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WVLT-TV
Knoxville, Tennessee
Branding	Volunteer TV
Channels	8 (VHF) analog, 30 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS (1953-56 and since 1988) MyNetworkTV (DT2)
Owner	Gray Television
Founded	October 1, 1953 on channel 26 (moved to channel 8 in 1988)
Call letters meaning	VoLunteer TV
Former callsigns	WSKT-TV (1953-54) WTVK (1954-88) WKXT-TV (1988-97)
Former affiliations	ABC (1953-79, secondary until 1956) DuMont (secondary, 1953-55), NBC (1980-87), UPN on DT2 until 9/06
Website	volunteertv.com

WVLT-TV, "Volunteer TV" is an affiliate of the CBS television network, serving Knoxville, Tennessee, the 60th DMA in America according to Nielsen Media Research. The station is owned and operated by Gray Television. Its transmitter is located in Knoxville.

The station also operates a MyNetworkTV affiliate My VLT2 on its DT2 digital sub-channel. WVLT DT2 use to be an affiliate with UPN and was branded as UPN Knoxville.

WVLT is the only station in the Knoxville market to have news bureaus servicing specific areas of the market. It operates bureaus in Anderson and Blount counties. The station also touts itself as having the only mid-afternoon newscast in Knoxville (FIRST at 4:00) and the only early evening newscast (Volunteer TV News at 7:00).

Contents 1 History 2 News reporters and journalists 2.1 News Anchors 2.2 Sports 2.3 News Reporters 2.4 Weather 2.5 Miscellaneous 3 Current Newscast Info 3.1 Newscasts 4 Past Newscast Info 4.1 Past Newscast Titles 4.2 Past Personalities 5 See also 6 External links

WVLT-TV debuted on October 1, 1953 as WSKT-TV, on channel 26. It was Tennessee's first UHF station, and the second television station in East Tennessee; it signed on a few hours after WROL-TV (channel 6, now WATE-TV. The station was a CBS affiliate, but also shared ABC programming with WROL-TV.

Channel 26 found the going difficult at first, since television manufacturers weren't required to build in UHF tuning capability at the time. Viewers needed an expensive converter to watch WSKT, and even then the picture quality was marginal at best. In addition, UHF signals at the time usually did not carry very well over rugged terrain. In 1954, the station's original owners sold the station to South Central Communications, a radio company in Evansville, Indiana; who changed its calls to WTVK.

When WBIR-TV signed on in 1956 and took the CBS affiliation, WTVK became a full-time ABC affiliate. In 1979, the station changed affiliations from ABC to NBC, swapping affiliations once again with WATE-TV.

In 1988, the station changed affiliations from NBC to CBS, swapping affiliations with WBIR-TV; shortly afterward the station changed its calls to WKXT-TV and moved to channel 8, one of the last remaining VHF channel allocations in the U.S. It became one of the few stations in America to have been an affiliate of all "Big 3" networks. South Central sold the station to Knoxville Channel 8, LP in 1992. It changed its callsign again to WVLT-TV in 1997 after Gray Television bought the station.

• Alan Williams - Lead Anchor
• Kelli Parker - Lead Anchor
• Bob Yarbrough - Morning Anchor
• Stacy McCloud - Morning Anchor
• Mark Packer - FIRST at 4:00 Anchor
• Jessa Goddard - Noon Anchor, 7:00 Anchor
• Gordon Boyd - Weekend Anchor
• Kim Bedford - Weekend Anchor

• Rick Russo - Sports Director
• Mark Packer
• Justin Kropff
• Daryl Hobby

• Gordon Boyd
• Kim Bedford
• Whitney Daniel
• Allison Hunt
• Gary Loe
• Stephen McLamb (Blount County Bureau Chief)

• Craig Edwards
• Scott Blalock
• Allison Hunt

• Walter Lambert (TV Chef)
• Shirley Nash-Pitts (Consumer Expert)

• East Tennessee This Morning (5:30 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.)
• Volunteer TV News at Noon (12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.)
• FIRST at 4:00 (4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.)
• Volunteer TV NewsHour (5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.)
• Volunteer TV News at 7:00 (7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.)
• Volunteer TV News NightWATCH (11:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.)

• First Edition News (Mid 1970s-Late 1970s)
• Metro 26 News (Late 1970s-Early 1980s)
• NewsCenter 26 (Early 1980s-1986)
• WTVK NewsCenter (1986-1988)
• News 8 (1988-1997)
• NewsChannel 8 (1997-1998)
• Volunteer News (1998-2001 or 2002)
• Volunteer TV News (2002-2006)

• Monte Janssen (Reporter)
• Melinda Kramer (Reporter)
• Allen Denton (Anchor)
• Sam Brown (Anchor)
• Elda Brown (Anchor)
• Cheryl Masur (Anchor)
• Kathryn Norton (Anchor)
• Kent Blackwelder (Noonday)
• Don Bagwell (News Director)
• Ralph Boston (Sports Director)
• Don Carson (Weather)
• Stan Cotton (Sports)
• Ron Sprowl (Anchor)
• Jennifer Julian (Anchor)
• Jim Hampton (Anchor/reporter)
• John Lomax (Anchor/reporter)
• David Sharp (Sports)
• Russ Greene (Reporter)
• Russell Walker (Reporter)
• Johnny Mountain (Weather) now at KCBS-TV
• Kim Sims Thomas (Noonday)
• Phil Ranney, Anchor
• Jim (Big Jim) Hess, (Sports)
• Brenda Burch (Anchor)
• Lisa Stearns (Reporter)
• Rusty Ensor (Sports anchor)
• Topper Shutt (Weather anchor)
• Norman Hammitt (Anchor)
• Rob Scobey (Anchor/reporter)
• Mike Raita (Sports anchor)
• Heather Burgiss (Reporter) now at North Carolina PBS
• Becky Colaw (Reporter)

• Gray Television

• WVLT Website
• WVLT DT2 "My East TN TV" Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVLT-TV

Broadcast television in the Knoxville market  (Nielsen DMA #58)
WETP 2/WKOP 15 (PBS) - WKXE-LP 4 (IND) - WATE 6 (ABC) - WVLT 8 (CBS) (My Network TV on DT2) - WBIR 10 (NBC) - WFEM 12 (FamilyNet/A1) - W14CX 14 (IND) - WBXX 20 (The CW) - WJZC-LP 22/WEZK-LP 28 (IND) - WEEE-CA 32 (FamilyNet) - WDTT-LP 38 (A1) - WTNZ 43 (FOX) (The Tube on DT2) - W46DC 46 (TBN) - WVLR 48 (CTN) - W50CG 50 (3ABN) - WPXK 54 (ION)
Local digital television channels
WMAK 7 (IND)
Significantly Viewed Out-of-Market Broadcast Stations Reception may vary by geographical location WLOS 13 (ABC, Asheville) - WYMT 57 (CBS, Hazard, KY)