• by David Goetzl , July 14, 2008

The modest-sized McGraw-Hill broadcasting group has tapped the top executive at its Denver station to head its operations. Darrell Brown takes over as president of the group that has four ABC affiliates, three in the top-30 markets.

Brown takes over for Edward Quinn, who's retiring after 22 years.

Glenn Goldberg, president of the McGraw-Hill unit that includes broadcasting, said Brown possesses "strong leadership experience, deep expertise in the broadcasting industry and extensive knowledge of our local markets."

Brown has led a duopoly in Denver since 2003 that includes the ABC station and an affiliate of Spanish-language network Azteca America. He joined the company's San Diego station in 1983 and rose to general manger in 1997.

In the recent first quarter, the broadcasting group, which also includes two other affiliates of ABC and one of Azteca, posted $23.7 million in revenue, about flat compared to the same period a year ago. A key culprit in the lack of growth: a slowdown in the national spot market.

Still, McGraw-Hill CEO Harold McGraw said the stations should perform well as the year progresses, due to a "very promising" opportunity to garner political ad dollars. When the company announces 2Q results later this month, its station operations could be bolstered by revenues from spending in the May Democratic presidential primary in Indiana, where it has the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis.

The Denver ABC station -- as well as the Azteca affiliates in that market and Colorado Springs -- should perform well. Colorado has been tabbed as a highly competitive state in the White House race. The company cited several other local elections in the markets it serves that could generate considerable spending, too. McGraw-Hill's fourth ABC station is in the smaller Bakerfield, Calif., market, where it also has an ABC-Azteca duopoly.