Mike Murri will be the new vice president and general manager of WXYZ-TV Channel 7 and of WMYD TV20 Detroit. The announcement came Friday morning from the E.W. Scripps Company, owner of the two stations.
Murri has most recently held the role of station manager for WXYZ, Detroit’s ABC affiliate, and WMYD, the area’s MY Network affiliate.
With the week’s merger of Scripps and Journal Communications, Ed Fernandez, the current WXYZ/WMYD vice president and general manager will assume greater responsibilities in his role as divisional general manager for Scripps. Fernandez now assumes the leadership of additional stations across the country.
“This is a dream come true,” Murri told stations staffers as they gathered in the WXYZ newsroom Friday morning.
The station’s new general manager began his broadcasting career as an account executive at WJBK in Detroit. He was hired by WXYZ as an account executive in 1982 and was quickly promoted to local sales manager in 1996. Murri was named director of sales in 2001, before becoming station manager in 2012.
In 2013, WXYZ was named “Station of the Year” by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, and was honored as a finalist in the National Association of Broadcasters Service to America Television Award.
Scripps acquired WMYD in June of 2014. After the purchase, the duopoly launched 22 additional hours of news each week, including a 7-9 a.m. morning news block on WMYD, a 10 p.m. newscast on WMYD, and a ground-breaking new 4 p.m. show, “The Now” on WXYZ.
In early 2015, with Murri’s leadership, WXYZ premiered a new street-side studio in the heart of downtown Detroit. The new studio serves as the broadcast home for 7 Action News at noon. It is also an important location for interviews with city leaders and newsmakers.
Murri is a former board member of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters and the Television Bureau of Advertising Advisory Committee. He currently serves on the ABC Sales Advisory Committee and is a board member of Forgotten Harvest, a non-profit organization dedicated to relieving hunger in metro Detroit.
Mike Murri is a graduate of Oakland University and lives in Rochester Hills with his wife Mary. He has three children - Lauren, Katie and Michael.
