Calvin Sneed is a freelance anchor for Local 3 News. He joined the team in 2019 and can be seen on occasion anchoring various newscasts.
Calvin will tell you he was born in the Golden Age of Television, the 1950's, 60's, and 70's when shows like "I Love Lucy," "Leave It to Beaver," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Mary Tyler Moore," and "All in the Family" would make you laugh out loud. He credits shows like that with giving him a good sense of humor.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Calvin grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee where his first job was at WKPT Radio and TV anchoring the news on radio and working part-time at the TV station while in high school. After graduating in 1972, he came to Chattanooga to work at WTVC Channel 9 where he worked for three years as a news reporter and photographer while also attending UT-Knoxville.
While at UT-K in 1975, he was hired at WATE-TV Channel 6 in Knoxville that year as a news reporter and anchor. He graduated college in '77 and when he was promoted to co-anchoring the 6 and 11 PM newscasts in 1979, Calvin became the first African-American to ever anchor the main newscasts at a TV station in East Tennessee... even though he's retired now, he still holds that honor 35 years later.
Later, he began co-hosting "PM Magazine" at WATE, which spotlighted the lighter side of the news... he calls that "a four-year vacation."
After Knoxville, Calvin moved on to WSYX-TV Channel 6 in Columbus, Ohio where he was hired as consumer reporter, anchor and talk show co-host. His 6 On Your Side stories received several awards from Ohio state and national consumer advocates for their ability to get money back for people who called the station's hotline. Calvin also co-hosted the first-ever morning talk show in Columbus, which featured movie reviews, TV and movie star interviews and highlighted community happenings in the area.
Calvin got a chance to continue his ability to get consumers the results they were looking for, when he moved back to Chattanooga in 1992, to anchor WTVC's new ConsumerWatch program. Calling the number 6-CALVIN proved very popular because it seemed that all folks had to do was CALL CALVIN to get results, in many cases, just threatening to CALL CALVIN.
It's been estimated that in the 25 years of the ConsumerWatch feature, he was able to recover in excess of $10 million dollars in goods and services and recovered money that people had spent. In the course of those stories, he's been yelled at, spit at, roughed up, cussed out, and at one point even shot at by upset business owners who'd gotten a personal visit from one of Calvin's news cameras.
Calvin was honored by the Tennessee legislature two years ago after an investigation he did, revealed that Tennessee law enforcement departments were forcing drivers pulled over by police, to pay to get their confiscated vehicles back, even when charges were later dropped against those vehicle owners. Calvin found a loophole in the law that allowed the police to force innocent people to pay up, and his series of reports on the practice resulted in a change in the state law that allowed it.
Calvin also anchored the 5, 6 and 11 PM news for many years after the late Bob Johnson retired, and was doing that when he himself retired.
These days, Calvin keeps busy as a bridge photographer. He's the published author of coffee table books featuring bridges that he's photographed. His books became best-sellers at Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
He also keeps busy these days filling in on the news desk at Local 3 News on a part-time basis.
Calvin splits his time between Chattanooga and Kingsport where he also has a residence. He serves on several non-profit boards in both cities, but traveling hundreds of miles to photograph bridges keeps him busy.
You can contact Calvin him using this form.