WDKY-TV

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. Its transmitter is located southeast of Lexington. Owned by the Nexstar Media Group, the station has offices on Euclid Avenue in Lexington's Chevy Chase neighborhood but broadcasts newscasts from the studios of Gray Television-owned CBS affiliate WKYT-TV (channel 27) on Winchester Road.

For the court, see United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
WDKY-TV
Danville/Lexington, Kentucky
United States
CityDanville, Kentucky
ChannelsDigital: 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 56 (PSIP)
BrandingFox 56 (general)
Fox 56 News (newscasts)
SloganLexington's Fox
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerNexstar Media Group
(Tribune Media Company)
History
FoundedMarch 7, 1983
First air date
February 10, 1986 (1986-02-10)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 56 (UHF, 1986–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 4 (VHF, 2003–2009)
  • 31 (UHF, 2009–2019)
Call sign meaning
Danville, 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
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitefoxlexington.com

WDKY-TV is available in the Lexington area on Charter Spectrum channels 7 (SD) and 910 (HD). Cable subscribers in Frankfort can view WDKY on Frankfort Plant Board channels 5 (SD) and 505 (HD).[1]

History

WDKY began broadcasting on February 10, 1986 as an independent station. The station was founded by John D. Backe. For a few months, WDKY and then-independent station WLKT (now off the air) competed with each other for the best programming and movies and even airing the Independent Network News. On October 9, 1986, the station became a charter affiliate of Fox. The station began operating from studio facilities located at 434 Interstate Avenue in Lexington. Backe sold WDKY to the MMC Television Corporation in 1989. MMC in turn sold the station to Superior Communications in 1992. In 1996, the station relocated to its current studios on Euclid Avenue in Lexington's Chevy Chase neighborhood. That same year, WDKY and sister station KOCB in Oklahoma City were both acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

On May 15, 2012, Sinclair and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's 19 Fox stations, including WDKY-TV, that ran through 2017.[2]

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.[3] While WDKY would be Nexstar's first property licensed within the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the company's founder, Perry Sook, was once a principal of Superior Communications, making the sale of WDKY to Nexstar a homecoming of sorts. WDKY would also become a sister station with several properties that serve various portions of the state, including WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, WOWK-TV in Charleston, West Virginia, and WEHT and WTVW in Evansville, Indiana (those stations maintain facilities across the Ohio from Evansville in Henderson, Kentucky). In addition, Media General, a company Nexstar acquired in 2017, owned Lexington ABC affiliate WTVQ-DT (channel 36) from 1997 to 2008. The transaction was completed on September 17, 2020.[4]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[5]
56.1720p16:9FOXMain WDKY-TV programming / Fox
56.2480iCOMETComet
56.3Charge!Charge!
56.4TBDTBD

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.[6][7] 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 digital channel 19 at 10:00 a.m. on May 7, 2019 and remains on virtual channel 56.[8]

WDKY-DT2

WDKY-DT2 was launched in 2011 to serve as an affiliate of TheCoolTV, which is a digital multi-cast network that only broadcasts music videos. The subchannel went silent in 2012 due to poor viewership ratings. In 2014, WDKY-DT2 was relaunched to serve as an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television's GetTV movie channel as part of an affiliation deal between GetTV and Sinclair Broadcasting.[9] 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.[10]

On January 15, 2016, WDKY announced the launch of Comet on 56.2, dropping GetTV.[11]

WDKY-DT3

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.[12] In early 2017, Grit was dropped and replaced with Sinclair's new network Charge!

WDKY-DT4

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

Programming

In addition to the Fox network schedule, syndicated programming on WDKY includes Maury and Judge Judy, among others.

Newscasts

In 1995, CBS affiliate WKYT-TV began producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast. On March 12, 2007, WDKY began airing an hour of news on weekday mornings at 7 a.m., that is also produced by WKYT. Weeknights at 10:45, there is a 15-minute sports replay show called the Fox 56 Sports Extra. All news programs originate from WKYT's studios on Winchester Road in the Brighton section of Lexington. On April 11, 2008, WKYT began broadcasting WDKY's newscasts in high definition becoming the first station in Kentucky to make the transition. The WDKY newscasts were included in the upgrade, making WDKY the first Fox affiliate in Kentucky and the first Sinclair station to air local news in high definition.

References
  1. Frankfort Plant Board - Preferred Cable Lineup
  2. Sinclair Reups With Fox, Gets WUTB Option, TVNewsCheck, May 15, 2012.
  3. Eggerton, John. "Sinclair Pays Nexstar $60M, Some Assets, to Settle Tribune Suit". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  4. "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, 18 September 2020, Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  5. RabbitEars TV Query for WDKY
  6. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  7. Sloan, Scott (February 10, 2009)."All but one station delay TV switch". Lexington Herald Leader. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  8. http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WDKY
  9. "GetTV Signs Big Affiliation Deal with Sinclair". TV NewsCheck. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  10. Murray State @ Southeastern Missouri (October 3, 2015) - American Sports Network Clearance Report. From OVCSports.com (Ohio Valley Conference).
  11. WDKY Fox 56 [@FoxLexington] (15 January 2016). "New science fiction network, Comet, starts today on our sub-channel 56-2" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. WDKY Fox 56 [@FoxLexington] (15 January 2016). "@ehatt493 @UK__JB ASN will share 56-3 with Grit TV" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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