Robert Hurst is a Canadian newscaster, television executive, and former president of

CTV News CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the national ...

Biography

Hurst was raised in Cooksville, Mississauga. He began to attain an interest in politics in 1960 whilst watching coverage of the nominating conventions during the 1960 United States presidential election campaign. At the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

, Hurst pursued a degree in

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

and graduate studies in journalism. He also became the school's head cheerleader, after neither their basketball and football teams invited him to tryouts. One of Hurst's first forays into broadcasting was a segment for a local radio station, focusing on campus news. Hurst began working for CTV in January 1973, initially as a writer for its recently introduced

morning show Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a ...

Canada AM ''Canada AM'' was a Canadian morning television news show that aired on CTV from 1972 to 2016. Its final hosts were Beverly Thomson and Marci Ien, with Jeff Hutcheson presenting the weather forecast and sports. The program aired on weekdays, an ...

''. Later that year, he stepped down from the position, and became a city hall correspondent for CTV's Toronto station

CFTO-TV CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 outlet CKVR-DT, channel 3 ...

. At the age of 26, following the

1975 Ontario general election It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. Ha ...

, Hurst was promoted to

news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ...

at the station. He described the CFTO staff as having "the best core groups, most spirited groups, hejournalistically driven groups that CFTO has ever had." Afterwards, he began to take various other positions, particularly as a foreign correspondent. In 1994, Hurst returned to Canada and began taking executive roles at CTV News, including leading the development and launch of the division's

news channel News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

CTV News 1, and became executive producer of its newsmagazine '' W5''—which resulted in a major retooling of the program. In 2000, Hurst became the general manager of the network's operations in British Columbia. In September 2002, Hurst was named president of CTV News; one of his first major changes was a retooling of the '' CTV National News'' back towards a more straightforward and headline-oriented format. In December 2010, after eight years in the role, Hurst announced that he would step down. He explained that he had held the role for much longer than his predecessors, wanted to leave while CTV was still "at the top", and was "waiting for the right moment" in the news cycle to do so.

Accolades

In 1983, Hurst won a gold medal at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...

for his documentary film ''China Today''.

References

Canadian documentary film directors Canadian television executives Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Western Ontario alumni Film directors from Ontario {{Canada-tv-bio-stub