WEMT
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| WEMT | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Greeneville/Kingsport/Johnson City, Tennessee Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia |
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| Branding | Fox Tri-Cities |
| Channels | Analog: 39 (UHF) |
| Translators | W43BO Marion VA |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Esteem Broadcasting, LLC (LMA with Bonten Media Group, LLC) (Esteem License Holdings, Inc.) |
| First air date | November 8, 1985 |
| Sister station(s) | WCYB-TV |
| Former callsigns | WETO (1985-1989) |
| Former affiliations | independent (1985-1987) |
| Transmitter Power | 3020 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 795.3 m (both) |
| Facility ID | 40761 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.foxtricities.com |
- For the acronym of WEMT, see Wilderness emergency medical technician.
WEMT channel 39 is an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company for the Tri-Cities area, with the transmitter located in Greene County, Tennessee and studios in Bristol, Virginia.
[edit] History
WEMT began operations on November 8, 1985 as WETO-TV, owned by East Tennessee's Own, Inc. Prior to WETO's sign on, channel 19 was occupied by a translator for WKPT-TV. The station had a general entertainment format of cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, and religious programming. In 1987, WETO-TV was sold to the TVX Broadcast Group[citation needed], and on May 3, 1987 became an affiliate of the Fox network. WETO-TV was again sold in May 1988 to MT Communications, named for and headed by Michael Thompson. The station was renamed WEMT, originally used by Bangor, Maine ABC affiliate WVII-TV, and began using those call letters on November 29, 1989.[1] MT Communications also purchased WCAY-TV (renamed WXMT, now WUXP-TV) in Nashville and WMKW-TV (renamed WLMT) in Memphis at the same time.
All three MT stations were Fox affiliates, but Fox had a group deal with TVX stipulating that any underperforming stations TVX sold could lose their Fox affiliation. While WXMT and WLMT lost their Fox affiliations to competing stations in the market, the lack of competing independent stations in the market resulted in WEMT retaining its Fox affiliation.[citation needed]
In 1992, Mass Media Communications acquired WEMT and WLMT, and in 1996 the stations were again sold to Max Media Properties, LLC. WEMT was acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2000 (this partially reunited the station with WXMT/WUXP, which was sold separately in the early 1990s and by then was managed by Sinclair's WZTV).
WEMT's digital signal on channel 38 began operations in 2001.
WEMT's local newscast, Fox Tri-Cities News at 10 started on September 19, 2005 and is produced by WCYB-TV. Originally a half-hour long, it was expanded to an hour on September 11, 2006.
On February 8, 2006, Sinclair sold WEMT to Aurora Broadcasting, Inc. [2]
In mid-December 2006, as a result of Bluestone Television's acquisition by Bonten Media Group, Esteem Broadcasting acquired Aurora's stock in the station, counting as a sale. Esteem would then pay USD$1.4 million in outstanding debt.
[edit] News personalities
- Rebecca Pepin, News Anchor/ Reporter
- Paul Johnson, News Anchor/ Sports Anchor
- Dave Dierks, Chief Meterologist
- Marcus Lynch, Meterologist
- David Boyd, Weekend Meteorologist/ Reporter
- Jenna Herb, Fill-in Weekend Sports Anchor
- Preston Ayres, Reporter/Fill-In Weekend News Anchor
- Leslie Almaroad, Reporter
- Jim Conrad, Project Family Reporter
- Sheridan Crockett, Reporter/ Fill-In Anchor
- Kathy Park, Reporter
- Sherrie Evans, Weekend News Anchor
- Angela Yingling, Reporter
- Velden Linn, Reporter
[edit] External links
- Fox Tri-Cities
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WEMT
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WEMT-TV
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