It is a special day for all of us here at WTAJ, a part of the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, prepare to celebrate “Founder’s Day”.

Twenty years ago, on June 17, 1996, Nexstar Broadcasting Group launched its service with one station right here in Pennsylvania.

The company, under the leadership of Perry Sook, the Chairman, President and C.E.O. has grown to 115 stations serving tens of millions of people across the united states.

WYOU-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania is where it all began for Nexstar broadcasting. A  blue collar city of about 85,000 people in the Northeastern part of the state.

The mission of Nexstar Broadcasting then and now is service to the community–a mission now spreading across the nation.
                                                        
WYOU-TV  was located in a former department store building in  downtown Scranton. Humble beginnings for the  Nexstar Broadcasting group which is growing by leaps and bounds.

“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.” Said Sook.

Sook has always believed that serving  the local community is at the very heart of Nexstar’s mission. Nexstar employees are known for giving back to their communities that led to the creation  of “Founder’s Day”.

“With June 17th being our 20th anniversary we set a goal of 20,000 hours of community service. The company wll support that by giving every employee that registers 5 paid hours of time off to do service in the local communities.”

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

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

He hopes to make Founder’s Day an annual event