Nexstar’s Sook To Receive MFM Avatar Award

Perry Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Media Group, will receive the Media Financial Management Association’s (MFM’s) Avatar Award, its highest honor, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the communications industry and exemplary role in community service.

The Award will be presented to Sook at Media Finance Focus 2017, the 57th annual conference for MFM and its BCCA subsidiary, the media industry’s credit association, which will be held May 22-24 at The Hyatt Grand Cypress in Orlando Fla. In conjunction with receiving the award, Sook will deliver the opening keynote address for the conference, which is themed “Magic of Media” at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning, May 22.

“Long before the term avatar became synonymous with digital personae on a computer screen or a blockbuster movie, MFM selected it to typify recipients of the association’s most prestigious award, who represent the embodiment of a known model or category,” said Mary M. Collins, president-CEO of MFM and BCCA. “With influence that has spanned far beyond his leadership role at Nexstar, Perry Sook is truly an avatar for what it means to operate a media enterprise in the digital world. We look forward to honoring him for his many contributions to the broadcast TV business and to hearing his vision for the industry’s next chapter, which is already unfolding among the Nexstar properties.”

Sook has more than 36 years of professional experience in the television and radio broadcasting industries, covering all facets of the business including ownership and M&A, management, sales, on-air talent and news. He founded Nexstar in 1996 with one local television station in Scranton, Pa., and began building the foundation of what is today one of the world’s leading local marketing and digital content companies. Based in Irving, Texas, Nexstar Media Group ranks as the second largest local broadcast television operator in the United States, with 170 stations in 100 markets and generates annual revenue in excess of $2.4 billion.

Sook was recently elected to serve as the chairman of the Television Bureau of Advertising, the not-for-profit trade association of America’s local broadcast television industry.

In addition to serving on the board of TVB, he is a board member of the NAB, the NBC Affiliate Board and chairman of The Ohio University Foundation Board.

He was named 2009 Broadcaster of the Year by Broadcasting & Cable and was among the honorees inducted into the 2014 B&C Hall of Fame. He was also honored as one of The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation’s 2016 Giants of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts, and received The Media Institute’s 2016 American Horizon Award. In addition, he is a recipient of the NAB/BEA Harold E. Follow Memorial Scholarship.