WVLT-TV  WVLT-TV, virtual channel 8 (UHF digital channel 34), is a dual CBS/MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television, as part of a duopoly with Crossville-licensed CW affiliate WBXX-TV (channel 20). The two stations share studios on Papermill Drive (near I-40/I-75) on the west side of Knoxville; WVLT-TV's transmitter is located on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville. On cable, the station is available on Charter Spectrum channel 8, Comcast Xfinity channel 6, WOW! channel 5, and AT&T U-Verse channel 8. WVLT-TV debuted on October 18, 1953 as WTSK-TV on channel 26. It was Tennessee's first UHF station, and the second television station in East Tennessee, signing on just a few hours after WROL-TV in Knoxville (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 (it wasn't until the passing of the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1962 that all TVs were required to have them built in). Viewers needed an expensive converter to watch WTSK, and even then the picture quality was marginal at best. In addition, most of East Tennessee is very mountainous, and UHF signals at the time usually did not carry very well over its rugged terrain. In 1954, the station's original owners, Television Services of Knoxville, sold the station to South Central Communications, a radio company in Evansville, Indiana, who changed its calls to WTVK, standing for We're TeleVision in Knoxville. When WBIR-TV signed on in 1956 and took the CBS affiliation, WTVK became a full-time ABC affiliate. However, it spent most of the next 20 years as a very distant third in the ratings. While this was due in part to ABC being a much weaker network (it wouldn't be on par with CBS and NBC in terms of programming until the 1970s), another problem was the aforementioned terrain issue. Many viewers didn't get a clear signal from channel 26 until cable arrived in Knoxville in the 1970s. In fact, many viewers got a better signal from WLOS-TV (channel 13) in Asheville, North Carolina; WLOS' transmitter is located almost east of Knoxville.