WJTV (channel 12) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station has studios on TV Road in southwest Jackson, and its transmitter is located in Raymond, Mississippi. WHLT (channel 22) in Hattiesburg operates as a semi-satellite of WJTV extending the CBS signal into the Pine Belt region of Mississippi. As such, it clears all network programming as provided through its parent and simulcasts most of WJTV's newscasts, but airs a separate offering of syndicated programming; there are also separate station identifications and local commercial inserts. Although WHLT maintains its own studios on US 49 in Hattiesburg, master control and some internal operations are based at WJTV's facilities. History WJTV signed-on January 20, 1953, as Mississippi's first television station, airing an analog signal on UHF channel 25. It was founded by Jackson's morning and afternoon newspapers—The Clarion-Ledger and the Jackson Daily News, respectively—and was a primary CBS affiliate and secondary DuMont Television Network affiliate. One year later, on March 27, 1954, the Standard Life Insurance Company started WSLI-TV on VHF channel 12. That station was a primary ABC affiliate, owing to WSLI-AM's affiliation with that network, and provided Jackson residents with network coverage from the three major broadcast networks, since NBC affiliate WLBT (channel 3) had begun operation three months earlier. WSLI shared tower space with WJTV. In 1955, the Hederman family and Standard Life Insurance Company opted to combine both stations' operations. On June 1, 1955, the two stations merged under WJTV's license, but using WSLI-TV's license on channel 12. WSLI radio remained on the air and became a sister to WJTV. The combined station was a primary CBS affiliate with secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont. The new channel 12 also shared ABC programming with WLBT until 1970, when WAPT started operations on channel 16. WJTV was also affiliated with NBC and broadcast The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson until September 1966 when it was carried by NBC affiliate WLBT. (Carson had attended Millsaps College in Jackson.) From 1977 until 1983, WJTV was owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company (the same company which owned KNAZ-TV in Flagstaff, Arizona and KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado but unrelated to the Capitol Broadcasting Company of Raleigh, North Carolina). In 1983, it was sold to the News-Press & Gazette Company. Four years later, the station launched a semi-satellite for