Gray Television’s WLBT has named Michael A. White Jr. director of operations for the Gray/WLBT Media Training Center, launching later this year. The media center will be housed at WLBT.
White will be in charge of developing the program for WLBT.
The media training center aims to educate and prepare college students for "today's unique operating environment, while simultaneously improving diversity, equity and inclusion in media," the station said in a release. The program will focus on Mississippi's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as Jackson State, where White graduated from, Alcorn State, Mississippi Valley State, Rust College and Tougaloo College.
Since 2020, White has been serving as morning executive producer at WLBT. Before that, he served as associate producer and news producer. White also started as an intern at the station.
“Over the past two years, Michael has taken the lead on our news internship initiative, creating one of the most successful programs in station history. Because of his involvement with the internship program, Michael is already working with many of the schools that will participate in the Training Center project,” said WLBT VP and general manager, Ted Fortenberry. “Those established relationships will help us ramp up quickly, which is important since we are targeting September as the start date for the inaugural class.”
"WLBT and Gray Television have created an opportunity that will bridge a gap between top qualified candidates and newsrooms across our nation," said White. "I'm excited to launch this new initiative with the guidance of Ted Fortenberry and Sandy Breland. Together, we are creating a path of diversity that will benefit universities and Gray Television stations." ■
