This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse

Call it a sign of the times. Broadcasting & Cable's "Man of the Year" isn't really being honored for broadcasting; that business, as we know, is dying. No, he's a visionary who "...pioneered the retransmission-consent revenue stream" and is a "staunch advocate of multiplatform development."

This, of course is the man who killed off local news on WYOU-TV (and the entire news department with it). I guess his "vision" for the future of WYOU didn't quite match the vision of the people who had worked there for 10, 20 or 30 years. But that's television, and we don't "do" TV anymore!

A friend commented that making Sook "Broadcaster of the Year" is like giving Hitler a humanitarian award for ending overcrowding in the Jewish ghettos.

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B&C Names Perry Sook Broadcaster of the Year

Nexstar chairman, president and CEO will be honored September 10

By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/11/2009 12:30:00 PM EDT

Broadcasting & Cable has named Nexstar Broadcasting Group chairman, president and chief executive officer Perry Sook as the 2009 Broadcaster of the Year.

Sook will be honored September 10, 2009, when the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) holds its forecasting conference at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center in New York.

"B&C has made an outstanding choice," said TVB President Chris Rohrs. "Perry pioneered the retransmission-consent revenue stream and has been a staunch advocate of multiplatform development. He is one of the industry's great innovators and visionaries."

Sook is hailed as a pioneer who fought cable operators for retransmission-consent cash back when nearly all in broadcasting were content to sit on the sidelines.

Nexstar also this year added CW affiliate WCWJ in Jacksonville, the group's first station in Florida and the 63rd for which it provides sales, programming or other services.

Under Sook, the company also cut a deal this year to provide management services for the seven stations owned by Four Points Media Group, an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management.

Sook currently serves as a director of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, the Television Bureau of Advertising and as a trustee for the Ohio University Foundation.

The B&C Broadcaster of the Year award has been presented at TVB events since 2002.

Previous Broadcasters of the Year include Meredith's Paul Karpowicz, Gannett's Roger Ogden, Belo's Jack Sander, Post-Newsweek's Alan Frank, Hearst's David Barrett, Tribune Co.'s Dennis FitzSimons and Fox Television's Dennis Swanson (when he was general manager of WNBC New York).