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Chris Clark (real name Chris Botsaris; born December 9, 1938 [1] ) is the former lead news anchor at WTVF in Nashville, Tennessee. Clark's tenure at WTVF began in 1966 (then known as WLAC-TV), and lasted until his retirement on May 23, 2007. His 41 years at WTVF makes him one of the longest-tenured anchors in American television history. Clark also served as the station's News Director during the earlier years of his career. [2]
Clark was born as Chris Botsaris on December 9, 1938, in Atlanta, Georgia. The grandson of Greek immigrants (his parents were both American-born Greeks), he graduated from North Fulton High School in 1957. [3] As a teenager he worked bussing tables at his father's Eagle Café, across the street from the offices of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Chris heard colorful stories from the reporters that frequented the restaurant, and decided to become a reporter himself, graduating from the University of Georgia's School of Journalism in 1962. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. He was asked to change his last name from Botsaris to Clark before joining WALB in Albany, Georgia in 1961, and would go on to anchor and report the news at WAII-TV in Atlanta (now WXIA-TV) from 1964 to 1966, until an executive from WTVF (then called WLAC-TV) invited him to Nashville to interview for lead news anchor. He would serve as lead news anchor from 1966 until his retirement on May 23, 2007.
Among the countries documented in his reporting: Somalia, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Israel, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
He also was involved in a crisis situation when Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington called him in to mediate the release of hostages held by an inmate at the state penitentiary.
During his time as news director at WTVF, he was a part of the station's conversion from film to electronic news coverage. Shortly before his retirement the station became the first in the Nashville market to broadcast in High Definition.
As chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee, Chris played a role in convincing the Tennessee Supreme Court to allow an experiment with cameras in the court. That experiment persuaded the justices to allow cameras in state courts.
He is currently a teacher at Middle Tennessee State University in the Media and Mass Communication Colleges.
Clark won the 1993 Emmy from the Middle Tennessee chapter of NATAS for a lifetime achievement in broadcast journalism and also the Associated Press "Broadcaster of the Year" award.
Clark was a longtime member of the Downtown Rotary Club. His fellow members honored him in 1994-95 by electing him president of the club. Since his retirement, he has moved his Rotary membership to the Brentwood area chapter.
He has worked for decades on behalf of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. Clark spent 8 years as president of the Parish Council.
During his tenure as president, Holy Trinity constructed its church and fellowship hall on Franklin Road. It is the only example of Byzantine architecture in Middle Tennessee.[ citation needed ]
Lawrence Harry Munson was an American sports announcer and talk-show host based out of the U.S. city of Athens, Georgia. He was best known for handling radio play-by-play of University of Georgia Bulldogs football games from 1966 to 2008. He also handled the play-by-play for UGA basketball and Atlanta Falcons radio broadcasts and hosted sports-related talk shows.
WSM is a 50,000-watt clear channel AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. It broadcasts a full-time country music format at 650 kHz and is known primarily as the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the world's longest running radio program. The station's clear channel signal can reach much of North America and nearby countries, especially late at night. It is one of two clear-channel stations in North America, along with CFZM in Toronto, that still primarily broadcast music; as recently as 2020, the station was live and locally originated during the overnight hours, but the overnight host position was eliminated in February 2020. Nicknamed "The Air Castle of the South," it spawned two sister stations on newer mediums: WSM-FM, which signed off in 1951 (WSM bought a different FM station in the 1960s which now has the WSM-FM callsign; and television Channel 4, which was later sold separately. The current WSM-FM is no longer affiliated with WSM, while the owners of WSMV and WSM jointly operate the television network Circle, which airs on a subchannel of WSMV and simulcasts portions of the Opry with WSM. WSM is owned by Opry Entertainment Group, a joint venture of Ryman Hospitality Properties, NBCUniversal and Atairos.
WLAC is a commercial radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts a talk radio format. The studios are in Nashville's Music Row district. It identifies itself as "TalkRadio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC" using the dial position of its FM translator at 98.3 MHz, as well as its AM frequency.
WMC-TV is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Television. Its studios are located on Union Avenue in midtown Memphis, and its transmitter is located in northeast Memphis, near the suburb of Bartlett, Tennessee.
WSMV-TV is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD. The two stations share studios on Knob Road in west Nashville, where WSMV-TV's transmitter is also located.
WTVF is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV. WTVF's studios are located on James Robertson Parkway in downtown Nashville, and its transmitter is located north of downtown along I-24 near Whites Creek.
WATE-TV is a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located in the Greystone mansion on North Broadway/SR 33/SR 71/US 441, and its transmitter is located on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville.
WNRQ is an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, broadcasting on a frequency of 105.9 MHz. Owned and operated by iHeartMedia, it serves counties in northern middle Tennessee and southern central Kentucky. The station's studios are located in Nashville's Music Row district and the transmitter site is located in Brentwood, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb.
The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is a constituent college of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States. Established in 1915, Grady College offers undergraduate degrees in journalism, advertising, public relations, and entertainment and media studies, and master's and doctoral programs of study. Grady has consistently been ranked among the top schools of journalism education and research in the U.S.
John R. was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame in the 1950s and 1960s for playing rhythm and blues music on Nashville radio station WLAC. He was also a notable record producer and artist manager.
Hope Hines is the former Sports Director at WTVF in Nashville, Tennessee.
John Spencer Palmer was an American news correspondent, television broadcaster and news anchor for NBC News.
Bob Neal is an American sportscaster.
John H Ward was an American sportscaster, best known as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the University of Tennessee (UT), primarily from 1965 until 1999, and known to fans as the "Voice of the Vols".
WGAU is a radio station licensed to serve Athens, Georgia, United States, that broadcasts a news/talk format. The transmitter is located at the studios in Five Points.
Harry Edwin Chapman was a news anchor at WTVF CBS (NewsChannel5) in Nashville, Tennessee for 35 years before retiring in 2006. He was a long time co-host of the midday CBS show "Talk of the Town" and hosted "Words and Music" on NewsChannel5+.
The Vanderbilt Television News Archive, founded in August 1968, maintains a library of televised network news programs. It is a unit of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library of Vanderbilt University, a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news.
David Crabtree is an American award-winning journalist, former television news anchor, and television executive. He served as the lead anchor of WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina for much of his 28 years at the network through 2022. Following a forty year career in television reporting, he was named the CEO of PBS North Carolina. Crabtree has won 16 Emmy awards, is a recipient of the North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and is a member of the NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame.
Bart Walker III is an American radio personality and broadcast owner from Tennessee. He is the CEO of WGNS Radio in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Murfreesboro is listed as the tenth fastest growing city in the United States.
Ruth Ann Harnisch is an American investor, activist, philanthropist, writer, and coach. A former news anchor and radio talk-show host, according to Forbes she was "one of the first women to anchor evening news, and had an award winning career in radio and print media." Her on-air reporting for WTVF-TV in Nashville, Tennessee resulted in an Emmy nomination, after which she opened a pro bono coaching practice as a professional coach. Harnisch founded and is president of the Harnisch Foundation, through which she founded programs such as Awesome Without Borders, SupporTED, and Funny Girls. Among other grants, the institution has funded the formation of the coaching department at McLean Hospital and the journalism departments at Kennesaw State University and Baruch College. Earning the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Coaching in 2016, the year prior MSNBC named her one of "11 women's rights activists you should know." She has served as an executive producer on films such as Unrest,The Hunting Ground, The House of Tomorrow, Columbus, Love the Sinner, and Lucky.
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