In a year likely defined by consolidation in the local TV world, with more power going to the biggest station groups, WKPT is the first casualty.
Holston Valley Broadcasting's Tri-Cities (DMA No. 97) station, licensed to Kingsport, Tenn., is losing its ABC affiliation at the end of the month. Media General, which already owns and operates CBS affiliate WJHL, snagged the affiliation and will launch ABC Tri-Cities on Feb. 1, operating out of Johnson City, Tenn.
WKPT, an ABC affiliate for more than 46 years, is forced to cancel its local news broadcasts and leave the local TV business.
ABC declined to comment.
George Devault, general manager of WKPT and president of Holston Valley Broadcasting, said they had no choice. Retransmission consent fees, which make up nearly half of the station's revenue, pay expenses, fund the news department and provide a modest profit for WKPT despite half of the retrans money going back to ABC. With no ABC affiliation, the station won't have that money to continue producing news, which it brought back in 2013. WKPT, the first digital TV station in state of Tennessee, had aired local news from its birth in 1969 until 2002.
Devault said that about half of the 50-person staff, including the entire news department, will lose their jobs. He led a tearful staff meeting on Monday. Whether they are losing their job or not, in a small company like ours, we're all family, he said. Many of our people have been here for 30 or 40 years.
The current plan is to move MyNetworkTV programming from sister station WAPK over to WKPT, though MyNetworkTV only produces about 10 hours of programming, Devault said. They will also move over their best syndicated content to WKPT.
Negotiations between the station and ABC for a new contract, which was to end on New Year's Eve at midnight, began at the start of October. Devault expected the deliberations to go similar to the way they went five years ago: They start with a very high figure and we would succeed in getting it down a considerable amount. That would not be the case this time around.
ABC opened with a humongous ask of a minimum of $15 million, Devault said. We considered it a monstrously high figure. The station countered with a lower figure - which ABC turned down - then another offer and another offer. Finally, in mid December, the station acquiesced to the initial figure, but ABC's tune immediately changed, Devault said. They got a response a few days later: ABC wanted to look into alternatives.
It wasn't until then that I began to feel there was a serious threat we would lose the affiliation, Devault said.
There was still no deal in place 48 hours before the ball was set to drop - whereby WKPT would lose the affiliation and the New Year's celebration would abruptly cut to an Andy Griffith Show marathon. That programming note elicited a response from ABC: The affiliation was going to WJAL.
The two parties agreed to extend the affiliation for another month, but WKPT's affiliation hopes were dead.
We can bargain and threaten a cable or satellite company to pull our signal, but we're only one station in market 97, Devault said.
Retrans money is so crucial, and small station groups just can't compete with the giants like Media General, which operates 71 stations in 48 markets (and it looks like many more soon), at the negotiating table.
The power is with the big guys. I don't see a rosy future for small family-owned television stations, Devault said. I hate to say it, I think we're moving in that direction faster than I thought we would.
In today's consolidated industry, stations from small or independent groups that fare the best are the ones that are No. 1 in the market, and unfortunately for WKPT, it had only recently returned to producing local news.
Devault said they plan to file a petition to change FCC rules. Currently, FCC rules prohibit one owner from owning two of the top four rated stations in a given market, but nothing preventing one station from having two of the four major networks. Devault is calling on other small stations and groups in similar situations to comment and lobby in their favor.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
In a year likely defined by consolidation in the local TV world, with more power going to the biggest station groups, WKPT is the first casualty.
