Knack for stats pay off for 'TV Jack'

For 10 years, Turner Broadcasting's chief research officer Jack Wakshlag was a blissful academic, teaching television courses at Indiana University and conducting his own research. Wakshlag got his first taste of the business side of the TV industry while on sabbatical in Britain in the 1980s. When colleagues at Warner Bros. suggested he meet with The WB founder Jamie Kellner, Wakshlag took the bait. They met just as The WB was getting off the ground, and Wakshlag was enticed by the plans for creating the fledgling broadcast network. When Kellner, following the AOL Time Warner merger, headed to Atlanta to become chairman of Turner Broadcasting, he recruited Wakshlag to join him.