From Disco Duck and ruling Memphis’ morning show ratings in the mid-1970s to his long run across the 1980s and 1990s as the wakeup host at KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, Rick Dees is one of the most successful air personalities of his generation.
While Dees has largely focused on his syndicated Weekly Top 40 program in recent years, he’s about to get a new career boost that has nothing to do with radio.
Thank the nation’s No. 1 licensee of broadcast TV stations for its desire to rewind the clock with a segment of the viewing audience.
Come September 1, Nexstar Media Group will light up television screens with the launch of digital multicast channel Rewind TV.
Like MeTV and Antenna TV, it features a slate of classic television shows. However, Rewind TV will devote its lineup to situation comedies from the 1980s and 1990s, including “227,” “Becker,” “Caroline in the City,” “Designing Women,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Family Ties.”
And, Nexstar believes Dees is the perfect choice as the voice of Rewind TV, given the era of the shows it is slated to air.
At its launch, Rewind TV will reach 40% of U.S. television households, or nearly 50 million homes. This includes Los Angeles, where Nexstar owns KTLA-5. Rewind TV will join Court TV and Antenna TV as digital multicast offerings available across Southern California.
Rewind TV will also be found on DT subchannels associated with WGN-9 in Chicago and WPIX-11 in New York, the station Nexstar operates but is owned by Mission Broadcasting.
Other “newly designated or recently vacated digital sub-channels licensed to Nexstar” are also in the mix.
The individual at Nexstar who ultimately decided on Dees as a station voice? Sean Compton. He’s the President of Nexstar’s Network Division, but in May 1998 was a rising star at Jacor Communications, taking the position of Coordinator of National Programs after previously working for then-SVP/Programming Tom Owens in developing cross-utilization radio products for Jacor. By 2000, he was a National Program Coordinator for Clear Channel Radio, where he was linked to Dees through Clear Channel’s ownership of KIIS.
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