Knoxville and East Tennessee television news trailblazer Calvin Sneed to share his story
In recognition of Black History Month programming, the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists will host a Zoom presentation with Calvin Sneed, the first Black journalist to anchor the main newscasts at television stations in East Tennessee. WATE-TV anchor and reporter Tearsa Smith will conduct the interview with Sneed.
The event is open to the public and will be held Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 12 p.m. Eastern via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84761732470.
Smith will cover Sneed’s 48 years as a trailblazer in television news. Time permitting, a period for questions will be available within the hour. A retired senior news anchor and chief investigative reporter at WTVC-TV NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga, Sneed currently serves as a freelance news anchor at WRCB-TV Local 3 News in Chattanooga.
A pioneer for Black broadcasters in East Tennessee, Sneed worked in the TV markets of Knoxville, Chattanooga and the Tri-Cities of Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol beginning in the 1970s.
In Knoxville, Sneed was a news reporter, photographer and anchor at WATE-TV Channel 6 for the morning news and weather anchor, weekend sports anchor, noon news anchor and weekend news anchor. When promoted to co-anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts in 1979, he became the first Black journalist to anchor the main newscasts at a television station in East Tennessee.
Sneed fondly remembers his years at WATE.
“Not a single day goes by that I don’t reminisce about working at WATE-TV,” Sneed said. “In 55 years, the 10 years I spent in Knoxville were the most fun years I’ve had in television. Good, stable TV station, TV viewers that were easy to tell the news to, a station with powerful standing in the community, pretty good networks (NBC, then ABC) and a station management staff that genuinely liked you and wanted to keep you around.”
Sneed also worked with Margie Ison, a legendary broadcaster in East Tennessee who died last week at the age of 84, and Sports Director Mike Thurman and anchor Sam Brown
“Back then, we had the best anchor team in all of East Tennessee in ‘Sam, Mike and Margie,’ ” Sneed said. “It’s also poignant for me that we are now saying goodbye to that wonderful Margie Ison. To borrow a line from Don Henley, Margie could tell you about thunderstorms coming around the plateau ‘with a gleam in her eye.’
“She was a treasure to work with, and one of the last true icons of Knoxville television. I was fortunate to join the ‘Sam, Mike and Margie’ team right in the middle of its heyday, and they and the staff made this skinny, Black kid from Kingsport with the big Afro part of the family. And in East Tennessee, no less!”
Sneed grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, where in 1969, his first job was at Holston Valley Broadcasting’s WKPT Radio and TV at the age of 15. He anchored the radio news breaks and worked part-time in production-master control at the TV station.
After high school in 1972, he worked for three years at WTVC-TV as a news reporter and photographer and 11 p.m. producer, while also attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In 1986, Sneed moved to the Columbus, Ohio, television market where he worked as consumer reporter and anchor.
After six years, he returned to Chattanooga in 1992 to WTVC-TV to anchor NewsChannel 9’s new ConsumerWatch program. Calling the number 6-C-A-L-V-I-N became popular, because all folks had to do was CALL CALVIN to get results, sometimes just by threatening to call the number. It’s been estimated that from 1986 to 2007, Sneed was able to recover in excess of $10 million in goods and services.
Sneed was honored by the Tennessee Legislature with a proclamation after an investigation revealed that law enforcement departments were forcing drivers pulled over by police to pay to get their confiscated vehicles even after charges were later dropped. Sneed found a loophole in the law that allowed police to force people to pay, and his series of reports resulted in a change in state law.
For 15 years in Chattanooga, Sneed anchored the noon and 5:30 p.m. news in addition to consumer reporting. When NewsChannel 9’s main news anchor Bob Johnson retired in 2007, Calvin took the duties of 5, 6 and 11 p.m. news anchor at WTVC for the next 10 years.
In 2017, after 48 full-time years in the business, 25 of those at WTVC in Chattanooga, Sneed retired. In 2024, he was named one of Chattanooga’s Business Elite and honored with the Homage Award.
When not freelancing for WRCB-TV, Sneed is an avid “bridge hunter,” traveling hundreds of miles across the eastern United States, particularly the South, to photograph and document important steel truss bridges and concrete arch bridges before they’re destroyed. He’s visited hundreds of bridges and taken thousands of pictures and is the author of three coffee table books of bridge pictures and facts.
He also is a frequent speaker about bridges to historical organizations, high schools and civic groups. His columns on historic steel truss and concrete arch bridges run in newspapers in upper East Tennessee.
Sneed’s news philosophy hasn’t changed from his broadcasting days in Knoxville.
“Television doesn’t have icons anymore,” Sneed said. “They’re not deemed necessary. They seem to feel that anchor people who tell you what’s been happening in your life ALL of your life, can’t make the jump to digital streaming, podcasts and wristwatches.
“Somehow, making the jump to digital means you must leave your personality behind. Not me, though. Even while free-lance anchoring here in Chattanooga, you get the same Calvin … he hasn’t changed from year to year, format to format, and he’ll drive you crazy in a good way if you give him time!”
