- WATE-TV
Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WATE-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = The News Station
station_branding = WATE 6
analog = 6 (VHF)
digital = 26 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = ABC (secondary 1953-1956, primary since 1979)
network =
founded =
airdate =October 1 ,1953
location =Knoxville, Tennessee
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns = WROL-TV (1953-1955)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Young Broadcasting, Inc.
licensee = WATE, GP
sister_stations =
former_affiliations =NBC (1953-1979)
effective_radiated_power = 100 kW (analog)
930 kW (digital)
HAAT = 548.3 m (analog)
529.2 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 71082
coordinates = coord|36|0|12.8|N|83|56|34|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wate.com/ www.wate.com]WATE-TV, Channel 6 is the ABC affiliate in
Knoxville, Tennessee . The station is owned and operated byYoung Broadcasting . Its transmitter is located onSharp's Ridge in Knoxville.History
WATE-TV, Channel 6 is East Tennessee's First Television Station, signing on the air on
October 1 ,1953 as WROL-TV, owned by local businessman Paul Mountcastle and a small group of investors, along with WROL-AM 950. The race to be the first television station inEast Tennessee on the air was won by WROL-TV, when the 300-foot tower owned byWJHL-TV , Channel 11 in Johnson City collapsed a few months earlier. WJHL-TV would have been first, but WROL-TV claimed the title by only 25 days. Channel 6's first studios were underneath its 800-foot self-supporting tower onSharp's Ridge , one of the tallest man-made structures in East Tennessee at that time. Later, as was broadcast tradition in the 1950s, sales offices moved to downtown Knoxville, and the studios were moved to a new building on North Broadway. Meanwhile, the self-supporting tower onSharp's Ridge was dismantled in 1975, when the station built a 1,153 foot broadcasting tower alongside it.WROL-TV went on the air as a primary
NBC affiliate because of sister radio station WROL-AM's longtime affiliation with NBC Radio, but it also shared ABC programming withCBS affiliate WSKT-TV, channel 26, which later changed its calls to WTVK (it is nowWVLT-TV on Channel 8). Channel 26 had gone on the air a few hours later on October 1st. Although NBC held a firm grip on WROL-TV, theDuMont Television Network tried unsuccessfully several times to get a secondary affiliation with WROL-TV when it wasn't airing NBC and ABC, but WROL-TV opted to fill its non-network schedule with local programming (anFCC mandate); hence 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-TV held firm, despite many financial incentives from the other networks, especially CBS. WROL-TV became WATE-TV in1955 , the new call letters not really standing for anything; the program director at the time saying, "those call letters were the next available at the FCC." A year later, the NBC primary affiliate dropped ABC whenWBIR-TV signed on and took the CBS affiliation from WTVK. WTVK became the ABC primary affiliate at that time. Meanwhile, WROL-AM later changed its call letters to WATE-AM 950.In 1965, Mountcastle and his group sold WATE-TV to
Nationwide Communications ofColumbus, Ohio . That same year, the station moved into and renovated the historic 19th century Greystone Mansion, now on the National Register of Historic Places. At the same time, WATE-AM, which had changed frequencies to 620 kilohertz was sold off, changing its call letters to WETE; it is nowWRJZ AM620.In September, 1979, WATE swapped its NBC affiliation with WTVK and became an ABC affiliate. ABC had become the highest-rated network in the country, and wanted a stronger station in Knoxville. At the time, WATE was the market leader with a strong VHF signal in East Tennessee, Southwest 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 East Tennessee and Southeast Kentucky had never seen ABC before. Coincidentally, 17 years later, WATE-TV's digital signal would broadcast on digital Channel 26.
In 1993, Nationwide sold its three television stations--WATE,
WBAY-TV inGreen Bay, Wisconsin andWRIC-TV inRichmond, Virginia to Young Broadcasting.During its first 50 years, WATE-TV pioneered many locally-produced programs like "The Homemaker Show," hosted by Mary Starr. Housewives were glued to their TV 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," a local country music show hosted by former Knoxville Mayor
Cas Walker , who also owned a chain of grocery stores in Eastern Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky. The show featured a young lady from Sevier County, Tennessee, whose talented voice eventually broughtDolly Parton much fame and fortune. In 1981, the station premiered "PM Magazine ", with MayCay Beeler and Calvin Sneed, the popular syndicated show which highlighted unusual people, places and things from the East Tennessee-Southeastern Kentucky area.In addition to being the first television station in East Tennessee, WATE-TV also pioneered several other "firsts" in Knoxville. In 1978, it premiered the first noon newscast in town, and later, also premiered the first Saturday newscast in Knoxville, then a year later, the first Sunday newscast in the area. WATE-TV was the first station in East Tennessee to utilize a helicopter for news gathering (Chopper 6), it was the first Knoxville TV station to broadcast a live sporting event (a 1957 Knoxville Smokies baseball game), first in Knoxville to broadcast in stereo, first to use computers for local election coverage, and first TV station in Knoxville to broadcast a digital signal.
In the late 1960s, WATE assembled the news team of anchor Pete Gardener, weathercaster Margie Ison and sports anchor Mike Thurman. In the early 70's, Sam Brown joined the team as news anchor, and together, the team of "Sam, Mike and Margie" became the most well-known newscasters in the market, with both the Number One 6:00 and 11:00 Nielsen and Arbitron-measured newscasts in the Knoxville area for several years.
The News Station
WATE's current slogan reflects its preference for hard news, an alternative to the somewhat softer-edged nature of rival WBIR's newscasts. In general, WATE ranks second, behind WBIR and ahead of WVLT, in the Knoxville Neilsen ratings, although the station routinely enjoys a Number One rating for its 5 PM newscast, because of the high viewership of its powerhouse lead-in "Oprah." (Source: November 2007, Neilsen Media Research, DMA: Knoxville, Tennessee) WATE management announced on January 31, 2008 that they would be cancelling the Noon News, which it was the first Knoxville TV station to offer in 1978. WATE is now the only station in Knoxville not to offer a Noon news broadcast.
News reporters and journalists
News anchors
*Lori Tucker
*Gene Patterson
*Kristin Farley
*Erica Estep
*Bo Williams
*Tearsa Smith
*Whitney Holmes
*Jill McNeal
*Catheryn Campbellports
*Jim Wogan
*Mark NagiNews reporters
*Don Dare
*Harlow Sumerford
*Hana Kim
*Kristyn Hentschel
*Ann Keil
*Shelby Baker
*Kevin OzebekWeather
*Matt Hinkin
*Bob Becker
*Ken WeathersPast newscast titles
*"Marlboro News" (1954-1960)
*"Dateline News" (1960-1969)
*"Eyewitness News" (1969-1980)
*"TV-6 Eyewitness News" (1980-1984)
*"TeamSix Eyewitness News" (1984-1985)
*"TV-6 Live Eyewitness News" (1985-1991)
*"6 Eyewitness News" (1991-2001)
*"6 News" (2001-Current)Past personalities
*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
*Mike Thurman, sports director, deceased
*Calvin Sneed, anchor and reporter, co-host/producer "PM Magazine ", now Senior News Anchor/Chief Investigative Reporter atWTVC-TV , Chattanooga
*MayCay Beeler, co-host/producer "PM Magazine "
*Lisa McNeal, reporter
*Paul Sims, reporter
*Russ Nunley, anchor and reporter, now with Regal Cinemas
*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 theSpeed Channel , andWBT-AM , Charlotte, North Carolina
*Yvette Martinez, anchor and reporter, now withWBIR-TV , Knoxville
*Scott Blalock, weather, now withWVLT-TV , Knoxville
*Bruce Whiteaker, anchor and reporter
*Heather Donald, anchor, now atKRON-TV , San Francisco
*Greg Peterson, sports director 1983-1989, now lead news anchor atWPMI-TV , Mobile, Alabama
*Denae D'Arcy, anchor
*Brennan Robison, anchor and reporter (1998-2003)
*Mark Mancuso , weather anchor, now at The Weather Channel, Atlanta
*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 atWTVF-TV , Nashville
*Paula Tutman, reporter, now atWDIV-TV , Detroit
*Suzanne Stevens, anchor and reporter
*Will McDonald, weekend sports
*Ann Rollins, anchor
*Ann Taylor, anchor, now newscaster atNational Public Radio , Washington, D.C.
*Anne Holt, reporter, now main news anchor atWKRN-TV , Nashville
*Kent Blackwelder, anchor and reporter (He would go on to be a contestant on Big Brother)
*Pete Gardner, anchor, deceased
*Denise Dillon, anchor, later withCNN Headline News , and now withWAGA-TV , Atlanta
*Michael Pomeranz, anchor
*Debbie Kirby, anchor and reporter
*Jon Vanderford, anchor, now atKOLN-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 ofOprah Winfrey ), reporter
*Diane Kacmarik, weather, now withBay News 9 , Tampa, Florida
*Jennifer Darwin, reporter
*Rob Wilds, reporter, now producer atWNPT-TV , Nashville
*Sherry Reed, weather
*Steve Jarriel, reporter, son of formerABC News correspondent Tom Jarriel
*Rita Stone, reporter
*Hal Wanzer, anchor, deceased
*Catharyn Campbell, reporter, now withWSMV-TV Nashville, TN
*Amelia Daniels, now with Ackerman PR, Knoxville, TN
*Jeff Lennox, reporter/anchor, now withWESH-TV , Orlando, FL
*Adam Longo, reporter, now withWKMG-TV , Orlando, FL
*Melissa Dipane, reporter, now withWOFL-TV , Orlando, FLExternal links
* [http://www.wate.com/ WATE-TV]
*TVQ|WATE
*BIA|WATE|TV|TV
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