Dean Littleton Named GM Of WATE Knoxville

Young Broadcasting’s ABC affiliate WATE Knoxville, Tenn. (DMA 61), today appointed Dean Littleton vice president and general manager. He succeeds  Stan Knott, VP-GM of Young’s WKRN Nashville, who had been serving as WATE’s interim general manager.

Littleton, who has deep roots in the Knoxville community, joins WATE from his post as VP-general sales manager of Gray Television’s WVLT Knoxville, the market’s CBS-MNT affiliate.

Prior to joining WVLT in December 2008, Littleton was general sales manager of Gannett’s Denver duopoly of KUSA-KTVD. Earlier, he spent seven years in a similar role at Gannett’s NBC affiliate WBIR Knoxville, which also operated a local 24-hour news channel, Weather Plus and related websites.

Littleton began his TV sales career at NBC affiliate WBIR Knoxville in 1995 as account executive. In 1998, he was promoted to local sales manager development and two years later moved up to GSM. He previously spent six years as a news photographer and editor at the station.

He graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s College of Communications with a degree in broadcast management.