KARK Little Rock

Produced by the grouop’s Washington news bureau, Your Voice Arkansas: A Congressional Forum will feature a discussion with Arkansas congressional leaders. The program will cover all 75 counties in the state, airing on KARK, KNWA, KTAL, WATN, KTVE and KOLR in two parts on July 27 and 30.

Veteran Nexstar local broadcasting and sales management executive Kyle King moves from KMID Odessa-Midland, Texas, to lead KARK and KARZ in Little Rock, Ark., as well as two other stations run under a JOA. He’s succeeded at KMID by Michael Lee, VP-GM of KXXV Waco-Temple-Bryan, Texas.

It’s a neck-and-neck race for Nextstar’s KARK (NBC) and Tegna’s KTHV (CBS) in Little  Rock, Ark., where the former holds a razor-thin lead on social media performance according to Shareablee data. Both outlets explain that Facebook Live is a key emerging tool in stoking engagement and powering their performance.

Austin Kellerman is the news director at KARK, Nexstar’s NBC affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., and considers himself to be the head of social media for the station. “If the news director plays a key role in what we do on social media each day,” said Kellerman, “it sends a clear message on its importance in our newsroom. Social media is the fastest-growing platform for our content, so it’s a key focus of our team.”

Nexstar’s KARK NBC-Fox duopoly in Little Rock, Ark., is looking for a digital sales manager and an account executive. Bonten Media is searching for a director of sales for its Tenn.-Va. Tri Cities market.  NBCUniversal’s Boston Telemundo needs a general sales manager. Raycom is looking for a general sales manager for its NBC affiliate in Lubbock, Texas. To see all job openings, visit our Media Job Center by clicking here.

In covering tornados over the past week, broadcasters supplemented their more traditional on-air, real-time forecasting and weather radar images with warnings on social media sites, station websites and even robotic telephone calls. Doug Heady, chief meteorologist at KOAM Pittsburg, Kan., says: “I really don’t consider us nowadays to be TV meteorologists; we are kind of multimedia meteorologists.”

According to a KLRT Little Rock, Ark., insider, at least 20 employees of the Fox affiliate were told they would no longer be needed. Another source said that as many as eight people at co-owned NBC affiliate KARK are losing their jobs. The moves follow the duos’ takeover by Mission Broadcsting from Newport Television.

In DMA 56, Little Rock, Ark., spending on election campaigns is sparse. The presidential candidates are ignoring the state because Mitt Romney has a lock on its six electoral votes, and there are no major state offices up for grabs. But it’s a much different story in DMA 69 — Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va. — where stations are having trouble coping with the enormous demand for time.

News teams from the company’s NBC Affiliates in Little Rock, Fayetteville, El Dorado and Texarkana collaborate to bring viewers local news, weather, sports, health and lifestyle programming weekdays at noon.

Rob Heverling, news director of about seven years; Assistant News Director Jeff Whatley; and Executive Producer Stephanie Jackson ended their employment with the Nexstar-owned Little Rock, Ark., NBC affiliate on March 2. Austin Kellerman is the new ND.

The former ND at KTAB-KRBC Abilene, Texas, replaces Rob Heverling at Nexstar’s NBC affiliate in Little Rock, Ark.