It’s a special day for people at the 115 stations that make up the Nexstar family.

Here at Nexstar Broadcasting, we are preparing to celebrate “Founders Day.”

20 years ago, on June 17, 1996, the Nexstar Broadcasting Group launched as a standalone station in Pennsylvania.

The company, under the leadership of Perry Sook – chairman, president, and CEO – has expanded to serve millions of people across the United States.

The tradition began in Scranton, Pa. – a blue collar city of about 85,000 people.

Now, Nexstar includes stations across the country – from New York, to Texas, to California – and they are all committed to service in their communities.

“We have now grown to a company with over 100 television stations serving over 60 markets with the corporate employee base of 4,500 employees,” Sook said.

Sook says he has always believed that serving the local community is at the heart of Nexstar’s mission.

Nexstar employees are known for giving back to their communities – and the company backs that commitment.

“With June 17 being our 20th anniversary, we set a goal of 20,000 hours of community service. The company will support that by giving every employee that registers five paid hours of time off to do service in the local communities,” Sook said.

That’s 20,000 hours and $20,000 to local charities distributed by Nexstar’s stations.

“So we asked each market to assess the needs and opportunities to serve the local community and each market decides where the dollars and donations will go,” Sook said.

Sook has always believed that serving the community should be at the heart of every Nexstar television station.

He hopes to make Founders Day an annual event.