WYMT Were Your Mountain Television Channel

A CBS affiliate in Hazard, Kentucky, WYMT TV channel 57 serves mainly the far eastern part of the Lexington market and parts of neighboring Virginia and West Virginia. The channel is also telecast on the local cable television service in Claiborne County, Tennessee. Lexingtons CBS affiliate, WKYT-TV is considered to be its sister station. Gray Television is the owner of WYMT.

Some counties in southeastern Kentucky could not acquire a television signal over the air, before the commencement of the WYMT channel. All these areas of the county could not get the television signal, even when these were part of the Lexington market. Lexington faces problems in rugged terrain as it is an all-UHF market. As it was a poverty inflicted area, translators were not set up. This, in turn, barred families from buying television sets. Moreover, Bill Gorman a local businessman who served eight terms as mayor of Hazard founded WKYH, which began broadcasting on October 20, 1969 as an NBC affiliate.

Bluegrass, traditional country and Southern Gospel music, local church broadcasts and paid religious programming were telecast in the early years of the station, for the strong cultural and religious preferences of its audience. These programs slowly vanished in the late 1970s. Gorman sold the station in 1985 to Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company, owner of WKYT. The calls were changed by the new owner to WYMT, meaning, We're Your Mountain Television. To match its new sister station, it became a CBS affiliate.

Gray Communications bought WYMT and WKYT in the year 1993 when Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company went bankrupt. The channels visualized itself as community leader, through the operation of a commercial television station in the public interest, by informing and entertaining the viewers with high quality local news and entertainment programs while providing services to help advertisers achieve financial prosperity.

WYMT certifies itself as an individual station and is considered to a semi-satellite of WKYT. Sharing a common website and clearing some of WKYT's syndicated programming, sometimes the stations use the common brand of Kentucky Television. Aoart from WYMT, WLJC-TV and Kentucky Educational Television satellite WKHA are taken to be the only ones to receive over-the-air most of this area.

Sports Overtime is a twice a week sports program broadcast on WYMT on Friday nights and covers high school athletics. The program began airing on Saturdays in the fall of 2006. the show now focuses on local and state college athletics as well as the fan favorite package, The High School Fast Break, a recap of high profile high school games. Wikipedia

WYMT Were Your Mountain Television Channel