WJTV Names ND, Expands Newscasts

WJTV, the Nexstar CBS affiliate in Jackson, Miss. (DMA 95), has chosen Chris Turner to take over as news director for both WJTV 12 and WHLT Hattiesburg-Laurel, Miss. (DMA 168).

Turner began his 20-plu- year news career on at CNN, where he ran bureaus ranging from the Persian Gulf War Pentagon Pool, the Bombing of Libya Pentagon Pool, CNN’s Dhahran, Sarajevo, and Rome bureaus, and worked closely on the coverage of the Iran/Iraq war and multiple presidential campaigns.

Turner began today at WJTV, where he’ll oversee the station’s 35-plus hours of news content.

His appointment comes on the heels of another major change at WJTV and WHLT— the expansion of the 4 p.m. half-hour newscast to a full hour, and the addition of a 9 p.m. newscast on Mississippi’s CW — WJTV’s secondary channel.

In addition to the new programming on WJTV, news content on WHLT has also expanded with the addition of two WJTV simulcasts — at noon and 5 p.m. WHLT’s secondary channel (Mississippi’s CW) now also simulcasts the WJTV 9 p.m. newscast.

The WJTV simulcasts in Hattiesburg-Laurel won’t be without their local content, however. A local Pine Belt bureau (overseen by Turner) provides local news content and specialized sports coverage of the University of Southern Mississippi.

“Mississippi is a strong news market,” says WJTV-WHLT VP-GM Jeff Guy. “There’s an appetite for consistent, local content, and we plan to use every resource available to deliver that content as well as we can, as often as we can.”