WJHL-TV

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WJHL-TV (NewsChannel 11) is the CBS television affiliate in Johnson City, Tennessee, serving the greater Tri-Cities region of Tennessee and Virginia and neighboring western North Carolina, southeastern Kentucky and the southwestern corner of West Virginia from a transmitter located atop Holston Mountain. It's owned by Media General, which also owns the Bristol Herald Courier.

History

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 101.5 FM, 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-AM in 1938.

WJHL-TV was on track to be the first television station to sign on in East Tennessee. The station's original 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 tower crashing to the ground. This enabled WROL-TV in Knoxville (now WATE-TV) to beat WJHL-TV to the air. Since many were still skeptical about television's viability, the Lancasters had to scramble for funding. They were able to get the station on the air--but had to mount the antenna on a telephone pole.

The station was affiliated with all four television networks: CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont. The transmitter was later relocated to Buffalo Mountain, southwest of Johnson City, 1,200 feet higher than Tannery Knob. From that location, WJHL-TV was able to better reach Bristol, Kingsport and other areas of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina. NBC moved to WCYB-TV in Bristol when that station signed on the air in 1956. The two stations shared ABC until 1969, when WKPT-TV in Kingsport signed on.

In 1956, Birdwell launched WBIR-TV in Knoxville and sold his interest in channel 11 to comply with FCC cross-ownership rules of the time. The two stations have a fairly large grade B signal overlap, and at the time the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with such a large overlap.

In 1969, WJHL-TV moved its transmitter once again 800 feet higher, this time side-by-side with WKPT-TV on the lower end of the Holston High Point, on Holston Mountain and that point Channel 11 became the full-time affiliate of the CBS-TV Network.

The station was sold to Roy H. Park in 1964, but Hanes Lancaster, Jr. remained as the station's general manager until 1989. Lancaster was succeeded by current general manager Jack Dempsey. Many of channel 11's employees stayed on for 30 years or more, which is unusual for a market of this size.

Media General acquired Park Communications and WJHL-TV in 1997 and re-branded the station from TV-11 to News Channel 11. The station began broadcasting its digital signal on channel 58 in 1998.

For most of the last 30 years, WJHL's newscasts have been a distant second to WCYB.

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 , WJHL-TV will move back to channel 11.

Local Programs

On August 11, 2008, News Channel 11 debuted a new daytime show, "Daytime Tri-Cities". The show is hosted by Morgan King, a former weatherman at WKPT and WCYB, and Amy Lynn, who was an anchor at WCYB.

Syndicated Programming

• Live with Regis and Kelly (9am-- formerly Live with Regis and Kathie Lee/Live with Regis)

• The Oprah Winfrey Show (4pm)

• Dr. Phil (7pm)

Syndicated Programs Formerly Aired

• The Andy Griffith Show (various times)

• Crook and Chase (10am and 4pm)

• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (4pm)

• Entertainment Tonight (7:30pm)

• Friends (7pm)

• Grace, Under fire (7pm)

• Hollywood Squares (7:30pm and 10am)

• House Calls (10am)

• Leeza (10am)

• The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet (10am)

• The Montel Williams Show (4pm)

• Roseanne (various times)

• Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? (various times)

• Match Game (10:00am)

• Family Feud

Newscasts

WJHL's newscasts were also simulcast on WKPT for four years. WKPT shut down its news department February 2002. The simulcasts ceased in September 2006.

In late 2006, the station launched a 24-hour cable weather channel. It can be seen on most cable outlets in the area via digital cable and on digital channel 11.2.

Newscast titles

• The Tri-Cities Report (1953-1960)
• The TV-11 Report (1960-1967)
• TV-11 News (1967-1985)
• Eyewitness News 11 (1985-1997)
• News Channel 11 (1997-Present)

Current Personalities

Anchors

• Jim Bailey- 6 and 11
• Tim Cable- 5 and 5:30

Anchors & Reporters

• Bill Christian- Weekend Edition
• Sara Diamond- 6pm/Medical Watch
• Josh Smith- Morning and Noon

On-Air Reporters

• Scott Draper
• Nate Morabito
• Darius Radzius
• George Jackson

Weather

• Mark Reynolds (Chief Meteorologist)
• Rob Williams
• Mallory Nichols

Sports

• Kenny Hawkins
• Kasey Marler

Past Personalities

• Marcus Lynch-Meteorologist (now with WCYB)
• Jay Siltzer-Reporter (now with WLOS)
• Erica Estep-Reporter (now with WATE)

External links

• WJHL-TV Homepage
• Sponsor of Johnson City, TN (Tri-Cities) Fireworks
• WJHL-TV’s Bob Lewis Announces Retirement, Shares Medical Challenges
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