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

Biography

Hurst was raised in

Cooksville, Mississauga Cooksville is a neighbourhood in the city of Mississauga, Regional Municipality of Peel, in the Greater Toronto Area region of Ontario, Canada. It is centred around the intersection of Dundas Street and Hurontario Street near the eponymous Coo ...

. He began to attain an interest in politics in 1960 whilst watching coverage of the nominating conventions during the

1960 United States presidential election The 1960 United States presidential election was the 44th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. In a closely contested election, Democratic United States Senator John F. Kennedy defeated the incumbent V ...

campaign. At the University of Western Ontario, Hurst pursued a degree in liberal arts and graduate studies in journalism. He also became the school's head

cheerleader Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

, 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 CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

in January 1973, initially as a writer for its recently introduced morning show '' Canada AM''. Later that year, he stepped down from the position, and became a

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

correspondent for CTV's Toronto station CFTO-TV. 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. H ...

, Hurst was promoted to news director 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 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 ''CTV National News'' is the flagship newscast of CTV News, the news division of the CTV Television Network, which airs at 11:00 pm local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and is produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in Sca ...

'' 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 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