In 1962, the KentuckyBoard of Education acquired ten construction permits to create an educational television network via a flagship station in Lexington and several other satellite stations throughout the state. WKLE signed on the air on September 23, 1968, at approximately 3 p.m. Eastern Time, as one of the ten charter stations in the Kentucky Educational Television network, with WKLE serving as the network flagship station. WKLE was the second educational television station to sign on; the first was WFPK-TV in Louisville, which had signed on ten years earlier. All of the network's transmitters were located so that they would provide over-the-air broadcast signal coverage to most of the state of Kentucky.
Digital television
The station's digital television companion signal, WKLE-DT, along with the digital companions of thirteen of KET's other satellites signed on the air in May 2002, almost three years after WKPC's digital signal was first activated.
Analog-to-digital conversion
On April 16, 2009, WKLE shut down its analog signal over UHF channel 46 as part of the mandatory analog-to-digital television transition. The deadline for the transition had been extended from February 17, 2009, to June 12 of that year by the DTV Delay Act. All KET stations, along with CBS affiliate WKYT-TV, completed the transition on April 16. WKGB's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 48. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 46.
As of July 2017, WKLE holds a construction permit to move its digital signal to UHF channel 35 as part of the network's participation in the 2016–2017 FCC spectrum incentive auction. WKLE's digital signal was reallocated to its new position on the morning of October 18, 2019. The station's former digital frequency, on UHF channel 42, is one of the UHF band channels to be removed from broadcasting use and reassigned to wireless services.
Programming
Station IDs
Although the market's principal city of Lexington is the city of license for WKLE, its legal station ID between programs originally identified itself in KET's voiceover as "Channel 46, WKLE, Lexington/Richmond, Kentucky." Richmond is included in the legal ID because the transmitter site of WKLE is located on the Madison County side of the Kentucky River; Richmond is the closest city to the transmitter. A similar situation exists for two other KET stations in the system, WKOH and WKMU.
Availability
Over-the-air coverage
WKLE's primary over-the-air coverage area includes most of the Bluegrass region of Central Kentucky, including Lexington, Frankfort, Danville, Georgetown, Winchester, and Richmond. As with most other KET stations, WKLE's over-the-air signal covers small parts of the same areas as those of some of KET's other stations, including WKHA/Hazard, WKMR/Morehead, WKSO-TV/Somerset, and WKON/Owenton, the latter of which is technically in the Cincinnati, Ohio market. The OTA signals of all four of those stations and WKLE help the network cover the Lexington designated market area in its entirety; WKON's over-the-air broadcast signal covers much of the northern half of the Lexington metropolitan area.
Cable carriage
All cable systems throughout Kentucky carry at least the flagship KET service. Several of these systems also carry KET2 and the Kentucky Channel, especially in the areas served by bigger cable companies such as Charter Spectrum. The network is also available via the satellite services Dish Network and DirecTV.
