Michael J. Smith, WFRV Green Bay general sales manager, has been named VP and general manager of the station, with oversight of WJMN in Marquette, Michigan. He starts immediately and reports to Tim Busch, executive VP and co-chief operating officer of Nexstar Broadcasting.
Smith succeeds Joseph Denk, who was named general manager of the Nexstar stations in Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee. Green Bay-Appleton is DMA No. 68 and Marquette is No. 180; WFRV and WJMN are both CBS affiliates.
Smith has been general sales manager at WFRV since 2013, and has been national sales manager at WFRV and WJMN since 2000. Before joining Nexstar, Smith spent 12 years at WGBA-WACY Green Bay, moving from account executive to director of sales.
“As a resident of Green Bay with nearly 30 years of local broadcast television and sales management experience in the market, Michael brings to his new role at Nexstar an exceptional commitment to the local community, local businesses and advertisers,” said Tim Busch, “as well as an intimate understanding of the market that is unparalleled within his peer group in Green Bay."
Smith earned his degree at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and has spent his entire career in the market.
“In my new role, I will further leverage the management experience and deep community relationships built over my career to generate results and further strengthen our Green Bay/Marquette television and digital operations as leading providers of the most compelling entertainment, local news and sports programming in the market,” he said.
