WJHL-TV
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WJHL-TV (News Channel 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 is owned by Media General, who also owns the Bristol Herald Courier.
History
WJHL-TV began broadcasting on October 26, 1953. WJHL-TV was slated to be the first television station to sign on in East Tennessee. The station tower was being constructed on Tannery Knob in downtown Johnson City when the tower fell. WROL-TV now WATE-TV in Knoxville beat WJHL-TV by signing on a few days earlier. The station's founders, the W. Haynes Lancaster family, chose the callsign to honor their father, John H. Lancaster, Sr. The station was affiliated with all four television networks: CBS-TV, NBC-TV, ABC-TV 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.
The station was sold to Roy H. Park in 1964. The NBC-TV network moved to WCYB-TV, Bristol when that station signed on the air in 1956, and for a while both stations shared ABC-TV programming, until 1969. Channel 11 became an exclusive CBS-TV affiliate in 1969 when WKPT-TV, Kingsport signed on as the area's ABC affiliate. Not long after WKPT-TV signed on 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.
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.
News Channel 11 is currently the lower rated station in the Tri-Cities in all news slots against NBC rival WCYB which is consistently first.
Newscasts
WJHL's newscasts were also simulcast on unrelated local ABC affiliate, WKPT-TV in Kingsport, which discontinued news production in February 2002. The simulcasts ceased in September 2006. The only newscast to be run in any form on WKPT is the weeknight Nightside broadcast which is repeated at or around 1:06 AM. The noon broadcast is repeated weekdays on WAPK-CA at 12:30 PM.
Weekdays
- News Channel 11 Morning Edition (5:00-9:00AM) Anchored by: Josh Smith (News) & Rob Williams (Weather)
- News Channel 11 at Noon (12Noon-12:30PM) Anchored by: Bob Lewis (News) & Rob Williams (Weather)
- News Channel 11 at 5 (5:00PM-5:30PM) Anchored by: Selena Wiles, Tim Cable (News) & Mark Reynolds (Weather)
- News Channel 11 at 5:30 (5:30PM-6:00PM) Anchored by: Selena Wiles, Bob Lewis (News) & Mark Reynolds (Weather), Ken Hawkins (Sports)
- News Channel 11 at 6 (6:00PM-6:30PM) Anchored by: Sara Diamond, Jim Bailey (News), Mark Reynolds (Weather) & Ken Hawkins (Sports)
- News Channel 11 Nightside (11:00-11:35PM) Anchored by: Sara Diamond, Jim Bailey (News), Mark Reynolds (Weather) & Ken Hawkins (Sports)
Weekends
- News Channel 11 Weekend Edition (Saturday & Sunday at 6:30-7:00PM & 11:00-11:35PM) Anchored By: Bill Christian (News), Tom Wachs (Weather), Kasey Marler (Sports)
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)
Reporters/Anchors
- Jim Bailey (Anchor/Managing Editor)
- Tim Cable (Anchor)
- Bill Christian (Anchor/Reporter)
- Sara Diamond (Anchor/Medical Reporter)
- Josh Green (Reporter/Photographer)
- Ken Hawkins (Sports Director)
- Bob Lewis (Anchor)
- Kasey Marler (Sports Reporter)
- Amber Miller (Reporter)
- Lara Moore (Consumer Reporter)
- Nate Morabito (Reporter)
- April Owen (Reporter/Photographer)
- Melinda Perkins (Producer / Reporter)
- Mark Reynolds (Chief Meteorologist)
- Josh Smith (Anchor)
- Tom Wachs (Meteorologist)
- Selena Wiles (Anchor/Education Reporter)
- Rob Williams (Meteorologist)
- Darius Radzius (Reporter)
- David "Belt" Buckles (Midday Stand In)