Raycom Media just announced Hatton Weeks will take over as Vice President and General Manager of KAIT (ABC/NBC) in Jonesboro. He will replace Chris Conroy, who is leaving KAIT to lead KFVS in Cape Girardeau.
Weeks was news director at KAIT from 2008 to 2015. He has served as news director at WDBD/WLBT (ABC/FOX) in Jackson, MS for the last three years.
“I’m thrilled to be rejoining the KAIT team,” said Weeks. “KAIT is one of our nation’s best television stations. It’s made even better because of the great community it serves. My family’s roots run deep in Region 8 and I’m honored to be serving in this new role at a station I grew up watching.”
Weeks was 16 years old when he started his broadcasting career in radio in NEA. He joined KAIT in 1996 while attending Arkansas State University and worked his way up to anchor/reporter. Weeks also worked as a reporter/producer at a station in Little Rock, AR. He left the industry for a short time, but in 2006, Weeks returned to KAIT as Assistant News Director.
“Hatton has a proven track record of solid leadership in our company and the communities we serve,” said Tim Ingram, Raycom Media Regional Group Vice President. “I am proud to see him return home to northeast Arkansas and put those skills to work serving our consumers and clients in Region 8.”
Weeks is from Harrisburg and has a B.S. in Radio/Television with an emphasis in news and a minor in political science. He is also a graduate of Raycom Media’s News Leadership Program and active on many communications and advisory boards.
Hatton and wife, Candace, are proud parents of three children: Chase, Lauren and Harper.
Raycom Media, an employee-owned company, is one of the nation’s largest privately-owned local media companies and owns and/or provides services for 65 television stations and 2 radio stations in 44 markets located in 20 states. Raycom Media owns or provides services for stations covering 16% of U.S. television households and employs over 8,300 individuals in full and part-time positions. In addition to television stations, Raycom Media is the parent company of CNHI (community newspapers and information products; over 100 titles located in 23 states), PureCars (digital ad platform for the automotive industry), Raycom Sports (a marketing, production and events management and distribution company), Tupelo Raycom (sports and entertainment production company), RTM Productions (automotive programming production and marketing solutions company) and Broadview Media (a post- production/digital signage company). Raycom Media is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama.
Information from press release – Raycom Media
Here is a problem to address. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the KAIT audio, channel 9 on Suddenlink, was going dead for periods of less that one second at various times. Also, there would be a video glitch of a couple of lines on occasion. This happens on two different tv sets with two different model cable boxes in my house. I observed this same problem on one other channel, KAIT2, channel 5 on Suddenlink. This has not happened on any other of the channels I regularly watch. I brought this problem up at our regular weekly amateur radio coffee group. This was noticed by others, also. I do not have an antenna and cannot say that this occurs with the off-air signal. I did go to the local Jonesboro office and reported what I had observed. Thus far there has been no change, it is still happening as of Sep 14. This happens with locally originated programs, news, commercials, and with network programs. It makes watching very uncomfortable and aggravating to the point of changing channels even though I want to watch either KAIT or KAIT2. It certainly won’t find favor with others either. While my entire career has been in electronic maintenance, with several years as tv engineer with several stations, including KATV and KTVE, technology has changed and I will not suggest who, KAIT or Suddenlink, should do what. I, likewise, will not be mollified by misleading technical double-speak. I will suggest that if somebody doesn’t get some heads together and solve the problem that viewers will start to feel the same way as I do and just quit watching both KAIT and KAIT2 on Suddenlink. Thank you for reading this and I surely hope the problem can be resolved.