Fran McRae To Lead Nexstar In Memphis, Jackson

Nexstar Media today promoted Fran McRae to vice president and general manager of its broadcast and digital operations in Memphis (DMA 51), and Jackson, Tenn. (DMA 175), overseeing WREG (CBS), WJKT (Fox), wreg.com and their related mobile and social media channels.

She succeeds Ron Walter, who retired at the end of August. McRae assumes her new responsibilities immediately and reports to Mike Vaughn, senior vice president and regional manager for Nexstar Media Inc.’s broadcasting division.

McRae brings nearly 20 years of broadcast management and sales experience to her new role at Nexstar, where she has been vice president and general manager of KLFY and klfy.com in Lafayette, La., since 2017. Nexstar said that over the course of her career, “McRae has consistently demonstrated the ability to significantly grow revenue and profitability by increasing existing advertising market share, identifying non-traditional accretive revenue streams, and developing a variety of innovative cross-platform marketing strategies and sponsorship opportunities.”

During her tenure, McRae and her team at KLFY drove significant growth in news ratings, with KLFY’s local news broadcasts ranking first in mornings, at noon, 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., “enabling the station to realize consistent gains in broadcasting and digital revenue,” the company said. She spearheaded the development of local sponsorship opportunities for advertisers and also oversaw the development and launch of new local programming, including local sports show, Inside Cajun Nation, focused on University of Louisiana/Lafayette athletics and the Rajn’ Cajuns.

Prior to leading KLFY, McRae was the general sales manager of KSLA Shreveport, La., from 2015 to 2017. Before joining KSLA, she held a variety of sales and marketing leadership roles of increasing responsibility at television stations in Baton Rouge, La.; Billings, Mont.; and Winston-Salem/Greensboro, N.C.

Ms. McRae has been involved in a variety of media industry groups, including Louisiana Association of Broadcasting and Women in Media.