Nexstar Names GMs In Peoria And Columbus, Ga.

Nexstar Media today announced the promotion of two broadcast leaders and current Nexstar executives to vice president and general manager.

Shaun Newell will lead WMBD (CBS) in Peoria, Ill. (DMA 121), and will also oversee the company’s operational agreements with Cunningham Broadcasting, providing services to WYZZ (Fox) there. Newell will report to Traci Wilkinson, senior vice president and regional manager for Nexstar Media’s broadcasting division.

Joe McGuire will assume the leadership role at WRBL (CBS) in Columbus, Ga. (DMA 131), and report to Julie Pruett, senior vice president and regional manager.

Both promotions are effective immediately. Collectively, Newell and McGuire have more than 30 years of broadcast leadership experience, and each is extremely familiar with Nexstar’s media operations and the respective market they will lead.

Newell has spent the bulk of his professional broadcast career in Peoria and Central Illinois, and has served as news director for WMBD-WYZZ since 2017, responsible for the long-range strategy and day-to-day operations of the news department. At WMBD, Newell has overseen a staff of 35 journalists delivering eight hours of local news every weekday. During his tenure, he and his team launched a new weekday newscast at 4 p.m. and created the station’s first-ever digital news content department. The efforts of the news team have been recognized with several awards for excellence, including the 2020-21 Illinois News Broadcasters Association awards for Best Digital Presence and Best Weather Team. In 2020, the WMBD news team was honored with an Edward R. Murrow Award for Diversity for its television special, “Together We Rise.”

Newell earned his master’s degree in business administration from Bradley University in Peoria, and his undergraduate degree in broadcasting from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill.

McGuire has had a lengthy career in broadcast sales; since mid-2018, he has been the director of sales at Nexstar’s WSAV Savannah, Ga., where he oversaw all of the station’s sales operations. At WSAV, McGuire and his team grew broadcast and digital advertising substantially, driving increases in revenue from professional, college, and high school sports programming and partnerships with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Clemson University’s athletic department. The station also launched several new ad sponsorships with area businesses including Mercedes-Benz of Hilton Head and St. Joseph’s Chandler Hospital.

Prior to joining WSAV, McGuire was national sales manager and local sales manager at Nexstar’s WKRN Nashville.

McGuire is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in media management.

“Shaun and Joe represent the best of Nexstar and are outstanding leaders within the company’s management ranks,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar Media’s broadcasting division.