WKDH (channel 45) was a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

licensed to

Houston, Mississippi Houston is a city and one of two county seats of Chickasaw County, in northeastern Mississippi, United States. The population was 3,623 at the 2010 census. History Native American groups had long used the future Chickasaw County for millennia ...

, United States, which served as the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate for the

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

–

Tupelo Tupelo commonly refers to: * Tupelo (tree), a small genus of deciduous trees with alternate, simple leaves * Tupelo, Mississippi, the county seat and the largest city of Lee County, Mississippi Tupelo may also refer to: Places * Tupelo, Arka ...

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

. WKDH was owned by Southern Broadcasting, which was headed by Walter D. Spain whose father,

Frank K. Spain Frank Kyle Spain (November 29, 1927 – April 25, 2006) was an American inventor and television engineer. He is best known for founding and building WTVA, an NBC affiliate in Tupelo, Mississippi. In his later life, Spain also owned and operated oth ...

, owned Tupelo-based

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate

WTVA WTVA (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Tupelo, Mississippi, United States, serving the Columbus–Tupelo market as a dual affiliate of NBC and ABC. The station is owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. WTVA's studios are located ...

(channel 9). As such, the station was operated under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

(LMA) with WTVA; the Spain family also operated

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

–licensed

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

affiliate

WLOV-TV WLOV-TV (channel 27) is a television station city of license, licensed to West Point, Mississippi, United States, serving as the CW+ affiliate for the Columbus, Mississippi, Columbus–Tupelo, Mississippi, Tupelo media market, market. It is owne ...

(channel 27) under a separate LMA with Lingard Broadcasting. The three stations shared studios on Beech Springs Road (

County Road A county highway (also county road or county route; usually abbreviated CH or CR) is a road in the United States and in the Canadian province of Ontario that is designated and/or maintained by the county highway department. Route numbering can ...

681) in

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and high ...

; WKDH's transmitter was located in

Woodland, Mississippi Woodland is a village in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 125 at the 2010 census. The mayor of Woodland is Patti Watkins. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , ...

History

The station signed on June 18, 2001, as the fourth

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

station in the

. WKDH was an ABC affiliate from the start, and was its second affiliate in the market; WLOV-TV carried ABC programming from 1983 (as WVSB-TV) until switching to Fox in October 1995. In the six years that the market had no ABC affiliate,

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

systems in the area piped in

WPTY-TV WATN-TV (channel 24) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate WLMT (channel 30). The two stations share studios at the Shelby Oaks C ...

from

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

(which became an ABC affiliate in December 1995 and formerly served as the default Fox affiliate for the area), or

WCFT-TV WSES (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, serving the western portion of the Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is o ...

from

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

(which became a semi-satellite of Birmingham ABC affiliate

WBMA-LP ABC 33/40 is a television station serving as the ABC affiliate for the Birmingham, Alabama, television market. It is broadcast by WBMA-LD (channel 58), a low-power station, in the immediate Birmingham area, as well as on subchannels of WABM (6 ...

in September 1996). On January 26, 2007, at 5 a.m., WKDH "

flash-cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive di ...

" its analog signal to digital on UHF channel 45, becoming the first station in the market to make the transition. The station did not offer much local content, serving largely as a "pass-through" for ABC programming. It did produce a public affairs show, ''Community Edition'', hosted by Stan Allen. WKDH ceased broadcasting at 11:59 p.m. on August 31, 2012, after more than 11 years on the air; this was due to the Spain family's decision not to renew its LMA with Southern Broadcasting. The ABC affiliation for the Columbus–Tupelo–West Point market moved to the second digital subchannel of WTVA; before this announcement, Comcast had planned to import an out-of-market ABC affiliate. Though a sale of the station was explored, the only buyer found pulled out of the deal, and on January 31, 2013, Southern Broadcasting surrendered the WKDH license to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

, which canceled it on February 7.

References

External links

WTVA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wkdh 2001 establishments in Mississippi 2012 disestablishments in Mississippi KDH Television channels and stations disestablished in 2012 Television channels and stations established in 2001 KDH