WJHL-TV
 
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Tri-Cities, Tennessee-Virginia United States |
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| City | Johnson City, Tennessee |
| Branding | NewsChannel 11 ABC Tri-Cities (on DT2) |
| Slogan | In your corner. |
| Channels |
Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 11 () |
| Subchannels | 11.1 CBS 11.2 ABC |
| Owner |
Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | October 26, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning |
John H. Lancaster (founder of WJHL radio) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 11 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital: 58 (UHF, 1998–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
All secondary: DuMont (1953–1956) NBC (1953–1956) ABC (1953–1969) |
| Transmitter power | 34.5 kW |
| Height | 708 m |
| Facility ID | 57826 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 36°25′54.8″N 82°8′15.1″W / 36.431889°N 82.137528°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | WJHL.com |
WJHL-TV, channel 11, is a television station licensed to Johnson City, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and serves as the CBS and ABC affiliate for the Tri-Cities area of northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. It has studios on East Main Street in downtown Johnson City, and its transmitter is located on Holston Mountain.
Although the station is located in Johnson City, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires it to include Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia in its legal station identification.
WJHL-TV began broadcasting on October 26, 1953. It was owned by Hanes Lancaster, Sr. his son Hanes, Jr. and Jesse W. "Jay" Birdwell along with WJHL radio (910 AM, now WJCW; and FM 101.5, now WQUT). All three stations took their calls from John H. Lancaster, Sr. (Hanes, Sr.'s father and Hanes, Jr.'s grandfather) who had founded WJHL radio in 1938.
In the summer of 1953, WJHL-TV was on track to be the first television station to sign on in East Tennessee, projecting to begin operations on October 1. At the time, the station's original transmission tower was being constructed on Tannery Knob in downtown Johnson City. With just a few weeks before sign-on, the guy wires snapped, sending the 300-foot (91 m) tower and its antenna crashing to the ground. This enabled WROL-TV in Knoxville (now WATE-TV) to beat WJHL-TV to the air by almost a month. Since many advertisers and banks were already skeptical about television's viability (the tower crash did not help), the Lancasters had to scramble for funding. They were able to get the station on-the-air but had to side-mount a much smaller replacement antenna on a wooden power pole the Johnson City Power Board installed at the last minute.
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