WDKY-TV

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For the court, see United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
WDKY-TV
WDKY-TV logo.svg
Danville/Lexington, Kentucky
United States
CityDanville, Kentucky
ChannelsDigital: 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 56
BrandingFox 56 (general)
Fox 56 News (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerNexstar Media Group
(Tribune Media Company)
History
First air date
February 10, 1986 (35 years ago) (1986-02-10)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 56 (UHF, 1986–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 4 (VHF, 2001–2009)
  • 31 (UHF, 2009–2019)
Former affiliations
Call sign meaning
Initials for its city of license and postal abbreviation for Kentucky
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID64017
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT351.9 m (1,155 ft)
Transmitter coordinates37°52′50.9″N 84°19′15.9″W / 37.880806°N 84.321083°W / 37.880806; -84.321083
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitefoxlexington.com

WDKY-TV, virtual channel 56 (UHF digital channel 19), is a Fox-affiliated television station serving Lexington, Kentucky, United States that is licensed to nearby Danville. The station is owned by Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group. WDKY-TV's studios are on Euclid Avenue in Lexington's Chevy Chase neighborhood, and its transmitter is located southeast of the city off Interstate 75.

History[]

On December 29, 1982, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a construction permit to Robert Bertram, an attorney, to build a new channel 56 television station at Danville.[1] However, it took more than three years to get the station built. Officials with the Kentucky Airport Zoning Commission fretted over proximity of the proposed Mercer County mast to several aviation facilities,[2] and while the zoning board overruled objections from the aviation community,[3] the FCC refused to approve the site.[4]

With a busy law practice, Bertram found he no longer had time to pursue construction of the station, having already secured an alternative tower site in Garrard County. In 1985, Bertram sold the WDKY construction permit to Backe Communications.[4] Backe set out to build studios in Danville and Lexington,[5] and WDKY-TV began broadcasting on February 10, 1986.[6] It was the first independent station in the Lexington market and became a charter affiliate of Fox later that year.[7]

After several venture capital investors in Backe Communications opted to exit television, owner John Backe reluctantly put WDKY and other stations up for sale. In 1989, Backe agreed to sell the station to the Pruett family of Little Rock, Arkansas, through MMC Television Corporation; the Pruetts cited the station's probability and the demise of its only independent competitor, WLKT (channel 62), which had operated for less than a year.[8] The deal, however, collapsed in March 1990 when the Pruetts failed to arrange the necessary financing.[9] Act III Broadcasting was then retained by Backe as a management consultant with the option to buy a minority stake in the station.[10]

Backe sold WDKY in 1992 to Superior Communications, a company owned by 34-year-old Perry Sook; it was his first TV station property.[11] It took Sook 14 months to find a station to buy and assemble financing to make the deal work.[12] Superior moved the station from its original Lexington base on Interstate Avenue to the Chevy Chase Plaza after signing a lease for the property in 1995.[13] Sook then sold WDKY and KOCB in Oklahoma City to Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996 (Sinclair had purchased the Act III stations two years before, leaving WDKY's sale to them inevitable).[12]

On January 27, 2020, Sinclair announced that it would sell WDKY and the non-license assets of KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas, to Nexstar Media Group as part of a settlement between the two companies over Sinclair's failed acquisition of Tribune Media, which was ultimately acquired by Nexstar.[14] The deal reunited Sook, who had gone on to found Nexstar almost immediately after selling Superior,[12] with the first station he had purchased nearly 30 years prior; it also gave Nexstar its first television station in Kentucky. The transaction was completed on September 17, 2020.[15]

Newscasts[]

On January 2, 1995, CBS affiliate WKYT-TV began producing a nightly 10 p.m. newscast for WDKY, starting a relationship that would last for 27 years.[16] WKYT supplied all of the talent except co-anchor Marvin Bartlett, an employee of WDKY.[17] Within two years, the newscast, which WDKY paid channel 27 to produce, made money.[18] On March 12, 2007, WDKY began airing an hour of news on weekday mornings at 7 a.m., also produced by WKYT.[19]

Under its new Nexstar management, WDKY ended the WKYT arrangement and began to originate its own newscasts, including an expanded morning show (5–9 a.m.) and 6:30 p.m. newscast on January 3, 2022, with the in-house news department launching with the 10 p.m. newscast on January 1, 2022.[20] The new in-house operation gives the station an expanded 29½ hours of locally-produced newscasts a week (with 5½ hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays).

Technical information[]

Subchannels[]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[21]
56.1 720p 16:9 FOX Main WDKY-TV programming / Fox
56.2 480i Rewind Rewind TV
56.3 CHARGE! Charge!
56.4 TBD TBD

WDKY-DT2 was launched in 2011 to serve as an affiliate of TheCoolTV. The subchannel went silent in 2012 due to poor viewership ratings. In 2014, the subchannel was relaunched to serve as an affiliate of GetTV as part of an affiliation deal between GetTV and Sinclair Broadcasting.[22] WDKY-DT2 is also the Lexington market's home for the Conference USA and Ohio Valley Conference sports syndication packages from Sinclair's syndicated sports programming service, the American Sports Network, hence the sub-channel being transmitted in widescreen standard definition.[23]

On January 15, 2016, WDKY announced the launch of Comet on 56.2, dropping GetTV.[24]

In 2015, WDKY-DT3 was launched to serve as an affiliation with another upstart movie network, Grit. WDKY also commented that ASN programming will be shared on 56.3.[25] In early 2017, Grit was dropped and replaced with Sinclair's new network Charge!

In early June 2017, WDKY launched another new network from Sinclair, called TBD, on WDKY-DT4.

Analog-to-digital conversion[]

WDKY-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal moved from its pre-transition VHF channel 4 to UHF channel 31.[26][27] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 56, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

TV spectrum repack[]

WDKY moved its channel allocation from digital channel 31 to 19 at 10:00 a.m. on May 7, 2019, and remains on virtual channel 56.[28]

References[]

  1. ^ Girard, Annabel (January 13, 1983). "FCC issues permit for TV station to be built here". The Advocate-Messenger. Danville, Kentucky. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Witt, Jo (June 7, 1984). "State panel to rule on TV tower". The Advocate-Messenger. Danville, Kentucky. p. 1, 8. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Witt, Jo (June 27, 1984). "State airport panel OKs tower for area TV station". The Advocate-Messenger. Danville, Kentucky. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "New York firm seeks to buy construction permit for TV station". The Advocate-Messenger. Danville, Kentucky. May 22, 1985. p. 3. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Poole, Shelia (July 18, 1985). "Bluegrass will get new TV station". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. A1, A18. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Station off air for several hours". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. February 15, 1986. p. 71. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ White, Susan (July 14, 1986). "Channel 36 buys rights to 'Dr. Ruth Show'". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. B3, B5. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Lexington's WDKY-TV sold to Chicago couple". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. August 9, 1989. p. A1, A7. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ White, Susan; Daykin, Tom (March 24, 1990). "Sale of WDKY-TV falls through because couple lack financing". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. A10. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ White, Susan (April 14, 1990). "Deal with Norman Lear takes WDKY off the market". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. B1, B7. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ White, Susan (May 6, 1992). "Buyer of Fox Channel 56 beginning broadcast group". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. B1, B3. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b c Clarke, Melanie M. (January 23, 2005). "Sook Builds Broadcast Powerhouse". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  13. ^ Crane, Nancy (May 18, 1995). "WDKY-TV moving operations to Lexington's Chevy Chase Plaza". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. C9. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Eggerton, John (January 27, 2020). "Sinclair Pays Nexstar $60M, Some Assets, to Settle Tribune Suit". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on January 28, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  15. ^ "Consummation Notice" Archived October 8, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, September 18, 2020, Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  16. ^ Crane, Nancy (October 7, 1994). "Channel 27 to produce 10 p.m. news on Channel 56". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. B1, B6. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Pack, Todd (April 23, 1996). "Pending sale of WDKY may affect Fox 56 news". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. A6. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ McClellan, Steve (August 19, 1996). "Sinclair makes news moves" (PDF). Broadcasting. pp. 33–34. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  19. ^ Sloan, Scott (May 14, 2007). "Good news met with skepticism". Lexington Herald-Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. p. C1, C10. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "WDKY FOX 56 announces major expansion of local news programming beginning Jan. 1, 2022" (Press release). WDKY. September 17, 2021. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  21. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WDKY". Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  22. ^ "GetTV Signs Big Affiliation Deal with Sinclair" Archived June 13, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. TV NewsCheck. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  23. ^ Murray State @ Southeastern Missouri (October 3, 2015) - American Sports Network Clearance Report Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. From OVCSports.com (Ohio Valley Conference).
  24. ^ WDKY Fox 56 [@FoxLexington] (January 15, 2016). "New science fiction network, Comet, starts today on our sub-channel 56-2" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  25. ^ WDKY Fox 56 [@FoxLexington] (January 15, 2016). "@ehatt493 @UK__JB ASN will share 56-3 with Grit TV" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  27. ^ Sloan, Scott (February 10, 2009)."All but one station delay TV switch" Archived February 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Lexington Herald Leader. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  28. ^ "RabbitEars.Info". Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014.

External links[]

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