The original owners sold it in 1954 to Indiana-based radio company South Central Broadcasting, who changed channel 26's call letters to WTVK two years later.

After years of continued struggles in the ratings, Gray Television purchased the station in 1996; the new owners changed the call sign to WVLT-TV.

Harold H. Thoms and J. Horton Doughton, doing business as Television Services of Knoxville, applied with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on August 25, 1952, to build a new television station on Knoxville's channel 26; the application for a construction permit was granted on March 25, 1953, after W. R. Tuley—who had filed a competing bid for the channel[2]—merged his application with the Thoms-Doughton group.

[4][5] A site on Sharp's Ridge previously used by radio station WROL's shuttered FM operation was secured for use by the new channel 26.

[6] WROL and competing channel 6 applicant WKGN merged their bids in July, and the race was suddenly on to be first to air in Knoxville and East Tennessee.

[11] In 1954, Television Services of Knoxville sold the station to another Evansville–based concern, South Central Broadcasting; Tuley cited the need to devote time to his other business ventures in the Midwest as a factor in selling.

[12] Additionally, Television Services of Knoxville had been struggling financially, to the point that Tuley, Thoms, and Doughton had seriously considered shutting channel 26 down.

He also revealed that the 1954 sale by Television Services of Knoxville came as the firm was facing financial losses and weighing closing the station.

[19] One part of Engelbrecht's prediction came true; when WBIR-TV signed on, it immediately took the CBS affiliation, leaving WTVK with ABC.

WTVK protested and appealed the decision in federal court, further pointing out that it was not able to compete effectively with channels 6 and 10 and that some advertisers did not want to buy time on a UHF station.

[25] WTVK applied in late 1965 for a further power increase to 812,000 watts,[3] the same week that another company proposed installing a 1,000,000-watt station on channel 14.

[3] Another VHF drop-in proposal that would have put channel 8 in Knoxville was floated in 1975 by the FCC at the request of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy, but nothing emerged from this.

[35] A group known as the "Organizing Committee", led by James R. Martin, was one of the most active suitors early on; WTVK, at that time in the middle of its increase to 5,000,000 watts, initially stayed out of the fray.

[38] After more than three years, an FCC administrative law judge gave the initial nod to Tennessee Telecorp, Inc., owned by two employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority (with Olympic athlete Ralph Boston as a minority stockholder), in September 1985; the Telecorp application was selected based on media diversity and integration of staff and management.

[44] The arrangement was finalized and announced on September 12, 1988, ending an eight-year contest for channel 8 and 33 years after the idea of moving WTVK to VHF was first floated.

The new channel 8 would retain most of WTVK's employees, though Telecorp would mostly take over operations; its management team included three former officials at stations in the neighboring Tri-Cities market.

[48] After the network considered going to WATE-TV, CBS and WTVK reached an affiliation deal a month later,[49] with the change taking place on September 10.

NBC president Pierson Mapes revealed that the delay in moving WTVK from UHF to VHF was a factor, as was WBIR-TV's dominance in local news.

[50] After a delay attributed to faulty connectors in the antenna and high winds,[51] the new channel 8 went on the air at 4 p.m. on December 8, 1988, under the call letters WKXT-TV.

[55] The new studio site was chosen to be more efficient and closer to advertisers, and South Central, which owned the property, was purchasing radio stations in Knoxville and planning on moving them into the former channel 26 building.

[58]) The new owners changed the call sign to the current WVLT-TV on February 10, 1997, as part of a major investment in the station and its news product.

[59] WVLT-TV began programming a secondary service as a digital subchannel in 2004: "UPN Knoxville", which replaced prior low-power carrier WEEE-LP.

Facing an advertising slump, in 1991, channel 8 axed its 11 p.m. weeknight and weekend newscasts and fired 10 staffers; morning cut-ins and the noon and early evening programs were maintained.

[77][78] As part of the SAFER Act, WVLT-TV kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.