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WJTV, channel 12, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Jackson, Mississippi. Its analog transmitter is located southeast of Raymond. The station's digital transmitter is located at its studios on TV Road in Jackson. Owned by Media General, WJTV operates a semi-satellite in Hattiesburg, WHLT. That station airs some of WJTV's non-network programming. There are also programs that only air on WHLT and some are only seen on WJTV. It airs separate station identifications and commercials. WHLT clears all CBS programming but pre-empts CBS News Sunday Morning in favor of paid religious programming and delays Face the Nation until 1:05 Monday mornings. This is unlike WJTV which shows both programs as fed by CBS from 8 to 10 A.M. Syndicated programming on WJTV includes: Andy Griffith, Oprah, and Dr. Phil.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. The Retro Television Network is not yet offered on Comcast digital cable.

Channel Programming
12.1 / 52.1 main WJTV programming / CBS HD
12.2 / 52.2 "Storm Team 12 VIPIR Weather Channel"
12.3 / 52.3 Retro Television Network

In 2009, WJTV will remain on channel 12 when the analog to digital conversion is complete. [1]

History

The station began broadcasting on January 20, 1953 and was Mississippi's first television station. Broadcasting on UHF channel 25 as a NBC affiliate, it was founded by The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson's morning daily newspaper) and its co-owned afternoon daily, Jackson Daily News. The two newspapers also started another station, WSLI. That station was a CBS affiliate and WJTV aired NBC and DuMont programming. At that time, broadcasters could own more than one station in a single market. Later in 1953, WJTV lost NBC when WJBT (now WLBT) signed on; however, WJTV shared ABC programming with WLBT while it continued to air DuMont programming. In 1955, after DuMont folded, the two stations merged into one. WJTV became a CBS affiliate and moved to the more-desirable channel 12 on the VHF dial -- a move similar to the merger between KPTV and KLOR in Portland, Oregon which occurred two years later (in this case, the present-day WJTV broadcasts under the original WJTV's license and callsign, using WSLI's channel 12 assignment). The new channel 12 also shared ABC programming with WLBT until 1970 when WAPT started operations. From the late-1970s until 1983, WJTV was owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company (the same company which owned KNAZ-TV in Flagstaff, Arizona but unrelated to the Capitol Broadcasting Company of Raleigh, North Carolina).

In 1983, WJTV was sold to the News-Press & Gazette Company. Four years later, WJTV launched a semi-satellite for the Hattiesburg / Laurel market, WHLT. In 1993, NPG sold several of its stations (including WJTV and WHLT) to the first incarnation of New Vision Television. In turn, they sold their entire stations group to Ellis Communications in 1995. Ellis was folded into the Raycom Media operation the following year after it was bought out by a media group led by the Retirement Systems of Alabama (who bought Aflac's broadcasting group a few months earlier). The next year, Raycom bought out Federal Broadcasting, owner of WHLT's rival station WDAM-TV. That placed Raycom in violation of FCC duopoly rules in the Hattiesburg / Laurel market, so Raycom opted to keep WDAM and trade WJTV and WHLT (along with WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia that also had to be divested by Raycom due to its ownership of that station's rival WTOC-TV) to Media General in exchange for WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia (which had to be divested by Media General due to FCC same-market cross-ownership restrictions). This trade left Raycom without a station in the Jackson market until 2006 when it acquired WLBT as part of its purchase of The Liberty Corporation.

Newscasts

WHLT's news gathering efforts are simulcasts of WJTV's newscasts with segments contributed by one local reporter. They are based at WHLT's studios on U.S. 49 in the Forest Hill section of Hattiesburg. All WJTV newscasts are simulated on WHLT except weeknights at 5 and 6. WJTV has recently started broadcasting a 24-hour all local weather channel on its second digital subchannel. Known on-air as the "Storm Team 12 VIPIR Weather Channel", programming consists of a loop of VIPIR weather sources (futurecast, radar, temperatures, etc.) and a pre-recorded "Local on the 8's" segment with a meteorologist being seen every 10 minutes. The weather channel can also be seen on Comcast digital cable channel 212. WJTV recently revived their sports department with the addition of two sports personalities. Their previous sports anchors, Dave Hotard and Rick Whitlow, resigned and were fired respectively.

Anchors

  • Erin Pickens - weekday mornings and Noon
  • Linda Allen - weeknights and reporter
  • Byron Brown - weeknights
  • Melissa Faith Payne - weekends and reporter three days a week

Storm Team 12

  • Tony Mastro (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
  • Ken South - weekday mornings and Noon
  • Jason Ellis - weekends and weekday reporter

Sports

  • Jason Hurst - weeknights
  • Jeff Platt - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

  • Joseph Weldon - weekday morning traffic
  • Chris Williams - based at WHLT
  • Kim Ward - based at WHLT
  • Ross Adams
  • Kiran Chawla
  • Carole Carr
  • Matt Kozar
  • Emily Wood

References

  1. ^ CDBS Print

Template:Media General

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