Jayne Hodak, who has been serving as WJRT‘s acting news director since April, has officially been named newsroom boss at the Flint ABC-affiliate.
Hodak, WJRT’s assistant news director for the past eight years, took over for longtime news director Jim Bleicher upon his recent departure. Bleicher, who had been with WJRT for over two decades, left as SJL Broadcasting took over ownership of the station.
“It’s very bittersweet for me,” Hodak told TVSpy recently about her promotion, saying that Bleicher was her mentor.
“It was really hard in the beginning,” Hodak said of Bleicher’s exit as well as a handful of other staff changes made under the new ownership, “but the focus is now on the day-to-day job of providing the most hours of local news in the market.”
Before joining WJRT, Hodak served as executive producer for WRAL in Raleigh, NC. During her time in Flint, Hodak has been honored with two Michigan Emmy Awards.
“I couldn’t be happier to be working with this amazing staff,” Hodak said.