Ad Executive Takes Reins of LIN Stations

PROVIDENCE, R.I.: LIN TV has appointed an advertising executive to run its TV stations in the Hartford-New Haven, Conn., market. Mark Higgins, formerly chief operating officer and managing partner with The Spark Group in Phoenix, Ariz., will be running WTNH-TV and WCTX-TV for LIN (NYSE: TVL). In his role as vice president and general manager, Higgins will oversee day-to-day operations, including new business development and growing profits. He will report to Scott Blumenthal, LIN TV’s executive vice president.

Prior to The Spark Group, Higgins was president and general manager of Belo Corp.’s KTVK-TV and KASW-TV in Phoenix from 2002 to 2008. Higgins has worked in the television broadcast industry since 1982 and assumed roles as general manager, station manager and local and national sales manager. He was chairman and vice chairman of the Fox affiliates board of governors from 2000 through 2002, and served as a board member of the Television Bureau of Advertising’s Sales Advisory Committee and the CBS Marketing Advisory Council, as well as various other local and national affiliations. He attended the University of Arizona and served as an instructor at Arizona State University and the University of Tampa’s postgraduate mass communications’ program.