WKMJ-TV


WKMJ-TV, virtual channel 68, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is the flagship station for KET2, the second television service of Kentucky Educational Television, which is owned by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television.
The station's master control and internal operations are located at KET's main studios at the O. Leonard Press Telecommunications Center in Lexington. WKMJ's transmitter, like those of several other Louisville stations including main KET transmitter WKPC-TV, is located at the Kentuckiana Tower Farm at Floyds Knobs, in Floyd County, Indiana. WKMJ and WKPC are the only KET-owned stations whose transmitters are outside Kentucky's borders.

History

in Louisville, Kentucky, dates to 1958 when WFPK-TV began broadcasting for the Louisville Free Public Library. It was a member of National Educational Television until 1970, when it joined the Public Broadcasting Service. Meanwhile, Kentucky Educational Television began broadcasting in September 1968 as a network which included all public television stations in Kentucky except for PBS-members WKPC-TV and WKYU-TV, the latter of which began broadcasting for Western Kentucky University in 1989.
WKMJ-TV began broadcasting on August 31, 1970, as the fourteenth satellite station for the KET network. It was launched later than the other stations, and took over service of Louisville from WKZT-TV in nearby Elizabethtown. WKMJ followed the statewide KET schedule until June 30, 1997, when KET acquired WKPC. On July 1, WKPC took over KET service to the Louisville area while WKMJ-TV suspended operations for a transmitter upgrade. On August 1, WKMJ-TV resumed broadcasting as KET2, the network's second television service for the Louisville area.
In 2009, WKMJ-DT2 began broadcasting the Kentucky Channel, simulcasting the DT3 subchannel of all other KET stations. Also in 2009, KET ED became available on WKMJ-DT3, on a 24-hour-a-day basis until September 2009, when WKMJ-DT3 went silent for four years. In 2013, WKMJ-DT3 began broadcasting the World network by American Public Television. As the only KET station broadcasting that service, Louisville was the only major market in Kentucky to receive that channel.

Programming

As the second service of KET, WKMJ-TV broadcasts the national PBS schedule from the PBS Satellite Service along with additional syndicated programs from APT. This includes how-to programs, documentaries, public affairs programs, and some children's programming. Local programming focuses on the Louisville area.

Availability

The KET2 service became available over-the-air statewide via the digital television signals of all KET stations broadcasting the statewide feed in the early 2000s, through a second digital subchannel. The 15 principal KET satellites and 3 accompanying digital low-powered translators provide KET2 on their respective DT2 subchannels.
KET2's cable carriage covers roughly 62% of all subscribers in the state. This includes most Charter Spectrum systems, including all of the state's major cities and several rural areas. It is also available on DirecTV and Dish Network satellite television in the Louisville market. KET2 is also available on cable in Louisville's southern Indiana suburbs.

Digital television

WKMJ-DT

WKMJ-TV began broadcasting its digital television companion signal, WKMJ-DT, in 2003, making it the last KET-affiliated television station to do so.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On April 16, 2009, WKMJ-TV shut down its analog signal on UHF channel 68 in compliance with the federally-mandated digital television transition. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 38. Digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as 68, its former UHF analog channel.

Spectrum incentive auction results

As of July 2017, WKMJ-TV currently holds a construction permit to move its digital signal to UHF channel 34 as part of the network's participation in the Spectrum incentive auction. WKMJ's digital signal is scheduled to be reallocated to its new position in late 2019.

WKMJ digital channels

WKMJ is the only KET-network station whose subchannels are not configured the same way as the other satellites. The station's signal is multiplexed in this manner:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
68.1480iKET2Main WKMJ-TV programming / KET2 / PBS
68.2480iKETKYKentucky Channel
68.3480iKETWRLDWorld