Kingsport Times-News from Kingsport, Tennessee • 46

WTVK to switch to VHF frequency wis Cosby III who formerly worked for WJHL-TV Channel 11 Johnson City The new general managernews director will be Don Bagwell another former WJHL-TV staffer Heading the new advertising department will be Earl Taylor former ad director at WKPT-TV Channel 19 Kingsport will be one of the few locally owned VHF television stations in the entire Cosby said in a recent interview with the Times-News think we will continue to upgrade the station and make it competitive with the other two Knoxville VHF stations (WBIR-TV Channel 10 and WATE-TV Channel 6) We will continue to be a CBS-TV Wanzer agreed to stay on as news director through Nov 30 to help with the transition and is not bitter over getting the boot have been through this sort of thing before just he said I know if I to do it again I have no idea what I will do employment-wise A friend is trying to get me to work for his radio station I just feel like we have finally got our TV news team to the point where we are becoming really competitive in the market and now I have to leave sort of like a football player making an 80-yard run to the one-yard line and then some substitute coming in and jumping one yard for the Cosby said the new station will be using a tower which means it will send out a powerful signal in all directions takes two transmitters for such a Cosby added that the station will continue its one-hour local newscast (5:30 to 6:30 pm) but just who will be the on-the-air personalities is not yet set in concrete "Some of our news team people have contracts that we are trying to said Cosby Area television viewers will be missing one of their regular channels for a few days the first of December when WTVK-TV Channel 26 of Knoxville reduces its power in preparation to come back on the air as Channel 8 The station will be operating on very low power from Dec 1 through Dec 4 while workmen put up a new VHF unit on the tower in Knoxville As a result of the temporary power cutback the station will be able to be picked up over the air only by antennas within 20 miles or so of the tower But by Dec 5 the station is expected to be beaming out one of the most powerful VHF (very high frequency) signals in the nation The story of why all this change is taking place is a long one so try to cut it short and give you only the meat and potatoes About 10 years ago the FCG decided to approve four new VHF TV stations nation ally with Knoxville Charleston Va Salt Lake City and Altoona Pa getting the prizes Getting a VHF TV license is-almost akin to winning the lottery: They are media gold mines So naturally there was a big battle to get the license WTVK (South Central Broadcasting) which has been operating as a UHF (ultra high frequency) station was one of the 13 groups applying for the license So was a firm calledTelecorp a group headed by a trio of former Tri-Cities broadcast officials Originally ah FCC administrative law judge decided in 1986 to give the license to Telecorp But South Central (WTVK) appealed and an FCC panel overturned the ruling and said the license should go to WTVK But then Telecorp appealed In September it was announced that the Telecorp group had struck a financial deal with South Central (WTVK) for joint operation of the station But Telecorp would have the authority to operate the station So what that means is that all the high brass at the Knoxville station is being booted out come next month and the Tri-Cities Gang will be calling all the shots Duane Eastvold who had been the pre-sidentgeneral manager at WTVK-TV for some 10 years will be out Dec 1 So will news director Hal WanzeV who has been the WTVK-TV news director for more than 20 years (joining the station from WCYB-TV Channel 5 Bristol in the The new station president will be Le Ken Mink is city editor of the Times-News TV6 Kingsport Times-News Friday November 11 1988.