WKPT-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WKPT-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = ABC 19 Tri-Cities News Source
station_branding = ABC 19 WKPT
analog = 19 (UHF)
digital = 27 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = ABC
RTN (DT3)
network =
founded =
airdate = August 20, 1969
location = Kingsport-Johnson City-Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia
callsign_meaning = We're KingsPorT, Tennessee
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation
licensee =
sister_stations =
former_affiliations =
effective_radiated_power = 1260 kW (analog)
200 kW (digital)
HAAT = 707 m (analog)
695 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 27504
coordinates = coord|36|25|53.7|N|82|8|15.1|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wkpttv.com/ www.wkpttv.com/] |

WKPT-TV "ABC 19" (Analog Ch. 19 & Digital Ch. 27) is the ABC television affiliate located in Kingsport, Tennessee. It serves the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee and Virginia from a transmitter on Holston Mountain on the Sullivan County - Carter County county line, near Elizabethton, Tennessee, with studios and offices located at 222 Commerce Street in downtown Kingsport.

WKPT-TV also currently operates "WKPT DT-3", a digital multicast station which is also available on area cable systems, as well as on an analog low-powered channel, WOPI-CA channel 9 in Bristol, Virginia. Initially its schedule consisted of infomercials and Pentagon Channel programming. The station was a full-time affiliate of the America One network until December 21, 2007. On that date, DT-3 and WOPI-CA switched to the Retro Television Network.

WKPT-TV is owned by the Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation, along with WAPK-CA channel 36, WKPT AM 1400-FM 94.3, WOPI AM 1490-FM 97.9, WKTP AM 1590-FM 97.7 and WTFM-FM 98.5.

History

WKPT-TV signed on the air August 20, 1969 as an ABC affiliate. Previously, ABC had been shared between NBC affiliate WCYB-TV and CBS affiliate WJHL-TV, who picked their own ABC programs to air. Many viewers in the area could view the entire ABC schedule on nearby WLOS-TV in Asheville, North Carolina, which at one time considered the Tri-Cities part of its primary coverage area.

WKPT-TV has three historical distinctions. First, it is the oldest UHF television station in Tennessee to have maintained continuous operation on the UHF band to the present. Secondly, it is the second oldest TV station in Tennessee to have had the same licensee from its sign-on date to the present. (WBBJ-TV in Jackson, Tennessee is the oldest, but only after it was sold to Bahakel Broadcasting). Third, it is the only locally owned-and-operated full-power station in the Tri-Cities; however, that is merely by default. Because the antenna heights of the two VHF stations in the market are above the 2,000 feet above average terrain full power ceiling height mandated by the FCC, those two stations cannot operate at their full power capacities (Channels 2-6: 100,000 watts ERP visual, and Channels 7-13: 316,000 watts ERP visual). WCYB-TV, Channel 5 radiates 65,000 watts ERP visual, and WJHL-TV, Channel 11 radiates 245,000 ERP visual).

WKPT-TV was also one of the first stations in the country to utilize a newly-adopted (at the time) FCC rule called "must-carry," that required local cable companies to black out stations in nearby cities affiliated with the same network that were carried on local cable systems, and cover the channel with the local network affiliate. As a result, the easily receivable off-air network signal from WLOS-TV, 80 miles away, was always blacked out on cable systems in Kingsport, Bristol and Johnson City and the surrounding communities and covered by the WKPT-TV signal any time both stations were broadcasting the network; local WLOS programming was not blacked out. After deregulation of the cable industry, stations from adjacent markets were taken off local cable systems altogether, in favor of satellite stations like TBS, WGN, CNN and others. While both WCYB and WJHL received the ABC network via traditional microwave links provided by AT&T back in the 1950s and 1960s, when WKPT signed on the air in 1969, its owners developed their own low-cost way of bringing ABC to upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Before the advent of satellite technology, WKPT utilized a series of private microwave relay stations between Kingsport and Knoxville, Tennessee. As the ABC signal was being transmitted via traditional microwave from AT&T into the studios of then-ABC affiliate WTVK-TV, channel 26 on Sharp's Ridge in Knoxville (now CBS affiliate WVLT-TV, channel 8), WKPT would literally "grab" the telco signal just as it was going into the WTVK studios. It then sent the signal via microwave to a relay station 70 air miles east to Camp Creek Bald on the Tennessee-North Carolina border in southern Greene County, Tennessee. That same ABC signal was then re-transmitted via another WKPT microwave 33 air miles further east to the WKPT transmitter site on Holston Mountain near Elizabethton, Tennessee. From the relay point there, it was transmitted via yet a third WKPT microwave 25 air miles down to the studios in downtown Kingsport, through the station's master control board, and then back to Holston Mountain via the station's regular studio-transmitter link, and then broadcast on Channel 19. If any part of the private microwave relay system malfunctioned, as it did periodically because of heavy snowfall or downed trees, the station was forced to directly rebroadcast WTVK or WLOS, as long as those stations were broadcasting the same ABC program. Occasionally, WKPT accidentally aired those stations' IDs and had to quickly cover them up. When WTVK swapped networks with WATE-TV, WKPT merely moved its Knoxville microwave relay 800 feet west to WATE's transmitter site, also on Sharp's Ridge, and continued to receive ABC via its privately-owned microwave relay system.

WKPT's first branding in the 1970s was "WKPT, Tri-Cities' ABC," which featured the first musical station IDs in the area. That concept was later used by WATE, when that station became an ABC affiliate in 1979.

In 1998, the station rebranded as "ABC 19 WKPT," which marked the first time the station's channel number was actually mentioned on-air since the 1980s.

Newscasts

WKPT-TV's first personalities in the early 1970s included news anchors Martin Karant and Bill Freehoff, and weather-sports with Bill Trailer. These distinguished broadcasters had been popular personalities on WKPT (1400 AM), and made the move to television. Karant continued to hold his position on WKPT-AM until his retirement in 1997.

Until February 2002, WKPT produced news in-house [http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:-0RmTWu2asgJ:www.tvjobs.com/cgi-bin/news/archive.cgi%3Faction%3Ddisplay%26Article%3D63+%22WKPT-TV%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=15&client=firefox-a] . Dead link|date=September 2008 From February 2002 to September 2006, 6pm and 11pm newscasts originated from WJHL-TV and were simulcast on both WJHL and WKPT. In situations where one station was off time (due to network runover or other circumstances), the news was broadcast on the other station at the correct time. As of September 2006, WJHL's nightside broadcast is repeated on WKPT at or around 1:06 AM. Also a 5-minute news and weather summary is provided at 11:30pm to accommodate for the gap between the end of syndicated programming (currently, "TMZ on TV") and the beginning of "Nightline".

Also, WJHL's 12pm weekday newscast is repeated on WAPK on a half-hour delay at 12:30 PM.

Titles

*"The Television 19 News" (1969–1974)
*"TV-19 News" (1974–1981)
*"Newswatch 19" (1981–1994)
*"WKPT-TV News" (1994–1999)
*"WKPT-TV News on ABC 19" (1999–2002)
*"ABC 19 Tri-Cities News Source" (2002-present)

Former Personalities

*Martin Karant, news anchor, 1969-1972 (deceased)
*Bill Freehoff, news director/news anchor, 1969-? (deceased)
*Bill Trailer, sports anchor/weather anchor, 1969-? (deceased)
*Calvin Sneed, news reporter/photographer, (1970's), now news anchor at WTVC-TV, Chattanooga
*Betty Payne, news director/news anchor, (1980's-2002), now at Eastman Chemical Public Relations
*Keith Cate, news reporter/anchor (1990's), now news anchor at WFLA-TV, Tampa

External links

* [http://www.wkpttv.com/ WKPT-TV Homepage]
*TVQ|WKPT
*BIA|WKPT|TV|TV