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WNKY (channel 40) is 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 ...
in
Bowling Green, Kentucky Bowling Green is a city in Warren County, Kentucky, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 72,294 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Kentucky, third-most populous city in the stat ...
, United States, affiliated with
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 ...
and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
. It is owned by
Marquee Broadcasting Marquee Broadcasting, Inc. is an American broadcasting company that owns several television stations in the United States. History Marquee began in 2013 when its owners, Brian and Patricia Lane, announced its intent to acquire WMDT and its re ...
alongside two low-power stations:
Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...
affiliate WNKY-LD (channel 35) and
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
-licensed Country Network affiliate WDNZ-LD (channel 11). The three stations share studios on Chestnut Street in downtown Bowling Green; WNKY's transmitter is located on Pilot Knob near Smiths Grove, Kentucky.


History


Construction of the station (1983–1989)

The
FCC 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 ju ...
granted a
construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
for channel 40 on October 21, 1983, to CMM Communications of
Crossville, Tennessee Crossville is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Crossville Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,071 at the 2020 census. History Crossville developed at the intersection ...
. In 1984, the construction permit was bought by local businessman John M. Cunningham of Crossville. In 1988, Bob Rodgers, president of Word Broadcasting of
Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...
, purchased the construction permit about two years after he successfully launched upstart station WBNA (channel 21) in that city.


As an independent station (1989–1992)

The newly licensed station began broadcasting as WQQB on December 17, 1989. At its first sign-on, the outlet operated as a
religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
airing an
analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
signal on UHF channel 40. Early on, it struggled in a small market used to all- VHF stations, where
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
WBKO WBKO (channel 13) is a television station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Telemundo affiliate WB ...
(channel 13) was all but dominant in Bowling Green proper. The "Big Three" VHF stations based in
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
were easily received either over-the-air or via cable in the Bowling Green area, and had equal loyalty that WQQB struggled to overcome. In the rush to come to air, it also had a poor overall signal that wasn't easily received, as well as on-air technical problems that occurred on a regular basis. In its first year, many television viewers in the area didn't know of the station's existence as the station had little to no coverage on cable systems outside the immediate Bowling Green area; the revised
must-carry In cable television, many governments, including the ones of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, apply a must-carry regulation stating that forces a cable TV provider to carry the public interest programming, like locally licensed te ...
rules would not come into effect for another three years. In 1990, Storer Communications (later TKR Cable, then InterMedia, later
Insight Communications Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, op ...
, now
Charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
/
Spectrum cable Spectrum is the trade name of Charter Communications. The name is widely used by both market consumers and commercial businesses. Services that Spectrum offers include cable television, internet access, internet security, managed services, mob ...
) became the first local cable system to carry the station, assigning it to cable channel 27, temporarily replacing Nashville commercial independent station WXMT (channel 30, now
WUXP-TV WUXP-TV (channel 30) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside WZTV (channel 17), a dual affiliate of Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox and The CW, ...
), which had lost its
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 ...
affiliation to
WZTV WZTV (channel 17) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP-TV (channel 30) as well as ...
(channel 17); WXMT would return to area cable systems around 1993, when that station committed to become a
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...
affiliate once that network launched in January 1995.


Sale to Southeastern Communications

In November 1991, Word Broadcasting Network sold WQQB to Southeastern Communications for $1 million. This came as Word Broadcasting president Bob Rodgers assumed additional duties as a church pastor in the Louisville area, and his decision to concentrate solely on operating WBNA in terms of the company's media efforts. The sale was approved by the FCC the following month. For WQQB's first few months under Southeastern ownership, it switched to a general entertainment format with a mixture of low-budget
syndicated programming Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...
, like old
movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
(some of which were sourced from
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
media),
sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
s, and
cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
; this was done in preparation of becoming a network affiliate.


As a Fox affiliate (1992–2001)

On January 10, 1992, the station changed its call letters to WKNT, for "We're Kentucky News Television." The station's studios were relocated from the Smiths Grove transmission facility and tower to a facility on Campbell Lane shortly after the callsign change. On April 2 of that year, the station became the area's first Fox network affiliate with the then-new on-air branding as ''Fox 40''; an episode of ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'', which would later become a staple in the station's syndicated programming offerings, was the first network program to air on the station. The station also expanded their broadcasting hours four days later. Shortly before the beginning of the station's Fox affiliation, Storer Communications reallocated the station to cable channel 7 on its lineup. In January 1993, WKNT installed a new antenna at its transmission tower. During its time as a Fox station in the 1990s, WKNT broadcast select
Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
games via
Jefferson Pilot Sports Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Media. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a prominent joint venture wit ...
until 2002; the men's basketball games were shared with WBKO until that station became the area's sole outlet for JP Sports (later Lincoln Financial Sports, then
Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Media. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a prominent joint venture wi ...
) SEC broadcasts.WKNT - Program Schedule
Archived from th

November 19, 2000. Retrieved October 29, 2000.
From September 1994 until January 1997, the station also aired the controversial ABC drama ''
NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble ca ...
'' for its second and third seasons, and the early half of the fourth season, due to WBKO's refusal to air that program; the first season of that program never aired on either station in the Bowling Green media market as WKNT declined the initial offer for the program. ''NYPD Blue'' moved to WBKO on February 4, 1997, after the new television content ratings system was introduced in January of that year. WKNT also aired programming from the
Shop at Home Network The Shop at Home Network (also called Shop at Home, Shop at Home TV and SATH) was a television network in the United States, owned and operated by the E. W. Scripps Company from 2002 to 2006, then by Jewelry Television. It primarily aired home ...
every day (except Saturdays) from 1 to 5a.m. until that network's closure in 2005. Despite being a Fox affiliate, the station also aired UPN's program block ''
Disney's One Too Disney's Animation Weekdays (originally known as Disney's One Too until 2002) was an American two-hour weekday and Sunday children's television series, children's programming block that aired on UPN (and sometimes in Broadcast syndication, syndic ...
'' from 7 to 9 a.m. weekday mornings and from 5 to 7 a.m. Sunday mornings to cover the children's educational programming requirements. It was the only UPN programming that was ever available in the Bowling Green market aside from WBKO's broadcasts of the first season of '' Star Trek: Voyager'' in 1995; all other UPN programming was only receivable via WUXP-TV (now a
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
affiliate) in Nashville, as the ''de facto'' UPN affiliate for Bowling Green. On
January 1 January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in the Gregorian Calendar; 364 days remain until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the year. __TOC__ Events ...
, 1997, the operation of WKNT was taken over by Crossroads Communications 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). Crossroads, a subsidiary of
Okemos, Michigan Okemos ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Ingham County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population of the CDP was 25,121 at the 2020 census. Okemos is part of the urban area of Lansing–East Lansing, and is located nearby the campus ...
–based
Northwest Broadcasting Northwest Broadcasting, Inc. was a television broadcasting company based in Okemos, Michigan, United States, a suburb of Lansing. The broadcasting group owned or operated twelve television stations in six markets, through subsidiaries such as Br ...
, would buy the station outright on July 17, 2000.


Unexpected loss of Fox affiliation; switch to NBC

In March 2001, Fox announced that it had dropped its affiliation with WKNT, because the station did not comply with the terms of the affiliation agreement; almost immediately, NBC agreed to affiliate with the station. On March 27, 2001, the affiliation switch to NBC occurred, and the station changed its call sign to WNKY. At the same time, the station boosted its power from 776,000 watts to 1,640,000 watts, directional with a null to the east. WBKO was previously the only station within the Bowling Green market that was affiliated with a Big Three network, and
WSMV-TV WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 29). The two stations share studios on Knob Road i ...
(channel 4) in Nashville was NBC's affiliate of record in south-central Kentucky for that station's first 50 years on the air. After WNKY switched to NBC, WSMV's over-the-air signal was still available in parts of the Bowling Green market, including locations where WNKY could not reach, and some cable systems continued to carry WSMV. Following the loss of WNKY's Fox affiliation, Fox programming had continued to be provided to most of the Bowling Green market over-the-air and on cable via Nashville affiliate WZTV (channel 17), which had also been available over-the-air in the southern portion of the market in addition to its cable carriage long before the change in affiliation. Meanwhile, Louisville's Fox affiliate
WDRB WDRB (channel 41) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Block Communications alongside Salem, Indiana–licensed dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBKI (channel 58). The ...
(channel 41) had been carried on cable systems in
Hart Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) * Hart (surname) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department store ...
and Metcalfe counties, along with the
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
Electric Plant Board's cable service. The lack of a local Fox affiliate in Bowling Green would last for more than five years until WBKO began carrying the Fox network on a second digital subchannel in September 2006.


Max Media ownership (2002–2017)

In November 2002, Northwest Broadcasting sold WNKY to
Max Media Max Media is a company that owns radio stations throughout the United States. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. History Max Media was founded in 2001. Prior to this, some of the company's management had run the TVX Broadcast Group from 1 ...
for $7 million; the sale was approved by the FCC in March 2003. On December 12 of that year, it signed on a digital signal on UHF channel 16 from its transmitter tower and facility in Smiths Grove. WNKY-DT was then added alongside its analog counterpart to local digital cable systems, including
Insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...
in Bowling Green and the Electric Plant Board in Glasgow. On August 7, 2004, WNKY began airing NBC network programming in high definition, which occurred just in time to broadcast the network's coverage of the
2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
in
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
. WNKY also installed a
Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (HDR) imaging. Dolby li ...
model 569 AC-3 surround sound encoder to relay the 5.1 full surround audio from the network. On June 3, 2010, as a result of the
Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 or STELA is one of the acts of the 111th United States Congress. It renewed the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004 and the Satellite Home Viewer Improveme ...
,
Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...
began offering both of WNKY's NBC and CBS-affiliated digital subchannels, the latter of which was launched in February 2007.


Misuse of the EAS tones

On November 5, 2013, 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 ...
(FCC) fined the station's licensee, MMK License, $39,000 due to a mid-June 2012 ad for a local sports apparel store that was filmed and aired by WNKY, which featured
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...
(EAS) tones used in a promotional and non-warning situation. WNKY was also required to launch a local campaign about the EAS, air additional emergency preparation public service announcements, and lease space on their tower for modernized warning equipment to the Warren County Emergency Management agency and the City of Bowling Green.


Cable carriage dispute in Glasgow

On January 1, 2015, the Glasgow Electric Plant Board dropped both of WNKY's digital subchannels from its lineup because of a 1,000 percent increase in cost. Both WNKY and WNKY-DT2 returned to the Electric Plant Board's cable lineup in February 2015 after agreeing to a 100 percent increase instead of 1,000. The digital subchannels were placed on different channels (WNKY on 16 and WNKY-DT2 on 23) without high definition service.


Marquee Broadcasting ownership (2017–present)

On April 5, 2017, Max Media announced that it would sell WNKY to
Marquee Broadcasting Marquee Broadcasting, Inc. is an American broadcasting company that owns several television stations in the United States. History Marquee began in 2013 when its owners, Brian and Patricia Lane, announced its intent to acquire WMDT and its re ...
for $5.6 million. The sale was completed on June 30. In February 2021, the station relocated from its previous facility on Emmett Avenue on Bowling Green's west side to its current broadcasting facility on Chestnut Street in downtown Bowling Green.


Subchannel history


WNKY-DT2

WNKY-DT2 is the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
-affiliated second digital subchannel of WNKY, broadcasting in high definition on channel 40.2. On October 11, 2006, WNKY reached an agreement with CBS to air that network on a new
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
. It was officially launched as WNKY-DT2 on February 1, 2007, which finally gave Bowling Green a locally based CBS station. Prior to the launch of WNKY-DT2, the Bowling Green market was one of the few areas east of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
without its own CBS affiliate, and most of the area was historically served by
WTVF WTVF (channel 5) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV (channel 28). WTVF's studios are loca ...
in Nashville as the ''de facto'' CBS affiliate, which is considered to be a significantly viewed station. Some cable systems in the Bowling Green market, especially in the Glasgow area, also carried Louisville-based
WLKY WLKY (channel 32) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with CBS. The station is owned by Hearst Television, and maintains studios on Mellwood Avenue (near I-71) in the Clifton Heights section on Louisvill ...
(and prior to 1990,
WHAS-TV WHAS-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on West Chestnut Street in Downtown Louisville, and its transmitter is located in rur ...
) as a backup CBS affiliate. In spite of the existence of WNKY-DT2, most cable providers still carried WTVF; it remains available to
Mediacom Mediacom Communications Corporation is the United States' fifth-largest cable television provider based on the number of video subscribers, and among the leading cable operators focused on serving smaller cities and towns. The company has a sig ...
cable customers in
Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...
and Edmonson counties, including Morgantown and Brownsville, as well as customers of Insight Communications (later Time Warner Cable, now Spectrum) in Bowling Green, and the South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative in the Glasgow area. In December 2017, WNKY claimed exclusivity of NBC and CBS affiliates on the Glasgow Electric Plant Board cable system. In January 2018, the CBS subchannel was upgraded to high definition, albeit in
720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...
rather than the network's recommended
1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...
format to preserve bandwidth. A direct-to-cable full 1080i high definition feed of WNKY-DT2 is available on select cable providers.


WNKY-DT3

WNKY-DT3 is the
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...
-affiliated third digital subchannel of WNKY, broadcasting in standard definition on channel 40.3. WNKY broadcast a testing loop on a new subchannel on December 20, 2017; the testing loop promoted MeTV programming, which became available on the third subchannel on January 1, 2018.


Programming


Sports programming

In 2016, WNKY and WNKY-DT2 began broadcasting
Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...
preseason games not nationally televised, which originate from Nashville's ABC affiliate
WKRN-TV WKRN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road (U.S. Routes U.S. R ...
, to complement the ''
NFL on CBS ''NFL on CBS'' is an American television sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It aired from September 30, 1956 to January 23, 1994. The show returned since September 6, 1998. The branding is used for the presentation of the National Foot ...
'' package that includes most of the Titans' regular season games. This initially applied in non-Olympic years as WNKY-DT2 broadcast the first two preseason games when NBC covered the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...
. In 2018, WNKY announced that from then on, the station would carry all Titans preseason games on its MeTV-affiliated subchannel, WNKY-DT3. Other than those broadcasts, WNKY-DT3 clears the entire MeTV schedule.


News operation

As the first commercial television station to launch in Bowling Green, WBKO has been a longtime leader according to
Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
. Even after the sign-on of WQQB in 1989, WBKO has remained the dominant outlet for south central Kentucky. However, it has also competed with Nashville stations transmitting into parts of the Bowling Green area. As the area's original Fox affiliate, WKNT's first newscasts began during the 1993 fall season; ''Warren County Close-Up'' was the title of the station's newscast for the beginning. Later, in 1995, the newscasts expanded when the station teamed up with Campbellsville-based WGRB (also a Fox affiliate at the time, but would later become WB/ CW affiliate WBKI-TV, now a defunct station) to form a two-station cooperative local "network" to jointly produce a local newscast. This joint news department even employed local students from
Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University (WKU) is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a few decades earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glas ...
in varied aspects. However, by 1996, the newscasts ended due to low ratings on WKNT's part, due to WBKO's continued dominance in news ratings in the Bowling Green area, as well as financial difficulties, especially in 1995, when the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
filed a civil lawsuit against the station for back payments for the AP Newspower reports utilized by the station. After the station's affiliation switch to NBC in March 2001, newscasts returned to the station's schedule when WNKY began simulcasting WSMV's 10 p.m. newscasts as part of a cooperative relationship between the two stations. These simulcasts lasted until the end of the 2002–03 television season, when they were replaced with syndicated programming. However, only the introduction originated from WNKY, and a WNKY logo covered WSMV's channel 4 logo. WNKY's commercials usually cover up the commercials run by WSMV. On September 10, 2005, WNKY slowly re-entered the market with an unusual weather-only approach. Instead of full newscasts, it offers weekday morning and nightly local weather forecast cut-ins provided through
AccuWeather AccuWeather, Inc. is a private-sector American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers. The company adopted the name 'AccuWeather' in 1971. AccuWeather is headquar ...
. It began airing five-minute ''First Look AccuWeather'' forecasts on weeknights. In December of that year, weekend weather forecasts were added to the schedule. In January 2006, local weather updates began airing during NBC's ''
Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...
'' on weekday mornings from 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. The updates cover regular and severe weather events. The weather team consists of four employees—three human and one non-human member, "Radar the Weather Dog". Radar was a purebred
Border Collie The Border Collie is a British list of dog breeds, breed of herding dog of the collie type of medium size. It originates in the region of the Anglo-Scottish border, and descends from the traditional Sheep dog, sheepdogs once found all over the ...
that was adopted from the Bowling Green/Warren County Humane Society in 2005. Radar began serving as the station's mascot when the weather show began with meteorologist Chris Sowers. Viewers would often see Radar interacting with one of the three meteorologists as they begin the weather updates. The weather dog idea may have been inspired by
KPRC-TV KPRC-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway (I-69/ US 59) in the Southwest Management District (formerly Greate ...
in Houston which once had its own "Radar, the Weather Dog". WNKY's former sister station
KYTX KYTX (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Nacogdoches, Texas, United States, serving East Texas as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station has studios near Loop 323 in the southeastern portion of Tyle ...
, in
Tyler, Texas Tyler, officially the City of Tyler, is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the population is 105,995. Tyler was the List of municipalities in Texas, 38th most populous city in Texas (as well as the m ...
, took a similar approach with "Stormy, the Weather Dog." Radar died at age 16 in December 2017. He was replaced by his sister, "Soky", as the station's mascot. In late January 2009, in a second attempt to compete with WBKO, WNKY launched a weekday morning show called ''Bowling Green Today'' produced in partnership with the ''
Bowling Green Daily News The ''Daily News'' is a daily-except-Saturday newspaper based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is published Sunday mornings and Monday through Friday evenings. History The current newspaper can trace its roots to the ''Bowling Green Democrat'' fou ...
''. It aired for a half-hour at 6:30 a.m. The newspaper provides short local news updates and WNKY produces traditional weather segments. The show was replayed at 9 a.m. on WNKY's CBS-affiliated second subchannel. WNKY did not produce newscasts in the traditional 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. slots or on weekends. During the summer of 2012, WNKY debuted a weekend news magazine program called ''In KY News'', which included interviews and highlighted events in and around south central Kentucky. On October 26, 2015, ''Bowling Green Today'' was renamed ''SoKY Sunrise'', and was expanded to a one-hour program. On April 10, 2017, a new program titled ''SoKY at Noon'' made its debut on WNKY-DT2. On February 19, 2018, WNKY began broadcasting live half-hour newscasts on weeknights at 5 p.m. on its main channel, and at 6 p.m. on WNKY-DT2. This marked the first time WNKY broadcast an eveming newscast in any timeslot since the station ended simulcasts of WSMV's 10 p.m. newscasts in 2003. From November 6 to 13, 2020, the station's newscasts were temporarily suspended because some employees were possibly exposed to
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
. Newscasts resumed on November 16. On July 19, 2021, WNKY debuted its 10 p.m. weeknight newscast on its main subchannel. On March 7, 2022, the station began to simulcast their 10 p.m. newscasts over WNKY and WNKY-DT2. The simulcast of ''SoKY Sunrise'' between the main channel and the DT2 subchannel began in January 2023. The station continued to produce the six-minute weather updates on Saturday and Sunday nights at 10 p.m. on the DT1 and DT2 subchannels until September 9, 2023, when the station began airing 10 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays. As of January 2023, the station produces a total of 16½ hours per week of news content. This includes 10 hours of news content on the main channel and five hours exclusively on WNKY-DT2; 3½ hours of news content is simulcast between the DT1 and DT2 subchannels.


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...
:


Analog-to-digital transition

On June 12, 2009, WNKY turned off its analog transmitter in compliance with the FCC-mandated digital TV transition of 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition channel assignment, UHF channel 16, using virtual channel 40. WNKY was the last station within the Bowling Green market to make the transition.


Spectrum reallocation

After the FCC's 2016
spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction for ...
, WNKY filed for a construction permit for its digital subchannel to relocate to UHF channel 24. WNKY changed to its current frequency at 12:01 a.m. on October 18, 2019.


WNKY-LD

In July 2023, the station began test broadcasts on low-power station WNKY-LD (channel 35). The 15,000-watt station, purchased by Marquee Broadcasting from King Forward, Inc., on March 14, 2022, began broadcasting in July 2023, simulcasting all three of WNKY's channels from the same tower as the full-power WNKY's signal. It became an
Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...
affiliate in September of that year.


Availability

WNKY is available over-the-air and on all cable television systems throughout the Bowling Green DMA, which includes Barren,
Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...
, Edmonson,
Hart Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) * Hart (surname) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department store ...
, Metcalfe and
Warren Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * War ...
counties in southern Kentucky. In Bowling Green, the station is available on
Spectrum Cable Spectrum is the trade name of Charter Communications. The name is widely used by both market consumers and commercial businesses. Services that Spectrum offers include cable television, internet access, internet security, managed services, mob ...
channels 7 (as NBC), 10 (as CBS), and 189 (as MeTV).


Out-of-market coverage

WNKY has limited out-of-market coverage due in part to the station's 90,000-watt signal (previously 120,000 watts before the spectrum repack in 2019) and its small coverage area, especially since the 2009 digital TV transition. However, the station's broadcast signal can be received in some of the northernmost areas of the Nashville media market, including the Kentucky counties of
Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univ ...
,
Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...
,
Simpson Simpson may refer to: * Simpson (name), a British surname Organizations Schools *Simpson College, in Indianola, Iowa *Simpson University, in Redding, California Businesses *Simpson (appliance manufacturer), former manufacturer and brand of w ...
, and much of
Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States: * Logan County, Arkansas * Logan County, Colorado * Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895) * Logan County, Illinois * Logan County, Kansas * Logan County ...
in Kentucky, along with much of Macon and
Sumner Sumner may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Sumner, a mountain in the Rare Range, Antarctica * Sumner Glacier, southern Graham Land, Antarctica Australia * Sumner, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane New Zealand * Sumner, New Zealand, a seasi ...
counties of northern
middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...
. Some areas in the southwestern portions of the Louisville market like Grayson and
Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
counties can also pick up WNKY's signal. Both WNKY and WNKY-DT2 are available to Mediacom subscribers in the
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
and Upton area along Hardin County's boundary with
Larue County LaRue County is a county in the central region of the U.S. state of Kentucky, outside the Bluegrass Region and larger population centers. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,867. Its county seat is Hodgenville, which is best known a ...
.
Suddenlink Suddenlink was an American telecommunications subsidiary of Altice USA trading in cable television, broadband, IP telephony, home security, and advertising. Prior to its acquisition by Altice, the company was the seventh largest cable operator ...
cable systems in Logan County carried WNKY's primary channel on cable channel 15. The station's NBC and CBS subchannels were later dropped from all Suddenlink cable channel lineups in that county, including Russellville. Russellville Electric Power Board, a municipal electric power distributor in Russellville, carried WNKY's NBC- and CBS-affiliated subchannels until it discontinued carriage of the station in favor of WSMV and WTVF, respectively, on December 30, 2016.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wnky 1989 establishments in Kentucky Marquee Broadcasting MeTV affiliates NBC affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1989 NKY