WVLT-TV

WVLT-TV (VHF channel 8) is the CBS television network affiliate station 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 transmitters located in Knoxville. It is known on-air as Volunteer TV. 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.

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, which signed on a few hours before WSKT.

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. However, it spent most of the next 20 years as a very distant third in the ratings. While this was due in part to ABC being a much weaker network (it wouldn't be on par with CBS and NBC in terms of programming until the 1970s), another problem was the terrain issue. Many viewers didn't get a clear signal from channel 26 until cable arrived in Knoxville in the 1970s. In fact, many viewers got a better signal from WLOS-TV (channel 13) in Asheville, North Carolina; WLOS' transmitter is located almost 118 miles east of Knoxville.

In 1979, the station changed its affiliations from ABC to NBC, swapping affiliations with WATE-TV. By this time, ABC had become the highest-rated network in the country, and was seeking to affiliate with stronger stations. Under the circumstances, ABC jumped at the chance to move its programming to long-dominant WATE-TV. Even as NBC dominated the ratings in the 1980s, channel 26 stayed in the local ratings basement. However, it did win 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 in 1996.

On January 9, 2011, their 11 p.m. newscast became the first in the Knoxville market to originate in high definition.[1]

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 for the 10 year contract. This gives the two stations the exclusive rights to the weekly highlights shows featuring head football coach Derek Dooley, 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 ended a 10-year relationship with NBC affiliate WBIR-TV.[1]

Digital television
The station's digital signal UHF 30, is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Digital conversion
After the US analog television shutdown, which took place on June 12, 2009 [2], WVLT-DT remained on its current frequency, channel 30.[3] However, digital television with PSIPcapability will display its virtual channel as 8.

Newscast titles

 * The East Tennessee Report (1953-1957)
 * News of The Night (1957-1960)
 * 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 (1998–2002)
 * Volunteer TV News (2002–present)

Station slogans

 * 26, Proud As A Peacock!
 * Hello Knoxville, TV-26 Loves You (1981–1985; used during period station used Frank Gari's Hello News)
 * We`re Channel 26, Just Watch Us Now (1982–1983; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * TV-26 There, Be There (1983–1984; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
 * "The Valley's Own, News 8" (1988-early 1990s)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[4]
 * In Touch with East Tennessee (1997–2002)
 * Taking Action for You (2002–present)

News anchors

 * Alan Williams (6:00/7:00/11:00)
 * Lauren Davis (6:00/7:00/11:00)
 * Bob Yarbrough (Early/Noon)
 * Michelle Silva (Early)
 * Allison Kropff (Noon/4:00/5:00)
 * Mark Packer (4:00/5:00)
 * Heather Haley (Weekends)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-brianhornback.blogspot.com_4-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[5]
 * Angela Starke (Weekends)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-brianhornback.blogspot.com_4-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[5]

Sports

 * Rick Russo (Sports Director)
 * Daryl Hobby (Sports Anchor/Reporter)
 * Mark Packer
 * Wes Boling (Sports Anchor/Reporter)
 * Austin Price

News reporters

 * Lauren Davis
 * Allison Kropff
 * Gary Loe
 * Amber Miller
 * Sara Shookman
 * Mario Boone
 * Angela Starke
 * Lorena Estrada

Weather

 * David Aldrich (Chief Meteorologist)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[6]
 * Mike Simon (Morning/Noon Meteorologist)
 * Whitney Kent (Weekend Meteorologist)

Miscellaneous

 * Walter Lambert (TV Chef)
 * Shirley Nash-Pitts (Consumer Expert)
 * Kiley Yarbrough (Special Correspondent)

Anchors

 * Allen Denton
 * Sam Brown (died in 2009, formerly lecturer at College of Communications at University of Tennessee) [1]
 * Elda Brown
 * Cheryl Masur (Lifetouch Publishing)
 * Kathryn Norton
 * Kent Blackwelder (Noonday)
 * Tim Cox (now with WXIN-TV "Fox 59" Indianapolis as Gene Cox, which is his first name)
 * John Gilbert
 * Art Powell
 * Kim Sims Thomas (Noonday)
 * Phil Rainey
 * Jennifer Julian
 * Brenda Burch
 * Norman Hammitt
 * Jessa Goddard (ONN TV - Columbus, Ohio News Channel @ 9pm)
 * Kelli Parker
 * Liz Tedone Edwards (Media Relations for The Dave Ramsey Show)
 * Stacy McCloud (now with WZTV-TV "Fox 17" Nashville)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[7]

Anchor/reporters

 * Rob Scobey
 * Jim Hampton
 * John Lomax (now at WKRC-TV, Cincinnati)
 * Lee Merrit (now at WXIN-TV, Indianapolis. News Director)
 * Corrina Collins (now Corrina Sullivan)
 * Ron Sprowl
 * Kim Keelor
 * Lizz Walker
 * Ben Roberts (now at WALB-TV, Albany, Georgia)
 * Jim Reed
 * Kim Bedford
 * Chris Bavender (now Communications Director for the Indiana Attorney General)
 * Adina Chumley (Chumley Communications - Friendsville, Tn)
 * Rebecca Solomon
 * Gordon Boyd

Reporters

 * Betsy Gray
 * Foster Arnett
 * Ed Hooper (Author)
 * Paul Sims
 * Melinda Kramer
 * Russ Greene
 * Sara Vesser
 * Jeff Spurlock
 * Dave Stewart
 * Cindy Steele
 * Monte Jansen
 * Russell Walker
 * Becky Colaw
 * Heather Burgiss (now at UNC-TV, Chapel Hill, NC)
 * Lisa Stearns (now with Baptist Health System)
 * Chloe Morroni (now at WHBF-TV, Rock Island, IL)
 * Rudy Cooks
 * Jim Reed
 * Charles Winters (now at Socialite Media)
 * Rob Pratt (returned to Law Practice in Knoxville, WVLT Legal Consultant)
 * Mike McCarthy (now at WSYX/WTTE TV, Columbus, OH)
 * Stephen McLamb (now at WAFF-TV, Huntsville)
 * Rebecca Soloman
 * Mark Edwards

Weather

 * Adele Arakawa, (Main news anchor for KUSA-TV in Denver.)
 * Jim Freeman (East Tennessee This Morning/Noon)(Chief Weather Operations Meteorologist)
 * Scott Blalock (Consulting Scientist, scottblalockweather.com)
 * Lisa Patton (Now at WKRN-TV, Nashville)
 * Craig Edwards (Now at WZTV-TV, Nashville)
 * Don Carson
 * Johnny Mountain (retired from KCBS-TV Los Angeles)
 * Topper Shutt (now at WUSA-TV, Washington, D.C.)
 * John Gerard (now at WTVJ, Miami)
 * Maxine Perry
 * Adina Chumley
 * Lea Doolittle
 * Kelly Cox (now with WTVF, Nashville)
 * Rick Katzfey (Rick is an account service training manager at Jobscience, Inc. in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Rick was a weather anchor for WKXT-TV/WVLT-TV for most of the 1990s)
 * Chad Gibson
 * Jim Reed
 * Megan Campbell (now weekend meteorologist at WATE-TV Channel 6 Knoxville)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8]

Sports

 * Ralph Boston
 * Stan Cotton (now at Wake Forest University)
 * David Sharp
 * Jim (Big Jim) Hess
 * Rusty Ensor
 * Bill Sykes
 * Mike Raita (now at ABC 33/40, Birmingham)
 * Erik Waxler (now at WFTS-TV, Tampa)
 * Nick Paranjape (now at WZTV-TV, Nashville, Tennessee)
 * Brandon Fisher (now at WKYT-TV, Lexington, Kentucky)
 * Eric Waddell
 * Denny Trease
 * Justin Kropff