Steve Pruett, CEO of Communications Corp. of America (CCA), is the new Fox affiliates board of governors chairman. He succeeds Brian Brady, who moves to chairman emeritus.
Vice chairman is Ric Gorman, CEO of GoCom, and secretary is Linda Gray, president of Max Media. Other board members include Lester Langley Jr. of Langley Williams & Co., Doug Lowe of Meredith, Barry Faber of Sinclair, Ray Schonbak of KSWB San Diego, Michael Reed of WGBC Meridian, Brian Jones of Nexstar, Spencer Koch of KTVI St. Louis and Jim McKernan of WEMT Bristol (Va.).
CCA's Ron Crowder also holds an emeritus title.
CCA added a Fox affiliate to its portfolio in July, when its WEVV Evansville created a Fox-MyNet hybrid on its subchannel, replacing Nexstar's WTVW as the Fox station in Evansville.
Pruett did not respond to a request for comment on short notice at presstime.
Brady has had multiple runs as Fox affiliates board chairman. His most recent tenure featured some tense, and at times stormy, negotiations with the network over sharing retransmission consent cash. He'd spearheaded a high profile effort to get a blanket network retrans deal worked out for the affiliates, but that plan did not come to fruition.
President and CEO of Northwest Broadcasting, Brady is seen by most Fox affiliate managers as a tough negotiator, and is respected for being an owner and operator of Fox affiliates -- someone with real skin in the local TV affiliate game.
