WATE-TV

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

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• Template:Infobox television station

WATE-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Knoxville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on Sharp's Ridge. Owned by Young Broadcasting, the station has studios in Camp House on North Broadway (SR 33/SR 71/US 441). Syndicated programming on WATE includes: Judge Judy, Oprah, The Insider, and Judge Joe Brown.

History

Channel 6 was East Tennessee's first going on-the-air October 1, 1953 as WROL-TV. The race to be the first television station in the eastern part of the state was won by WROL-TV when the 300-foot tower of WJHL-TV in Johnson City collapsed a few months earlier. That station would have been first to sign-on but WROL claimed the title by only 25 days. Its first studios were underneath the 800-foot self-supporting tower on Sharp's Ridge which was one of the tallest man-made structures in Tennessee at the time. It was owned by local businessman Paul Mountcastle and a small group of investors along with WROL-AM 950.

WROL-TV signed-on as a primary NBC affiliate because of WROL-AM's longtime affiliation with NBC Radio and also shared ABC programming with CBS affiliate WSKT-TV which later changed its calls to WTVK (it is now WVLT-TV). Although NBC held a firm grip on WROL, DuMont tried unsuccessfully several times to get a secondary affiliation with the station when it was not broadcasting NBC and ABC. It opted to fill its non-network schedule with local programming which was an Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate. DuMont was forced to join WTVK on a secondary basis. CBS also made many attempts to grab a primary affiliation with Knoxville's only VHF station, but the owners of WROL held firm despite many financial incentives from the other networks especially CBS.

The station changed its call letters to WATE-TV in 1955 with the new call letters not really standing for anything. The station's Program Director at the time stated "those call letters were the next available at the FCC."

In 1956, WATE dropped ABC when WBIR-TV signed-on and took the CBS affiliation from WTVK, leaving that station the ABC station by default. At that time, all three networks had three affiliates in Knoxville. WROL-AM later changed its call letters to WATE-AM to correspond with the television station. WATE-TV had a role in the failure of WBIR to have its first antenna tower on Zachary Ridge next to House Mountain in 1965 for better coverage. This station used a rather ingenious way to force its chief rival station to build a 1,751-foot tower on Zachary Ridge instead of the much higher House Mountain. WATE simply purchased the top of House Mountain from the property owners. With no property for the tower base on the Mountain, WBIR had no choice but to build a much taller tower in the valley two years later. As was broadcast tradition in the 1950s, the channel's sales offices moved to Downtown Knoxville and the studios were moved to a new building on North Broadway.

In 1965, Mountcastle and his group sold WATE-TV to Nationwide Communications of Columbus, Ohio. That same year, the station moved into and renovated the historic 19th century Greystone Mansion that is now on the National Register of Historic Places. At the same time, WATE-AM (which had changed frequency to 620 kilohertz) was sold off changing its call letters to WETE. It is now WRJZ-AM 620. The self-supporting tower on Sharp's Ridge was dismantled in 1975 when the station built a 1,153 foot broadcasting tower alongside it. In September 1979, WATE swapped its NBC affiliation with WTVK and became an ABC affiliate.

The network had become the highest-rated in the country and wanted a stronger station in Knoxville. At the time, WATE was the market leader with a strong VHF signal in Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, and Southeastern Kentucky. WTVK's UHF signal on channel 26 was marginal at best in much of the Knoxville area and many viewers in Eastern Tennessee and Southeastern Kentucky had never seen ABC before. Coincidentally, seventeen years later, WATE's digital signal would be broadcast on digital channel 26.

During its first fifty years, WATE pioneered many locally-produced programs like The Homemaker Show hosted by Mary Starr. Housewives were glued to television sets as Mary showed them the latest recipes and homemaking tips. Star Time, hosted by local businessman Jim Clayton, featured many local country music acts and The Cas Walker Show was a local country music show hosted by former Knoxville Mayor Cas Walker who also owned a chain of grocery stores in Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky. The show featured Dolly Parton before she became famous.

In 1981, the station premiered PM Magazine with MayCay Beeler and Calvin Sneed. The popular syndicated show highlighted unusual people, places, and things from the East Tennessee/Southeastern Kentucky area.

In 1993, Nationwide sold its three television stations (WATE, WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and WRIC-TV in Richmond, Virginia) to Young Broadcasting. Young Broadcasting emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2010. As a contingency of the reorganization plan, Young has a limited management Agreement with Gray Television of Atlanta, Georgia to allow that company management all of Young's stations except WATE and KRON-TV in San Francisco. Gray was not allowed to operate WATE because it also owns WVLT in the Knoxville market.

News operation

File:Wate news.png

News open seen weeknights at 5:30.

In 1977, WATE premiered the first Saturday 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts in the Knoxville market, with Art Powell anchoring the news, Kay Elliott with weather, and Calvin Sneed with sports. In 1978, Knoxville's first weekday noon show began, with Sneed as the anchor. Later that year, Sneed was promoted to weekend anchor, to welcome the first Sunday 6 and 11 PM newscasts in the area. In 1979, WATE promoted Sneed, the first African-American to co-anchor a weeknight 6 and 11 o'clock newscast in East Tennessee.

In the mid-70's, WATE was the first station in Knoxville to switch from film to videotape (electronic journalism), and was also the first station to own and operate a live microwave truck for newsgathering. The station was the first in East Tennessee to utilize a helicopter (known as "Chopper 6") for news coverage.

In the late-1960s, WATE assembled the news team of anchor Pete Gardener, weathercaster Margie Ison and Sports Director Mike Thurman, and slowly made inroads into the high ratings of the then-market leader, WBIR-TV.

In the early-1970s, Sam Brown joined the Channel 6 team as news anchor and, together, the team of "Sam, Mike, and Margie" became the most well-known on-air team in the market. By the mid 70's, all of the station's newscasts were ranked number one in their time periods. The unofficial goal of the weeknight news crew was to regularly scoop the Knoxville Journal, the morning newspaper then gaining circulation over the Knoxville News Sentinel then published in the afternoons. Those TV news stories served as fodder for the next day's news assignments, pioneering the "follow-up" concept of reporting.

WATE-TV also hired the first AMS-certified meteorologist in Knoxville and East Tennessee in 1979, when Mark Mancuso joined the news team.

Through a news share agreement, WATE produces a nightly prime time newscast at 10 for Fox affiliate WTNZ. This competes with a broadcast on CW afifliate WBXX-TV that is produced by WBIR. However, while many stations air a show at 10, the aforementioned news differs because it is only twelve minutes long featuring the top stories of the day and a local weather forecast.

The weekday noon newscast was canceled on January 31, 2008 making WATE the only station in Knoxville to not offer news in that time slot.

Newscast titles

• Marlboro News (1954-1960)
• Dateline News (1960-1969)
• Eyewitness News (1969-1980)
• TV 6 Eyewitness News (1980-1984)
• Team Six Eyewitness News (1984-1985)
• TV 6 Live Eyewitness News (1985-1991)
• 6 Eyewitness News (1991-2001)
• Eleven at Eleven (1991-2001)
• 6 News (2001-present)

Newscast theme music

• KHOU 1976 News Theme by Sam Spence (1976-1977)
• Move Closer to Your World by Mayoham Music (1977-1980)
• WATE 1980 News Theme by station (1980-1987)
• More People Watch by Latitude Music(1995-1998)
• Image News by Frank Gari (1998-2001)
• New Millenium by Gari Communications (2001-2006)
• This is Your News by Gari Communications (2006-present)

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Station slogans

• "Suddenly Complete" (1979, reflecting network switch to ABC)
• "The Area's Leading News Station" (1980-1987)
• "Coverage You Can Count On" (1991-2001)
• "The News Station" (2001-2010)

News team

Anchors

• Bo Williams - weekday mornings
• Tearsa Smith - weekday mornings
• Gene Patterson - weeknights at 5, 6, and 11
• Kristin Farley - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 10
• Lori Tucker - weeknights at 6 and 11
• Jill McNeal - weeknights at 10 and reporter
• Denae D'Arcy - weekend mornings
• Erica Estep - weekend evenings and education reporter

6 News Storm Team Meteorologists

• Matt Hinkin (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
• Julya Johnson- Good Morning Tennessee Meteorologist
• Megan Campbell- Weekend Meteorologist

Sports

• Jim Wogan - weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
  • Friday Night Hits host
• Mark Nagi - weekends
• Prentice Elliott - reporter and photographer

Reporters

• Don Dare - "Food for Thought" segment producer
• Jamie Lynn Drohan - weekday mornings
• Josh Ault - videojournalist
• Harlow Sumerford
• Hana Kim
• Ann Keil
• Mona Nair

Past on-air staff

• Ken Weathers, weather (left December 2010)
• Bob Becker, weather (left Jan.2 2011)
• Art Miller, reporter (1971-1979), now Manager-Train Operations, San Luis and Rio Grande/Rio Grande Scenic Railroads, Alamosa, CO and widely known as a Railroad Coordinator working in feature film, commercial, music video, and TV movie production.
• Bud Veazey, reporter/photographer, weekend anchor, producer (1966-1976). Retired in 2008 after 42 years in TV news.
• Sonu Wasu, reporter, now with WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio
• Clay Thomas, anchor and reporter
• Mary Starr, hostess The Homemaker Show, deceased
• Jim Clayton, host, Star Time
• Cas Walker, former Knoxville mayor and host The Cas Walker Show, deceased
• Margie Ison, weather anchor, retired
• Bob Richards, weather anchor, deceased
• Sam Brown, anchor and reporter, deceased
• Mike Thurman, sports director, deceased
• Calvin Sneed, anchor and reporter, co-host/producer PM Magazine, now Senior News Anchor/Chief Investigative Reporter at WTVC-TV, Chattanooga; Website Manager, the Douglass Alumni Association, Kingsport, TN
• MayCay Beeler, co-host/producer PM Magazine, now airline pilot and parttime air personality, WFMY-TV Greensboro, NC
• Lisa McNeal, reporter
• Paul Sims, reporter, now with RCI Media Training, Atlanta
• Russ Nunley, anchor and reporter, now with Regal Cinemas
• Sandy Webb, reporter, anchor, Assignment Editor, Assistant News Director, deceased
• Bob Gray, anchor and reporter, retired
• Kim Simmons Thomas, weather, noon anchor and reporter
• Ben Garrett, reporter
• Diane May, anchor and reporter
• Leslie Stewart, reporter
• Tracie Finley (Potts), anchor
• Scott Finley, sports anchor/reporter (1986-2000), now at Ethicon, Inc. in Knoxville
• Rick Benjamin, anchor and reporter, now with the Speed Channel, and WBT-AM, Charlotte, North Carolina
• Yvette Martinez, anchor and reporter, now with TDOT
• Scott Blalock, weather, (retired from WVLT Knoxville in 2009)
• Bruce Whiteaker, anchor and reporter
• Heather Donald, anchor, now at KRON-TV, San Francisco
• Greg Peterson, sports director 1983-1989, now lead news anchor at WPMI-TV, Mobile, Alabama
• Brennan Robison, anchor and reporter (1998-2003)
• Wanda Williams, reporter and fill-in achor (1998-200), [WJLA-TV, Web Content Editor 2005-2006][Graduate Student in History, Research Tech, National Archives and Records, Presidential Papers, Washington, D.C.]
• Mark Mancuso, weather anchor
• Mike Cihla, anchor, now morning news anchor, WTOC-TV, Savannah, Georgia
• Lance Sandstead, anchor
• Denny (Lloyd) Immel, anchor
• Marie Michellini, weekend weather
• Steve Oglesby, reporter, anchor, assignment editor, newscast producer, news director, marketing and promotion manager
• Jan Petri, reporter
• Tom Buckley, reporter
• Pauletta Jackson, reporter and weekend weather
• Lelan Statom, weather, now noon co-host at WTVF-TV, Nashville
• Paula Tutman, reporter, now at WDIV-TV, Detroit
• Suzanne Stevens, anchor and reporter
• Will McDonald, weekend sports
• Ann Rollins, anchor
• Ann Taylor, anchor, now newscaster at National Public Radio, Washington, D.C.
• Anne Holt, reporter, now main news anchor at WKRN-TV, Nashville
• Kent Blackwelder, anchor and reporter (he was later a contestant on Big Brother)
• Pete Gardner, anchor, deceased
• Denise Dillon, anchor, later with CNN Headline News, and now with WAGA-TV, Atlanta
• Michael Pomeranz, anchor
• Debbie Kirby, anchor and reporter
• Jon Vanderford, anchor, now at KOLN-TV, Lincoln, Nebraska
• Tanya O'Rourke, reporter, now noon news anchor, WCPO-TV, Cincinnati
• Gary Weiss, reporter
• Janet Sims, reporter
• Cynthia Varner, reporter
• Lori Golden-Stryer, reporter and anchor
• Russ Hollingsworth, sports
• Karla Winfrey (cousin of Oprah Winfrey), reporter
• Diane Kacmarik, weather, now with Bay News 9, Tampa, Florida
• Jennifer Darwin, reporter
• Rob Wilds, reporter, now producer at WNPT-TV, Nashville
• Sherry Reed, weather
• Steve Jarriel, reporter, son of former ABC News correspondent Tom Jarriel
• Rita Stone, reporter
• Hal Wanzer, anchor, deceased
• Catharyn Campbell, reporter, now at WSMV-TV Nashville, TN
• Amelia Daniels, now with Ackerman PR, Knoxville, TN
• Jeff Lennox, reporter/anchor, now at WESH-TV, Orlando, FL
• Adam Longo, reporter, now at WKMG-TV, Orlando, FL
• Melissa Dipane, reporter, now at WOFL-TV, Orlando, FL
• Whitney Holmes, reporter/weekend anchor

External links

• WATE-TV website (can be entered in to web-enabled mobile devices for wireless access)
• WTNZ "Fox 43"
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