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 by Young Broadcasting. Its transmitter is located on Sharp'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 in East Tennessee on the air was won by WROL-TV, when the 300-foot tower owned by WJHL-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 on Sharp'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 on Sharp'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 with CBS affiliate WSKT-TV, channel 26, which later changed its calls to WTVK (it is now WVLT-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, the DuMont 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 (an FCC 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 in 1955, 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 when WBIR-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 of Columbus, 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 now WRJZ 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 in Green Bay, Wisconsin and WRIC-TV in Richmond, 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 brought Dolly 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 Campbell

ports

*Jim Wogan
*Mark Nagi

News reporters

*Don Dare
*Harlow Sumerford
*Hana Kim
*Kristyn Hentschel
*Ann Keil
*Shelby Baker
*Kevin Ozebek

Weather

*Matt Hinkin
*Bob Becker
*Ken Weathers

Past 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 at WTVC-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 the Speed Channel, and WBT-AM, Charlotte, North Carolina
*Yvette Martinez, anchor and reporter, now with WBIR-TV, Knoxville
*Scott Blalock, weather, now with WVLT-TV, Knoxville
*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
*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 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 would go on to be 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 with WSMV-TV Nashville, TN
*Amelia Daniels, now with Ackerman PR, Knoxville, TN
*Jeff Lennox, reporter/anchor, now with WESH-TV, Orlando, FL
*Adam Longo, reporter, now with WKMG-TV, Orlando, FL
*Melissa Dipane, reporter, now with WOFL-TV, Orlando, FL

External links

* [http://www.wate.com/ WATE-TV]
*TVQ|WATE
*BIA|WATE|TV|TV