ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — WFXR is owned by Nexstar Media – a company that has several military veterans holding vital leadership roles. That includes Wytheville native – and Army veteran Matt Heffernan – who’s now a Nexstar Vice President of Broadcast Hub Services.

Heffernan loves coming back home to Southwest Virginia. Recently, he visited WFXR to check out the facilities, similar to a military commander reviewing the troops. Heffernan served our country from 1985-1998 primarily in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard ending his career as an Army captain.

“I think it was a sense of challenge and a sense of duty. I had some family members in the Navy and my dad served in the Army as well and I had a high school buddy a year a head of me in the Corp of Cadets that recruited me into the Corps at Tech and we kind of went from there but it kind of grew. There were several things and not one thing,” said Heffernan.

For Heffernan, his military service prepared him for his broadcasting career most of them in leadership roles.

“What I was fortunate to have my military career compliment my civilian career. So I was an Army Signal Corps Officer. So I went to signal school which gave me my engineering side. I was not as great in engineering school as Virginia Tech was. I was not an engineering major I was a communication major so the two compliment each other,” said Heffernan.

Whether it is serving his country in the military or being in a leader with Nexstar Media, Matt is proud of both of those roles.

“I really see my job as giving them the support they need and give them direction they needed. I am fortunate to have the support. If this was an Army unit I have go great troops and they do the heavy lifting and I just try to get them the resources they need and stay out of their way quite honestly,” said Heffernan.