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WYMT-TV channel 57 is the CBS affiliate in Hazard, Kentucky, serving primarily the far eastern part of the Lexington market, but also portions of neighboring Virginia and West Virginia. It also appears on the local cable television service in Claiborne County, Tennessee. The station is owned by Gray Television and is a sister station to Lexington's CBS affiliate, WKYT-TV.

It began broadcasting as WKYH-TV (meaning W KentuckY Hazard) on October 20, 1969 as an NBC affiliate. Prior to its inception, some counties in southeastern Kentucky were among the last remaining parts of the country who couldn't get a television signal over the air. Although this area is part of the Lexington market, none of that city's television signals cover the area. Lexington is an all-UHF market, and UHF stations do not get decent reception in rugged terrain. Setting up translators in the area was not deemed realistic by the Lexington stations due to the area's extreme poverty, which did not allow many families the luxury of owning sets. This, in turn, made the region also very undesirable for potential outside corporate broadcasters to start a station. Instead, WKYH was founded by local businessman Bill Gorman, who has served eight terms as mayor of Hazard.

Not surprisingly, given the strong cultural and religious tastes and predilections of its audience, traditional country, bluegrass and Southern Gospel music, local church broadcasts and paid religious programming figured very prominently in the station's early years. These programs remained a staple of WKYH-TV long after similar shows began disppearing somewhat from other Southern TV stations later in the 1970s.

In 1985, Gorman sold the station to Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company, owner of WKYT. The new owner changed the calls to WYMT, meaning "We're Your Mountain Television". It also became a CBS affiliate to match its new sister station. When Kentucky Central went bankrupt in 1993, WYMT and WKYT were bought by Gray Communications, now Gray Television.

Although it identifies as a station in its own right, WYMT is considered a semi-satellite of WKYT. It clears some of WKYT's syndicated programming, and the two stations share a Web site. The two stations occasionally co-brand as "Kentucky Television."

To this day, WYMT, WLJC-TV and Kentucky Educational Television satellite WKHA are the only stations that can be received over-the-air in much of this region.

Digital Programming

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels
Channel Programming
57.1 WYMT
57.2 WYMT Weather Feed

Sports Overtime

Sports Overtime is a twice weekly sports broadcast originally airing on Friday nights and covering high school athletics. The program began airing on Saturdays in the fall of 2006. The Saturday show focuses on local and state college athletics as well as the fan favorite package "The High School Fast Break," a recap of high profile high school games from Friday Night.

The current shows are anchored by Jeff Archer and Brian Milam.

News Staff

Mountain News Anchors

  • Neil Middleton (News Director)
  • Steve Hensley (6pm-11pm)
  • Marie Luby (6pm-11pm)
  • Heather Haley (Morning)
  • Jeff Allen (Weekend)

Sky Alert Weather

  • Jim Caldwell (Chief Meteorologist)
  • Scott Dimmich (Morning Meteorologist)
  • Rob Hopkins (Weekend Meteorologist)

Mountain Sports Anchors

  • Jeff Archer (Sports Director, Sports O.T.)
  • Brian Milam (Weekends, Sports O.T.)
  • Derek Forrest (Sports, Sports O.T.)

Reporters

News

  • Angela Sparkman
  • Heather Haley
  • Marie Luby
  • Peter O'Connor
  • Dara Rees

Sports

  • Jeff Archer
  • Brian Milam
  • Derek Forrest

Past Personalities

  • Tony Turner (WYMT news anchor) - Died in 2002 in a tragic car accident.
  • Jay Crawford (Creator of "Sports Overtime" on WYMT) - Currently the host of ESPN2's "First Take".
  • Steve Crabtree (first WYMT news anchor) - Now VP News-Station Operations at co-owned WVLT-TV in Knoxville.
  • Darwin Singleton - Now host of "Here's Darwin" at Mobile, AL's WPMI.[1]
  • Dave Shuffett (Last WKYH News Anchor) - Now host of KET's "Kentucky Life". [2]
  • Joey Kesler (First Full-Time WKYH Weatherman) - Co-Owner of WOBZ-LP and WJJA-FM.
  • Jim Freeman (recent co-host of the WYMT morning show) - Now News anchor for sister station WVLT-TV
  • DeAnn Stephens (Past Mountain News This Morning Anchor) - Now Reporter/ Anchor at WKYT
  • Scott Burchett (Former Fill-In Weather Anchor) - Now working in the medical field
  • Chas Gayheart (Former Morning News Anchor) - Now working for KY Cancer Coalition.
  • Susan Nicholas (former WYMT News Anchor) - Now a weekend anchor for sister station WSAZ in Huntington, West Virginia.
  • Bill Taylor, First weekend sports anchor. Eastern Kentucky Native.
  • Wes Shirley (Wallace), Former Morning Anchor, now anchor at KFVS-TV.
  • Casey Kurtis Pigman, Former WYMT Reporter/Anchor
  • Tony Hensley, Former Reporter, Now working for WTVQ-TV Lexington, KY
  • Hershena Hanshaw, Former Morning Producer and Weather Anchor
  • MK Combs, Former Morning Weather
  • Tony Brown, Former Chief Weathercaster - Now a full-time fireman and DJ
  • Susannah (Walters) Sizemore - Former Anchor
  • Jill (Fraley) Hammond - Former Anchor
  • Michael Goins - Former Big Sandy Bureau Chief - previously served as a spokesperson for Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Kentucky Education Cabinet and Kentucky Office of State Budget Director. Goins now serves as Director of Public Relations for Forcht Group of Kentucky, a holding and management company based in Lexington.
  • Beth (Hudson) Goins - Former part-time reporter - now works as a Senior PR Specialist with the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center.
  • Melissa Wireman - Former 6 p.m. producer - now works in the Public Relations department with the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center.
  • Keith Farmer - Former sports anchor/reporter - now works as a sports reporter for WLKY-TV, Louisville.
  • John Lewis - Former sports anchor/reporter - now works as a sports reporter for WDRB-TV, Louisville.
  • Julie (Stewart) Lewis - Former 6 & 11 p.m. anchor - now resides in Louisville.
  • Shawn Ley - Former reporter - now works as a reporter for WKRC-TV, Cincinnati.
  • Doug Korstanje - Former Big Sandy Bureau Chief - now Director of Marketing and Community Relations for St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia.
  • Drew Deener - Former sports anchor/reporter - now works in Lexington as a sports anchor for WKYT-TV and hosts a sports talk show on 590 WVLK-AM/FM.
  • Jennifer (Nime) Palumbo - Former reporter/morning show anchor - now co-anchors morning newscast for WDKY-TV, Lexington.
  • Shawn Reynolds - Former Producer/Reporter - now Producer at WXIA-TV in Atlanta
  • Brandon Hensley - Former sports anchor/reporter - now working on an under-graduate degree at the University of the Cumberlands and working in the school's Sports Information Department. Also doing radio work for WSGS 101.1FM in Hazard.
  • Cassie Safrit - former 11 p.m. anchor/reporter - now weekend anchor/reporter at News 14 Carolina.
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