KARK 'Restructuring and Enhancing' Sports Department

Source: Arkansas Business.com A spokesman for KARK-TV, Channel 4, on Thursday denied rumors that the Nexstar Broadcasting-owned NBC affiliate is shutting down its sports department but said changes are on the way.

"There's a rumor going around that we're closing down our sports department and that's not true," Jeff Whatley, assistant news director, said. "For competitive reasons we can't go into it, but we are enhancing our sports and restructuring it as a way to enhance, not take away from us."

News director Rick Iler was out of town and unavailable for comment.

UPDATE:4:42pm News director Rick Iler was out of town, but did comment through a message left with Arkansas Business.

"That is not true," he said. "I'm not sure exactly how that rumor got started. We are going to be doing some different things with our Razorbacks coverage and some other things but we will have a full sports department."

Whatley said the fact that sports anchor Mark Rushing being on vacation this week has added to the rampant rumors.

"He'll be back and nobody is being told to leave," he added.