Bates Named WMDB-WYZZ GM

Dan Bates has been named vice president and general manager at WMDB-WYZZ Peoria. Nexstar owns CBS affiliate WMDB and provides services to Sinclair's Fox affiliate WYZZ. The appointment is effective immediately and Bates will report to Rick Rogala, Nexstar's senior vice president and regional manager.

Bates has been interim general manager at the stations since September. His previous jobs include general sales manager at KOCO Oklahoma City, president/general manager at KTUL Tulsa and vice president/general manager at KBTV Beaumont.

"Dan brings a tremendous wealth of broadcast experience spanning approximately 35 years to his new position," said Rogala. "Throughout his career, Dan has worked with high performance teams to generate impressive audience share and revenue growth. He's also overseen regional business development efforts that have led to noteworthy sales results and we look forward to him returning to Nexstar Broadcasting."

Bates said he was pleased to be back with Nexstar. "We look forward to working with the advertisers and local community in pursuit of outstanding marketing solutions and continued viewership growth," he said. "Together, we will be focusing on further extending our stations' track record of broadcasting excellence and service to the Peoria-Bloomington community."

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.