Mike Spruill elevated to VP, GM for Nexstar Media in Nashville

Nexstar Media Group, Inc. today announced that it has promoted Mike Spruill to Vice President and General Manager of its broadcast and digital operations in Nashville, Tennessee (DMA #26), overseeing WKRN-TV (ABC), wkrn.com, and their related social media channels. Mr. Spruill will assume his new responsibilities immediately and continue reporting to Mike Vaughn, Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for Nexstar.

Mr. Spruill brings more than 30 years of experience in broadcast television marketing and sales to his new role, serving most recently as Vice President and General Manager for Nexstar-owned KRBK-TV (FOX), KOZL-TV (MyNet), and Ozarksfirst.com in Springfield, Missouri (DMA #73). Mr. Spruill’s promotion marks a return to a television station and city that he knows extremely well; he previously served as WKRN’s General Sales Manager from 2015 to early-2020, overseeing all sales operations. Over the course of his career, Mr. Spruill has demonstrated the ability to grow revenue and profitability by identifying new streams of revenue, cultivating new business, and developing a variety of innovative cross-platform solutions for advertisers and marketers.

During his leadership of KRBK-TV and KOZL-TV, Mr. Spruill and his team expanded evening news on KRBK-TV by five hours per week, and launched several new local sports and lifestyle programs including “1st and 10” on Friday nights, highlighting the area’s high school football teams, and “FOX AM,” a two-hour morning show focusing on culture, fashion, area businesses and restaurants, and the arts. He was instrumental in developing a four-state partnership for the broadcasts of Missouri State football and basketball, and securing the rights to Kansas City Chiefs preseason football games for KOZL-TV. Mr. Spruill has always recognized the importance of forging meaningful community partnerships and led the stations’ efforts to deep relationships with The Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield and Branson, Missouri, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes of Southwest Missouri.

He had similar success during his previous tenure in Nashville, where Mr. Spruill and his sales team consistently grew broadcasting and digital revenue at WKRN-TV and wkrn.com. 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 also instrumental in developing 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.

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 #17), and Kansas City (DMA #34). 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.

“Mike is the ideal executive to lead Nexstar’s broadcast and digital operations in Nashville,” said Mr. Vaughn. “He has had a great run in Springfield and is a highly qualified broadcasting professional who has generated strong results everywhere he has worked for more than three decades. Most important, he knows the Nashville market and what resonates with its viewers and advertisers. 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 deep client relationships and a strong commitment to viewers. I am looking forward to working with him in his new role.”

Commenting on his new role, Mr. Spruill said, “I am extremely grateful to Nexstar for giving me this opportunity to return to Nashville and work alongside the talented and experienced staff at WKRN-TV and wkrn.com—both of which have a rich legacy of serving the community. Nexstar’s commitment to 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. I am excited by what lies ahead and can’t wait to get to work.”

Mr. Spruill is a veteran of the Unites States Navy, where he served as an Aviation Electronics Technician, Third Class. While in Springfield, he was Chairman of the Board of the American Cancer Society of Southwest Missouri, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. In Nashville, he was very active in local civic and community initiatives, working 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 four grandchildren. They will be immediately relocating to the Nashville area. Business Wire