Look Who's Back....

FTVLive has learned that a once big-time group TV exec - is back. And all though nothing surprises us in this business anymore, it did raise an eyebrow. 

Andy Fisher, who at one time was president of Cox Broadcasting, is now a group executive for Heartland Media. Normally, this wouldn’t be that big of a story except that many of you may remember, Fisher’s ‘golden boy’ career at Cox came to a screeching halt when it was revealed he was having a "sadomasochistic sex affair at the Mayflower Hotel in DC". That’s the same hotel where former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer had his famous affair with call girl Ashley Dupre.

Fisher’s wife filed for divorce and a nasty child custody battle ensued. Cox allowed Fisher to ‘retire’ and he faded into the background.

Enter Bob Prather, the former COO of Gray Television. He started Heartland Media and with MSouth Equity Partners, formed a new company USA Television MidAmerica Holdings which paid $115M for 5 Nexstar/Media General Stations. While that deal was going down, Fisher reportedly was helping with due diligence. There are reports Fisher may also be an investor with Prather. Makes sense - both live in Atlanta.

It’s well known that when Fisher ran Cox Broadcasting; whenever he’d offer someone a management position in the group, he’d show them photos of his children and admonish them that whenever they made an important decision, to always keep those (his) children in mind. Evidently, he forgot to take his own advice.

We even hear that Fisher is conducting job interviews for the company. 

Surely Prather knew of Fisher’s background, but as the old saying goes, money talks. Let’s see who gets excited to work under Fisher at Heartland.