WKYT-TV


WKYT-TV, virtual channel 27, is a dual CBS/CW-affiliated television station licensed to Lexington, Kentucky, United States, serving the east-central part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The station is owned by Gray Television. WKYT-TV's studios and transmitter are located on Winchester Road near I-75 on the east side of Lexington.
The station is also received on cable and satellite throughout much of eastern, southern and northern Kentucky. In addition, the station's newscasts are carried on Charter Spectrum digital channel 422 in portions of Northern Kentucky located near the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
WYMT-TV in Hazard, Kentucky operates as a semi-satellite of WKYT-TV, extending the CBS signal into the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield region. As such, it clears all network programming as provided through WKYT but airs a separate offering of syndicated programming; there are also separate local newscasts, commercial inserts and legal station identifications. Although WYMT maintains its own studios on Black Gold Boulevard in Hazard, master control and some internal operations are based at WKYT's facilities.

History

WKYT signed on September 30, 1957 as WKXP-TV, owned by Community Broadcast Partners, a local group headed by Frederic Gregg, Charles Wright and Harry Feingold. It was a primary CBS affiliate, sharing ABC with WLEX-TV.
After only one year, Community Broadcast Partners merged with what eventually became Taft Broadcasting. The new owners changed the calls to the current WKYT-TV. Taft also switched the station's primary affiliation to ABC, relegating CBS to secondary status. This was a very unusual arrangement for a two-station market, especially one as small as Lexington. In most two-station markets, ABC, as the smallest and weakest network, was relegated to secondary clearances on one or both of the existing stations. However, ABC president Leonard Goldenson had been friends with the Taft family for many years, and it is likely that the Tafts wanted to get their new purchase in line with most of their other stations.
Kentucky Central Insurance Company bought the station in 1967. When WBLG-TV signed on in 1968, WKYT opted to return to CBS full-time. In 1985, Kentucky Central bought WKYH-TV in Hazard, changed its calls to WYMT-TV and made it a semi-satellite of WKYT. While WYMT has its own studios in Hazard and airs its own newscasts, some internal operations are shared with WKYT. WKYT was the first, and currently only, Lexington station with any presence at all in the eastern portion of the market.
In 1993, after a protracted fraud investigation forced Kentucky Central into bankruptcy, WKYT and WYMT were acquired by Gray Television. At this stage, WKYT was known on air as 'KYT' instead of WKYT. When WHAS-TV switched to ABC in September 1990, WKYT officially became the longest-tenured CBS affiliate in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

WKYT-DT2

WKYT-DT2, branded as The CW Lexington, is the CW-affiliated second digital subchannel of WKYT-TV, broadcasting in 720p high definition on UHF channel 36.2. The subchannel is available on DirecTV channel 14, Dish Network channel 28, and Charter Spectrum channel 5 in Lexington and channel 99 in the surrounding suburbs.

History

The subchannel was originally branded as "UPN Lexington" and served as Lexington's UPN affiliate until September 2006. That month, the subchannel was rebranded as "CWKYT" until January 2013. Until October 2006, Louisville WB affiliate WBKI-TV was available on Lexington cable systems; WBKI was later dropped from Insight systems in the Lexington area, to accommodate for the new CW. Baltimore CW station WNUV was the formerly designated WB/CW station for DirecTV in the Lexington market.
On August 21, 2007, WKYT began broadcasting its "CWKYT" second digital subchannel in high definition. This made it one of a handful of stations in the country who transmit their main channel and at least one subchannel in HD. However, although both CBS and The CW prefer their programming be broadcast at 1080i resolution, WKYT's two HD channels were transmitted over-the-air in 720p in order to minimize the loss in image quality. Since the move to digital channel 36 in September 2010, CWKYT's over-the-air transmission reverted to SD, although the digital cable feed remained in HD and WKYT's main channel remained in 720p. As of June 18, 2013, WKYT's main signal has been upgraded to full 1080i HD and The CW Lexington signal was upgraded to 720p HD. As of late 2019, The CW Lexington signal was upgraded to 1080i HD, but at a video resolution of 1280x1080 instead of the standard 1920x1080. This move coincided with WKYT launching two new subchannels, including another 1080i channel on WKYT-DT4, providing uninterrupted weather radar after being moved from WKYT-DT3 for the launch of Circle.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
27.11080iWKYT-HDMain WKYT-TV programming / CBS
27.21080iCWKYTThe CW
27.3480iCIRCLECircle
27.41080iRADAR"First Alert Weather" Radar
27.5480iDABLDabl

Analog-to-digital conversion

WKYT-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 27, on April 16, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 13. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 27. On August 22, 2009, WKYT-DT filed a petition of rulemaking with the Federal Communications Commission to move to digital UHF channel 36 due to reception issues. The FCC issued a Report & Order approved the petition on October 22. On December 12, 2009, WKYT filed a minor change application for a construction permit, reflecting the channel change. On January 11, 2010, the FCC approved the permit. The switchover to the UHF signal took place on September 1 at 1 p.m.

TV spectrum repack

WKYT successfully moved its channel allocation from digital channel 36 to digital channel 21 at 2:00 p.m. ET on June 21, 2019 and remains on virtual channel 27.

Programming

General programming

Although most CBS-affiliated stations in the Eastern Time Zone air The Young and the Restless at 12:30 p.m., WKYT instead airs the soap opera at 1 p.m. due to its hour-long midday newscast at noon. As such, The Bold and the Beautiful airs on a one-day delay at 10:30 a.m., following the station's 10 a.m. newscast. Outside of the CBS network schedule, syndicated programming on WKYT include Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Live with Kelly and Ryan, and TMZ.

WKYT-DT2

Outside of the CW network schedule, syndicated programming on WKYT-DT2 includes Anger Management, Hot Bench, Family Feud, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, and Kentucky Afield, among others. In addition to The CW's Saturday morning programming block, WKYT-DT2 also broadcasts the Fox network's Xploration Station block on Sunday mornings since it was turned down by the local Fox affiliate, WDKY-TV.

Sports programming

WKYT regularly broadcasts Kentucky Wildcats content, due partly to its status as the television flagship of the UK Sports Network, and also due to the Southeastern Conference's broadcast contracts with CBS Sports. In addition to CBS Sports content, both WKYT and WYMT also broadcast the syndicated package of SEC college football and men's basketball games from Raycom Sports from the 1980s until 2009, when Raycom lost the SEC syndication rights. In 2009, the station began carrying the ESPN Plus-operated syndication service SEC TV, which ceased operations in 2014 because of the launch of the new SEC Network, which is the cable- and satellite-only channel operated by ESPN.
From 2014 to 2019, WKYT and WKYT-DT2 served as the local alternating homes of Raycom's ACC Network, the syndicated package of Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball. This ended with the launch of ESPN's pay TV-only ACC Network in August 2019.
WKYT gained a major ratings windfall in the 1981–82 season, when CBS won the rights to the NCAA Basketball Tournament after more than a decade on NBC. With the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team as a longtime fixture in the tournament, NCAA Tournament games on WKYT are frequently among the most-watched programs in the market during the tournament's run. Due to the 2011 partnership between the NCAA, CBS, and the Turner Broadcasting-owned cable networks TBS, TNT, and TruTV, the station's local ratings on the tournament are affected.
The KHSAA High School Boys and Girls Sweet 16 Basketball Championship Games are aired on WKYT-DT2 in March.

Locally produced programs

WKYT broadcasts 41 hours of locally produced newscasts each week ; in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest newscast output among Lexington's broadcast television stations. WKYT is one of few CBS affiliates that carries hour-long midday newscast on weekdays. WKYT holds Kentucky's most powerful doppler weather radar, known as the "WKYT First Alert Defender", which outruns NBC affiliate WLEX-TV's radar. The radar is currently out of commission. WKYT has a news share agreement with the local Fox affiliate WDKY-TV and produces weekday morning 7:00 a.m. and nightly 10:00 p.m. newscasts for that station. The prime-time newscast debuted in 1995 when Fox requested its affiliates to air local news. The morning newscast was added in March 2007.
On April 11, 2007, WKYT began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, beginning with the 11:00 p.m. newscast, becoming the first station in Kentucky to carry local newscasts in HD. The WDKY newscasts were included in the upgrade. In late 2012 WKYT dropped the 27 Newsfirst name they have used for decades, rebranded themselves as WKYT News. At the same time, they implemented a new graphics scheme and changed their theme music and bumpers to Gari Media Group's "CBS Enforcer" package.
On November 10, 2012, WKYT launched a new weekend morning newscast from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. on Saturdays and from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. on Sundays. In early February 2013, WKYT launched an hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast, previously they had a 35-minute online-only newscast which was named "27Newsfirst Live Online" which aired at 4:00pm and then they decided to air it on TV at 4:00, but the only one for an hour-long.

Ratings

WKYT leads in total-day and late-night news ratings except during times when the Olympics air on NBC. That network's local affiliate WLEX-TV leads weekday mornings. The two stations battle each other for the evening news lead in this historically UHF-exclusive market. Most of the local stations' viewership has been via cable; even in digital, it is difficult for the over-the-air analog UHF signals to penetrate the far eastern portion of the market, which is largely rugged, mountainous terrain. WKYT relies mainly on WYMT to cover this part of the market.
Currently, WKYT has the highest-rated 11:00 p.m. newscast in the market, but runs second in late night news to the 10:00 p.m. newscast it produces for WDKY.

Notable former on-air staff

WKYT's over-the-air signal can be picked up in some of the Louisville market's easternmost counties like Nelson, Washington, Marion, Henry and Shelby counties, thereby creating some competition between WKYT and Louisville's CBS affiliate WLKY-TV because of that station's close proximity to the Lexington area. WKYT is also available over-the-air in the southernmost counties/areas of the Cincinnati market.
Duo County Telecom, based in Jamestown, carries WKYT's main subchannel on their cable system serving Adair, Cumberland and Russell counties. Russell County is considered to be within WKYT's local market, but Adair County is considered to be in the Louisville market, and Cumberland County is within the Nashville, Tennessee DMA. WKYT is also carried on Charter Spectrum and Armstrong Cable systems in the Ashland area, which is in the Charleston/Huntington, West Virginia media market. In addition, WKYT, along with WYMT and WLEX, are available in the Jellico, Tennessee area, which is in the Knoxville media market.
At one time from the 1990s until 2010, WKYT was also available on the cable system of Glasgow, Kentucky-based South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative, which serves the eastern half of the Bowling Green media market, where CBS programming would be served by either WNKY-DT2 or Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF.