Mike Vaughn took a big career leap and landed in the same spot: Little Rock.
As a new senior vice president and regional manager for Nexstar, he is going from running three TV stations in one market to handling 30 in 14. But he isn’t going anywhere geographically.
Vaughn, the former general manager of KARK, Channel 4, who also led KLRT (Fox) and KASN (CW), feels lucky in staying put. “My hub will be here, handling stations in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Tennessee — 14 markets in all,” Vaughn said last week. “In this field, relocation for promotion is usually halfway around the country.”
The promotion came with Nexstar’s acquisition of Media General Inc. in a $4.6 billion cash and stock deal. The merger made the renamed Nexstar Media Group of Irving, Texas, the second-largest broadcast company in the United States with 170 TV stations in 100 markets.
“Things have been moving fast and furious,” the 48-year-old Greenwood native said. “This is the biggest acquisition we’ve had in 10 years, and I’m a little overwhelmed. But it helps that I have existing relationships with the legacy Nexstar stations.”
The top priority for Vaughn, who started with publicly traded Nexstar as an account executive and local sales manager in Springfield, Missouri, is to choose his own replacement at KARK, and he’s casting a wide net. “When you grow this much, you have to look within and outside the company.”
Vaughn said the merged operation will have a “huge statewide presence” in Tennessee and Louisiana, with new properties in Nashville and Knoxville, as well as familiar ones in Memphis and Shreveport. “I’m probably one of the most senior GMs,” he said, “so I know company philosophy and best practices, and I’ve always tried to share that. Little Rock has been kind of a mother ship in this part of the country.”
Still, Vaughn will be hitting the road temporarily. “I’m planning face-to-face meetings with the leadership at the new stations. I’ll be doing that for the next few weeks; it’s a lot to do in a short time.”
He said his team of Little Rock all-stars will handle the day-to-day rush while he finds a new GM. “I always say hire smart people and let them do their job. I have that luxury with this group.”
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