Nexstar Broadcasting is reportedly set to merge the news operations of two stations in the Evansville market.

According to the Evansville Courier & Press, the company plans to combine the news departments of WEHT–the ABC-affiliate that it just purchased–and WTVW–the former Fox-affiliate that Nexstar is unloading on Mission Broadcasting, a station group that serves as a sort of holding company for Nexstar-operated stations.

Sources tell the Courier & Press that WTVW’s operations, currently located in downtown Evansville, will move to the studios of WEHT, located in Henderson, KY. Perry Sook, Nexstar’s president and CEO, and Timothy Busch, the company’s co-COO, were reportedly in Henderson on Wednesday speaking with WEHT staff. Read more

Nexstar Broadcasting, which just inked a deal to acquire WEHT in Evansville, reported record second quarter net revenue this week with its stations bringing in $75.5 million for the period, a 1.3% increase over Q2 2010.

“We think this is a pretty good time to be in this business,” Nexstar boss Perry Sook (left) said in his earnings call on Tuesday, emphasizing that local revenues continue to grow even amid uncertainty on Wall Street.

For the second quarter, Nexstar made up for a significant dip in political advertising with revenue increases in local (up 5.4%), e-media (up 22.5%), and retrans fees (up 18.4%).

“Nexstar is consistently demonstrating that growing diversification in our business model and leveraging localism, by building digital extensions for core content that heighten consumer engagement and provide marketing solutions to advertisers, is the right path for us to continue to succeed in our markets and across our platform,” Sook concluded, pointing out that the company has recently diversified its revenue sources with station acquisitions and the purchase of internet technology provider GoLocal.Biz.

Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns, operates, or provides services for 65 stations in 36 markets across the country, has inked a deal to acquire the internet technology provider and online marketing services company GoLocal.biz.

Based in St. George, UT, GoLocal.biz provides local business directories, coupons, and entertainment listings to community websites, including all 35 of Nexstar’s local sites.

Nexstar president and CEO Perry Sook said that the acquisition “creates an entirely new revenue stream for Nexstar as we intend to expand the distribution and syndication of the GoLocal.biz platform to other online publishers in television and radio markets not served by Nexstar.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Nexstar Broadcasting’s $20 million deal to purchase two CBS affiliates, WFRV in Green Bay and WJMN in Marquette, MI, was completed today. Joseph Denk will take over as vice president and general manager of both stations.

Nexstar announced the purchase of WFRV and WJMN in April. The deal brings the number of CBS affiliates that Nexstar owns up to 13. ““The acquisition of WFRV and WJMN brings immediate strategic and financial benefits to Nexstar as it expands and diversifies our station portfolio,” Nexstar president and CEO Perry Sook said.

Denk, who replaces veteran VP-GM Perry Kidder at WFRV-WJMN, is a Wisconsin native who is currently the VP-GM at WQRF, the Nexstar-owned Fox affiliate in Rockford, IL.

“Under Joe’s leadership, our Rockford operations have performed very well,” Nexstar executive vice president Tim Busch said. “His years of experience, respect within Nexstar and his Wisconsin roots are all a perfect fit to lead our newly acquired operations in Green Bay and Marquette.”

A little over a month after losing the Fox affiliation of its station in Evansville, Nexstar is cutting ties with Fox at KSFX in Springfield, MO and WFFT in Fort Wayne, IN.

This week Fox announced new affiliation agreements with stations in Springfield and Fort Wayne, signing deals with Koplar Communications’ KRBK and Granite Broadcasting’s WISE. The new deals mean that Nexstar will have to forge new identities for its stations after decades with Fox.

“We’ve been negotiating with Nexstar for over a year and weren’t able to come to terms on a contract renewal,” said Scott Grogin, a spokesperson for Fox Broadcasting. “It was not a bidding situation.”

Fox has been pushing its affiliates to give up a significant portion of the retrans fees received from cable and satellite providers, which has drawn the ire of Nexstar. Read more

Nexstar Broadcasting announced today that it brought in a record amount of dough during the first quarter, reporting $69.9 million in net revenue. That’s a 1.9% increase from the same period last year.

“Nexstar’s 2011 first quarter revenue increase of 1.9% was driven by growth in both core local and national revenue — including a near double digit gain in automotive advertising — as well as ongoing robust e-Media and retransmission fee revenue growth,” said Nexstar president and CEO Perry Sook in a press release.

The company, which owns, operates, programs or provides services for 63 stations in 34 markets across the country, said that it was able to overcome an 82% year-over-year decline in political advertising, as well as the absence of the Winter Olympics on its NBC stations, because of increases in retrans revenue (up 15.6%) and local advertising (up 3.7%).

When its recent deal for two affiliated stations in Green Bay and Marquette, MI closes, Nexstar Broadcasting plans to launch local news for the Marquette area.

Marquette’s WJMN is currently run as a satellite station of Green Bay’s WFRV, rebroadcasting its programming with the assistance of a small local crew. Nexstar president and CEO Perry Sook tells Broadcasting & Cable that the company plans to develop a unique, local identity for WJMN.

“We’ve found ways to make a lot of money on news in markets that size,” Sook told B&C. “We plan to develop a separate news presence and sales staff; local news is definitely a part of the future for that station.”

Nexstar agreed to a $20 million deal for the two stations earlier this week.

Nexstar Broadcasting is set to acquire two CBS-affiliates, WFRV in Green Bay and WJMN in Marquette, MI, from an affiliate of Liberty Media Corporation for $20 million.

The deal boosts Nexstar’s standing “as a leading consolidator of stations in mid-sized markets through accretive transactions,” as Nexstar president and CEO Perry Sook romantically described it in a news release.

If approved by the FCC, the acquisition of WFRV and WJMN, which operates as a semi-satellite of the Green Bay station, will increase the number of CBS-affiliates in Nexstar’s stable to 13, and expand the number of stations, most of them in sub-100 DMAs, that the company owns and/or operates to 65.

Nexstar plans to make good on its investment in the stations by ringing out additional retrans revenues from WFRV and WJMN while also bolstering their online advertising.

David Smith, president and CEO of Mission Broadcasting, passed away over the weekend.

Smith founded Mission Broadcasting in 1998 and the company currently owns 16 stations–based mostly in smaller markets in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Texas–which are operated by Nexstar Broadcasting.

Smith suffered a massive heart attack while attending a friend’s wedding in Austin, TX, according to an email sent out to Mission and Nexstar stations by Perry Sook, Nexstar’s president and CEO.

“David was a friend, a partner in business and an innovative broadcaster,” Sook wrote in the email. “He will be missed by all of us who knew him.”

Ownership control of Mission will be handed to Smith’s wife Nancie, currently an officer and director of the station group, as well as his estate. According to Sook, COO Dennis Thatcher will continue to oversee day-to-day operations of Mission.

Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns or manages 62 stations in 34 markets, announced today that its fourth quarter revenue increased 31.2% to a company record $97.1 million.

“Our success in driving profitable revenue growth reflects the strength of our core local content, ability to develop distribution and digital extensions for our core content including the creation of new online, text and mobile content and applications,” announced Perry Sook, Nexstar’s president and CEO, “and the benefit derived from leveraging our management operating disciplines to provide services to other broadcasters.”

For the last three months of 2010, Nexstar brought in $85.9 million in TV ad revenue, including $22.6 million of political advertising. Like other broadcasting groups, Nexstar capitalized on strong ad spending surrounding the November elections.

The fourth quarter revenue surpassed a record set in the previous quarter of 2010.  In the third quarter, Nexstar had $73.1 million in net revenue.