manager at Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. consulting with local, national and international television operations and networks on their news content, market share and profitability improvements.
Commenting on his appointment, Theresa Underwood stated, “Craig has an impressive industry background with over 35 years of broadcasting experience with the last two decades in broadcast station management. He has a long-term record of strengthening station operations and financial results with exclusive local programming, news and on-air and on-line content that truly served local viewers, businesses and community organizations.
“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a results-oriented focus and innovative approach to the business of broadcasting. As a manager, Craig is a well-respected leader who built high-achieving teams that delivered compelling and effective locally-based, award-winning news. Through their original and engaging content they were able to enhance viewer interaction and recognition while creating unique marketing solutions for advertisers. His efforts and initiatives have consistently generated significant increases in station revenue, new local direct business partnerships with a high degree of customer satisfaction. With localism as a top priority at Nexstar, in combination with Craig’s track-record and focus on local community commitment and high-quality programming, we are confident that his leadership of our Burlington operations will provide superior engagement with the viewers across the multiple communities we serve in Vermont, New York and New Hampshire.”
Commenting on his new role, Craig Marrs stated, “Nexstar’s long-term success reflects a core commitment to the viewers and advertisers across each of the individual markets it serves. The management experience and deep community relationships built over my career will enable me to further strengthen our Burlington television and digital operations as leading providers of the most compelling local news content and entertainment programming in the market. I look forward to taking on this new opportunity at Nexstar and working with the exceptional broadcast and digital teams to enhance our commitment to excellence in on-air and on-line local content, engagement with our local communities and superior local client service innovation and advertising results across our multi-distribution marketing solutions platform.”
Mr. Marrs earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. He has served on numerous Boards over his career that served various local charitable community interests.
Craig and his wife Lisa Bishop will be immediately relocating to the Burlington, VT community. They have three grown children and five grandchildren.
About Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.
Nexstar Broadcasting 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 107 television stations and related digital multicast signals reaching 58 markets or approximately 18.0% of all U.S. television households. Nexstar’s portfolio includes affiliates of NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MyNetworkTV, The CW, Telemundo, Bounce TV, Me-TV, LATV, RTV, Estrella, This TV, Weather Nation Utah, Movies!, and News/Weather. 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.
Pro-forma for the completion of all announced transactions Nexstar will own, operate, program or provides sales and other services to 114 television stations and related digital multicast signals reaching 59 markets or approximately 18.0% of all U.S. television households.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. Forward-looking statements include information preceded by, followed by, or that includes the words “guidance,” “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “could,” or similar expressions. For these statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release, concerning, among other things, changes in net revenue, cash flow and operating expenses, involve risks and uncertainties, and are subject to change based on various important factors, including the impact of changes in national and regional economies, our ability to service and refinance our outstanding debt, successful integration of acquired television stations (including achievement of synergies and cost reductions), pricing fluctuations in local and national advertising, future regulatory actions and conditions in the television stations’ operating areas, competition from others in the broadcast television markets served by the Company, volatility in programming costs, the effects of governmental regulation of broadcasting, industry consolidation, technological developments and major world news events. Unless required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this news release might not occur. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. For more details on factors that could affect these expectations, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Theresa Underwood
SVP/Regional Manager
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc.
315- 446-9999 orTunderwood@nexstar.tv
Joe Jaffoni or Jennifer Neuman
JCIR
212/835-8500 or nxst@jcir.com
America's largest broadcaster with 200 Owned or Partner Stations