Published: May 07, 2008 09:07 pm            

News-making TV station general manager leaving Terre Haute

WTWO’s Duane Lammers heading to St. Louis area

TERRE HAUTE — WTWO television station general manager Duane Lammers is leaving Channel 2 as well as the Terre Haute community after 11 years.

Lammers, who made local headlines in early 2006 when he decided against airing the controversial NBC series “The Book of Daniel,” is leaving WTWO voluntarily to pursue other interests, according to officials with Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which owns WTWO and WFXW Channel 38.

“It was something he initiated,” said Perry Sook, CEO of Nexstar in Irving, Texas. Lammers has a non-compete agreement in his contract with Nexstar that would prevent him from taking a new job in a market served by one of the company’s 50 TV stations, he said.

Lammers, who turns 47 next week, is leaving WTWO and WFXW at the end of May, he said. He will move to the St. Louis area, where he has what he called “an excellent opportunity” within the TV industry. He could not comment further on the opportunity at this time, he said.

Channel 2 already has started a search for a new general manager, Lammers said Wednesday. “There are some excellent internal candidates and I’m sure there will be some excellent external candidates,” he said.

A native of Missouri, Lammers said he will be doing much of the same work in St. Louis as he has been doing for Nexstar, where he is chief operating officer for the company. He will not be running a TV station, he said. “Duane has done a great job for the company,” Sook said. “He is leaving us in a great place. Both stations [WTWO and WFXW] have a lot of momentum right now.”

aLammers made headlines in 2006 when he refused to air the “Book of Daniel,” a series about an Episcopalian priest and his family. The show was opposed by the American Family Association, a conservative Christian group. He later gained national attention for a Channel 2 weather promotion that criticized weather coverage at rival TV station, WTHI Channel 10.

A graduate of the University of Missouri, Lammers does not want to be remembered for the “Book of Daniel” or the weather promo incidents.

“I don’t really much care about those … two things,” Lammers said. Much more important were his efforts on behalf of local TV stations in getting cable providers to pay fees for carrying their broadcasts, he said. “Nexstar was really a pioneer in changing the industry,” Lammers said. “I was kind of in the middle of that.”

Lammers also would like to be remembered for giving people a boost in the TV business, he said. He has hired many people, including managers, at Nexstar and at WTWO, he noted. “It’s all about helping people and that’s what I want to be known for,” he said.

Leaving the Terre Haute area and Nexstar is not easy, Lammers said. “It’s very difficult and I’ll miss it a lot,” he said. “I’ll miss a lot of the people here at the TV station because I’ve built some great relationships over 11 years.”

Hired by Nexstar in 1997 to run WTWO, Lammers eventually took on corporate duties that would include director of marketing, regional vice president and executive vice president and chief operating officer, he said. He served as general manager of WTWO from 1997 to 1999 and again from 2005 to the present, he said.

Since Lammers started working with Nexstar, the company has grown from owning just two stations to owning 50, he said.

When it comes to his time at WTWO, Lammers is most proud of his emphasis on local programming, he said. “I’m most proud of our localism,” he said, noting broadcasts of the Pizza Hut Classic basketball tournament and “wall-to-wall” telecasts of the Terre Haute visits of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. “That’s good television. That’s what people want to see,” he said.

Lammers also believes he is leaving WTWO in a strong position for the future. “We had a tremendous February [ratings report],” Lammers said. “We really feel like we’re well-positioned to move forward. If there’s a huge regret it’s that I will not be a part of that. There’s a tremendous team here and they will finish the job of putting this station on top.”

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.