verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message not to be confused with wtae tv or weta tv . wate tv knoxville tennessee united states branding wate 6 general 6 news newscasts slogan on your side channels digital 26 uhf virtual 6 psip subchannels 6.1 abc 6.2 gettv 6.3 laff affiliations abc primary since 1979 ; secondary 1953 1956 owner media general sale to nexstar broadcasting group pending young broadcasting of knoxville inc. first air date october 1 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 10 01 former callsigns wrol tv 1953 1955 former channel number s analog 6 1953 2009 former affiliations nbc 1953 1979 transmitter power 930 kw height 529.2 m facility id 71082 transmitter coordinates 36 0 12.8 n 83 56 34 w 36.003556 n 83.94278 w 36.003556 ; 83.94278 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wate.com wate tv is the abc affiliated television station for east tennessee licensed to knoxville . it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 26 or virtual channel 6.1 via psip from a transmitter on sharp s ridge in north knoxville . the station can also be seen on charter channel 13 in sd 713 in hd as well as comcast channel 13 in sd 1006 in hd knology channel 901 and at & t u verse channel 6 . owned by media general wate has studios in the greystone mansion on north broadway sr 33 sr 71 us 441 . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 5 former on air staff 6 references 7 external links history edit channel 6 was east tennessee s first television station signing on the air at 8 pm on 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 91 m tower of wjhl tv in johnson city ironically now a sister station to channel 6 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 240 m 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 insurance executive paul mountcastle and a small group of investors along with wrol am 950 . at the time mountcastle was chairman of the board of the life and casualty insurance company of tennessee of nashville which signed on wlac tv now wtvf in that city in 1954 . 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 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 . channel 6 opted to fill its non network schedule with local programming a 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 . john reese 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 wtvk 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 second antenna tower on house mountain in 1965 for better coverage . the station used a rather ingenious way to force its chief rival station to build a 1 751 foot 534 m tower on zachary ridge instead of on the much higher house mountain . wate simply purchased all of the property on the top of house mountain from the lot owners . with no property for the tower base on the mountain wbir had no choice but to spend millions of dollars more to build a taller tower on much shorter zachery ridge two years later . 1 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 at am 620 . the self supporting tower on sharp s ridge was dismantled in 1975 when the station built a 1 153 foot 351 m broadcasting tower alongside it . that tower was dismantled in july 2016 owing to a newer 1 525 foot 465 m multi plexed tower built beside it . the taller tower is owned by american towers inc. in september 1979 wate swapped its nbc affiliation with wtvk and became an abc affiliate . the preceding decade saw the abc television network become the highest rated in the country and abc wanted a stronger station in knoxville . at the time wate was the market leader with a strong vhf signal in east 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 east tennessee and southeastern kentucky treated abc as though it were a new television network which it was anything but at the time ; some of them would not see nbc again until 1988 when wbir tv joined that network ; more or less by default cbs was no longer seen in their households after 1988 when it became an affiliate of wtvk which coincided with its call letter change to wkxt tv ; it s now known as wvlt tv . 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 abc affiliated 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 and the new company was renamed new young broadcasting inc. 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 wlns tv in lansing michigan and kron tv in san francisco . gray was not allowed to operate wate or wlns because it also owns wvlt in the knoxville market and wilx tv in lansing . young broadcasting merged with media general on november 12 2013 . 2 digital television edit digital channel edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 6.1 720p 16 9 wate dt main wate tv programming abc 6.2 480i 4 3 wate sd gettv 6.3 laff wate tv carried the country network on its second subchannel in late 2010 until november 1 2011 when wate tv s parent company new young broadcasting terminated its deal with tcn and dropped the channel on all of its stations . subchannel 6.2 was relaunched on june 1 2012 with the addition of live well network but was deactivated again on may 30 2015 . the subchannel is expected to be reactivated at a future date featuring programming from the all comedy network laff the result of an affiliation deal between media general and laff s owner katz broadcasting . 4 on february 1 2016 gettv began rolling out after a deal with media general and sony pictures tv . 5 analog to digital conversion edit wate tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 6 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 26 . 6 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 6 . programming edit syndicated programming on wate tv includes live with kelly and michael judge judy the wendy williams show the rachael ray show and family feud among others . during the month of august wate broadcasts tennessee titans preseason football games regionally syndicated by sister station and fellow abc affiliate wkrn tv nashville . news operation edit although wate may not have always been a ratings powerhouse in eastern tennessee it has been the leader in other areas . in the late 1960s it assembled the popular on air team of news anchor pete gardener weathercaster margie ison and sports director mike thurman . this move resulted in the station slowly making inroads into the ratings dominant wbir which was the overall market leader at the time . in the early 1970s sam brown joined wate as news anchor and the group of sam mike and margie subsequently became the most well known on air personality team in knoxville . by the mid 1970s after the previous changes had been in place for a while all of the station s newscasts were ranked number one in their respective time periods . also at this point it was the first outlet to update its newsroom technology with a switch from film to videotape i.e. electronic journalism as well as own and operating a live microwave truck to assist in newsgathering purposes . the station was knoxville s first to utilize a helicopter known as chopper 6 for on air coverage . in 1977 wate debuted the market s first local newscasts seen on saturday evenings featuring anchor art powell kay elliott providing weather forecasts and calvin sneed with sports headlines . this was followed in 1978 by the launch of knoxville s original midday newscast at noon with calvin sneed adding the show to his anchoring duties . later that year he would be promoted to weekend news anchor in order to welcome the area s first local newscasts seen on sunday nights . in 1979 wate promoted sneed to become the first african american to co anchor