WVLT-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WVLT-TV | |
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| Knoxville, Tennessee | |
| Branding | Volunteer TV MyVLT2 |
| Channels | Analog: 8 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS (1988-Present) MyNetworkTV (DT2: 2006-Present) |
| Owner | Gray Television, Inc. (Gray Television Licensee, Inc.) |
| First air date | October 1, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | We're VoLunteer TV |
| Former callsigns | WSKT-TV (1953-1954) WTVK (1954-1988) WKXT-TV (1988-1997) |
| Former channel number(s) | 26 (1953-1988) |
| Former affiliations | Primary: CBS (1953-1956) ABC (1956-1979) NBC (1979-1988) Secondary: ABC (1953-1956) DuMont (1953-1956) DT2: UPN (2003-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 398 kW (digital) |
| Height | 509.7 m (analog) 551.3 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 35908 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.volunteertv.com/ |
WVLT-TV (VHF channel 8) is "Volunteer TV", a CBS television network affiliate serving Knoxville, Tennessee, the 58th DMA in America according to Nielsen Media Research. The station's owned and operated by Gray Television and has its transmitter's located in Knoxville.
The station also operates a MyNetworkTV affiliate MyVLT2 on its DT2 digital sub-channel; before 2006, it was a UPN affiliate, branded as UPN Knoxville.
WVLT is the only station in its market with a news bureau outside of Knoxville; it is headed by Bureau Chief Stephen McLamb and located in Blount County. The station also touts itself as having the only mid-afternoon newscast in Knoxville (FIRST at 4:00) and the only early evening newscast (Volunteer TV News at 7:00).
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[edit] History
WVLT-TV debuted on October 1, 1953 as WSKT-TV on channel 26. It was Tennessee's first UHF station, and the second television station in East Tennessee. The station was a CBS affiliate, but also shared ABC programming with WROL-TV, now WATE-TV.
Channel 26 found the going difficult at first, since television manufacturers weren't required to build in UHF tuning capability at the time. Viewers needed an expensive converter to watch WSKT, and even then the picture quality was marginal at best. In addition, most of eastern Tennessee is very mountainous, and UHF signals at the time usually did not carry very well over rugged terrain. In 1954, the station's original owners sold the station to South Central Communications, a radio company in Evansville, Indiana, who changed its calls to WTVK.
When WBIR-TV signed on in 1956 and took the CBS affiliation, WTVK became a full-time ABC affiliate. In 1979, the station changed affiliations from ABC to NBC, swapping affiliations once again with WATE-TV. By this time, ABC had become the highest-rated network in the country, and was seeking to affiliate with stronger stations across the country. While WATE was the far-and-away market leader, WTVK had long been a poor third. This was due in part to the terrain issue; many viewers in the area didn't get a clear signal from channel 26 until the arrival of cable in the early 1970s. Despite this limitation, WTVK won the rights to broadcast a daily one-hour features show from the 1982 World's Fair, held in Knoxville.
In 1988, the station returned to CBS, swapping affiliations with WBIR-TV; shortly afterward the station changed its calls to WKXT-TV and moved to channel 8, one of the last remaining VHF channel allocations in the U.S. It became one of the few stations in America to have been a primary affiliate of all "Big 3" networks. Soon after the move to the VHF band, South Central sold the station to a local ownership group. Channel 8 changed its callsign again to WVLT-TV in 1997 after Gray Television bought the station.
[edit] Vol Network Affiliation
In 2007, WVLT TV/MYVLT TV and the Vol Network, the broadcasting arm of the University of Tennessee's athletic department, entered into a new 10-year agreement for WVLT/MYVLT TV to be the exclusive home of all Vol TV Network programing in the Knoxville area. WVLT paid UT $ 4.95 million dollars for the 10 year contract. This gives the two stations the exclusive rights to the weekly highlights shows featuring head football coach Phil Fulmer, head men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl, head women's basketball coach Pat Summit, and other UT athletic-related programs in the Knoxville market. With this, the Vol TV Network ends a 10-year relationship with NBC affiliate WBIR-TV.[1]
[edit] Newscast & Station Information
[edit] Past Newscast Titles
- The Coca-Cola Report (1954-1960)
- The National News (1960-1965)
- City Camera News (1965-1970)
- First Edition News (1970-1977)
- Metro 26 News (1977-1981)
- NewsCenter 26 (1981-1986)
- WTVK NewsCenter (1986-1988)
- News 8 (1988-1997)
- NewsChannel 8 (1997-1998)
- Volunteer News (1998-2001 or 2002)
- Volunteer TV News (2002-2006)
[edit] Current News Anchors & Reporters
[edit] News Anchors
- Alan Williams (5:30/7/11pm)
- Bob Yarbrough (East Tennessee This Morning/Noon)
- Stacy McCloud (East Tennessee This Morning/Noon)
- Mark Packer (First at Four/Sports Overtime)
- Gordon Boyd (Weekends)
- Lauren Davis (Weekends)
[edit] Sports
- Rick Russo (Sports Director)
- Daryl Hobby (Sports Anchor/Reporter)
- Mark Packer
- Austin Price
[edit] News Reporters
- Gordon Boyd
- Lauren Davis
- Allison Hunt
- Gary Loe
- Mike McCarthy
- Stephen McLamb (Blount County Bureau Chief)
- Rob Pratt
[edit] Weather
- Scott Blalock, Chief Meterologist
- Allison Hunt
- Jim Freeman
[edit] Miscellaneous
- Walter Lambert (TV Chef)
- Shirley Nash-Pitts (Consumer Expert)
- Kiley Yarbrough (Special Correspondent)
[edit] Past Personalities
[edit] Anchors
- Allen Denton
- Sam Brown (now Lecturer at College of Communications at University of Tennessee)[1]
- Elda Brown
- Cheryl Masur
- Kathryn Norton
- Kent Blackwelder (Noonday)
- Tim Cox (now with WXIN-TV "Fox 59" Indianapolis as Gene Cox, which is his first name)
- Adena Chumley
- John Gilbert
- Art Powell
- Kim Sims Thomas (Noonday)
- Phil Rainey
- Jennifer Julian
- Brenda Burch
- Norman Hammitt
- Jessa Goddard
- Kelli Parker
- Liz Tedone Edwards
[edit] Anchor/Reporters
- Rob Scobey
- Jim Hampton
- John Lomax, now at WKRC-TV, Cincinnati
- Lee Merrit
- Corrina Collins (now Corrina Sullivan and currently at WOFL-TV in Orlando)
- Ron Sprowl
- Kim Keelor
- Lizz Walker
- Ben Roberts (now at WALB-TV)
- Jim Reed
- Kim Bedford
[edit] Reporters
- Betsy Gray
- Foster Arnett
- Monte Janssen
- Paul Sims
- Melinda Kramer
- Russ Greene
- Russell Walker
- Becky Colaw
- Heather Burgiss (now at UNC-TV)
- Lisa Stearns (now with Baptist Health System)
- Chloe Morroni (now at WISN-TV)
- Rudy Cooks
- Jim Reed
- Charles Winters (now at Socialite Media)
[edit] Weather
- Craig Edwards (Fired along with Liz Tedone and other on air personalities as a cost saving measure.)
- Don Carson
- Johnny Mountain (now at KCBS-TV)
- Topper Shutt (now at WUSA-TV)
- John Gerard (now at WTVJ-TV)
- Maxine Perry
- Lea Doolittle
- Kelly Cox (now with WTVF-TV)
- Rick Katzfey
- Chad Gibson
- Jim Reed
[edit] Sports
- Ralph Boston
- Stan Cotton
- David Sharp
- Jim (Big Jim) Hess
- Rusty Ensor
- Mike Raita
- Erik Waxler (now with WHAS-TV)
- Nick Paranjape (now at WZTV-TV)
- Brandon Fisher
- Eric Waddell
- Denny Trease (now with WKYT-TV)
- Justin Kropff
[edit] Logo History
 WTVK-TV 26 Logo 1982 |
 Previous logo for WVLT DT2 "UPN Knoxville" |
 The New WVLT "CBS 8" Volunteer TV Logo from 2008 to the Present. |
 Logo for My VLT2 |
[edit] External links
- WVLT Website
- "My East TN TV" Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WVLT-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVLT-TV
[edit] References
http://www.volunteertv.com (New Vol Network agreement.)
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