AUGUSTA (WJBF) – WJBF NewsChannel 6 is proud to announce the promotion of John Hart from news anchor to News Director. Hart has worked at WJBF NewsChannel 6 since 2000, first as Weekend Sports Anchor, then Sports Director, before moving to news in 2009 serving as co-anchor of the 4:30, 5:30, 7pm and 10pm newscasts.

He replaces Scott Elledge, who served in a variety of capacities at WJBF for more than 27 years, the last 14 as Director of Digital Journalism and Content. Elledge recently left WJBF to take a corporate role with Bahakel Communications.

In addition to his anchoring duties, Hart is the play-by-play announcer for “Game Night Live”, WJBF’s high school football game of the week. He has also served for many years as Executive Producer and Host of the award-winning “Tee Time Augusta”, a nationally-syndicated preview of the Masters Tournament. In April he covered his 23rd Masters.

“It was not easy to fill the shoes of our outgoing news manager Scott Elledge, someone that was passionate about our newsroom and this community,” said WJBF General Manager Bill Stewart. “But to be able to promote John into this role and know that we have someone with the same dedication to see this newsroom continue its success while preparing and guiding it into the future is something I am thrilled about, and I am glad John is eager to start this new phase of his career.”

While Hart will continue his football and golf broadcasting duties, he will no longer anchor daily newscasts on WJBF.

“I will miss bringing our viewers the news on a daily basis here at WJBF, but I am excited about having an even bigger voice in our news operation,” Hart said. “You can still join me each Friday night during high school football season on ‘Game Night Live’ and every spring for ‘Tee Time Augusta’ and ‘Masters Report.’ I also hope to continue to connect with our community on Facebook and Twitter.”

Contact John at jhart@wjbf.com, follow his John Hart WJBF Facebook page or @JohnHartWJBF on Twitter.