Here’s a hiring that certainly deserves the radio industry’s attention. An individual who for the last decade has served as VP/Creative Director for NBC News has just been hired by a radio industry pure-play that recently closed on the purchase of 19 stations from The E.W. Scripps Co. for $47 million.
Taking the role of SVP/Creative Director at Birmingham, Ala.-based SummitMedia is Val Nicholas. In his new role, Nicholas is tasked with accelerating creative innovation in partnership with SummitMedia Sales, Marketing, Programming and Event leadership teams.
“We are very excited for Val to join the SummitMedia Team, and are confident his enthusiasm and creative talent will bolster our efforts to inspire our audiences and support our client’s needs,” said SummitMedia Chairman/CEO Carl Parmer.
Nicholas is an award-winning media producer, and has 7 Emmys from his time in television among his professional achievements.
At NBC News, he led the launch of digital properties for NBCNews.com and 360 initiatives such as “Hiring Our Heroes.” Created to remedy the unemployment crisis for post-9/11 veterans, the program provided image and sales promotion for NBC News, its national programs, local affiliates and resulted in 500,000 jobs for veterans.
Before that, Nicholas served as VP/Marketing at MSNBC. It is Nicholas who gave the network its mission statement “The Place for Politics,” and developed new crossplatform sales opportunities generating millions of dollars in incremental revenue.
Before joining NBC, he served as VP/Special Projects for ABC Entertainment, and Creative Director for NBC Entertainment.
Earlier in his career, he held the role of Executive Producer for Programming, Marketing and Special Events at NBC affiliate KCRA-3 in Sacramento.
More about SummitMedia:
Inside SummitMedia: Now A 50-Station Player
