WVLT-TV
 
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Knoxville, Tennessee United States |
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| Branding | Local 8, Volunteer TV (general) Local 8 News (newscasts) MyVLT (DT2) |
| Slogan | More Local |
| Channels |
Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 8 () |
| Subchannels | 8.1 CBS 8.2 MNTV/Antenna TV |
| Owner |
Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | October 18, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | VoLunTeer State |
| Sister station(s) | WBXX-TV |
| Former callsigns | WTSK-TV (1953–1954) WTVK (1954–1988) WKXT-TV (1988–1997) |
| Former channel number(s) | 26 (UHF analog, 1953–1988) 8 (VHF analog, 1988–2009) |
| 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 | 398 kW (digital) |
| Height | 551.3 metres (1,809 ft) (digital) |
| Facility ID | 35908 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°59′44″N 83°57′23″W / 35.99556°N 83.95639°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www |
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 is owned and operated by Gray Television as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WBXX-TV, with studios located on Papermill Drive (near I-40/I-75) on the city's westside and its transmitter is on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville.
WVLT-TV debuted on October 18, 1953 as WTSK-TV on channel 26. It was Tennessee's first UHF station, and the second television station in East Tennessee, signing on just a few hours after WROL-TV in Knoxville (channel 6, now WATE-TV). The station was a CBS affiliate, but also shared ABC programming with WROL-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 WTSK, and even then the picture quality was marginal at best. In addition, most of East 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 local 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.
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Wikipedia