WNKY
WNKY is a television station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with NBC and CBS. It is owned by Marquee Broadcasting alongside two low-power stations: Ion Television affiliate WNKY-LD and Glasgow-licensed Country Network affiliate WDNZ-LD. 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 granted a construction permit for channel 40 on October 21, 1983, to CMM Communications of Crossville, Tennessee. 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, purchased the construction permit about two years after he successfully launched upstart station WBNA 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 independent station airing an analog signal on UHF channel 40. Early on, it struggled in a small market used to all-VHF stations, where ABC affiliate WBKO was all but dominant in Bowling Green proper. The "Big Three" VHF stations based in Nashville 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 rules would not come into effect for another three years.In 1990, Storer Communications became the first local cable system to carry the station, assigning it to cable channel 27, temporarily replacing Nashville commercial independent station WXMT, which had lost its Fox affiliation to WZTV that February; WXMT would return to area cable systems around 1993, when that station committed to become a UPN 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, like old movies, sitcoms, and cartoons; 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; the rerun of The Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder", which the series itself would later become a staple in the station's syndicated programming offerings, was the first network program to air on the station that evening. WKNT would then expand 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. Prior to the station's Fox affiliation, WXMT and WZTV served as the region's de facto Fox affiliates; they served as significantly viewed stations for the market. WZTV was kept on most cable systems in the region into the 2000s and 2010s. 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 football games via Jefferson Pilot Sports until 2002; the men's basketball games were shared with WBKO until that station became the area's sole outlet for JP Sports SEC broadcasts. From September 1994 until January 1997, the station also aired the controversial ABC drama NYPD Blue 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 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 every day from 1 to 5a.m. until that network's closure in 2005. The station also aired UPN's Disney's One Too program block 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 aired 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 in Nashville, as the de facto UPN affiliate for Bowling Green.
On January 1, 1997, the operation of WKNT was taken over by Crossroads Communications under a local marketing agreement. Crossroads, a subsidiary of Okemos, Michigan–based Northwest Broadcasting, 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, shortly after the affiliation switch to NBC occurred, 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 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, 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 had been carried on cable systems in Hart and Metcalfe counties, along with the Glasgow 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 on September 5, 2006.Max Media ownership (2002–2017)
In November 2002, Northwest Broadcasting sold WNKY to Max Media 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 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 in Athens. WNKY also installed a Dolby model 569 AC-3 surround sound encoder to relay the 5.1 full surround audio from the network.On October 11, 2006, WNKY reached an agreement with CBS to air that network on a new digital subchannel, which launched on February 1, 2007. Previously, Bowling Green and surrounding areas had received CBS from a number of surrounding affiliates, particularly WTVF in Nashville or WLKY. It was officially launched 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 without its own CBS affiliate, and most of the area was historically served by WTVF 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 as a backup CBS affiliate. In spite of the existence of WNKY-DT2, most cable providers still carried WTVF; it remains available to Mediacom cable customers in Butler and Edmonson counties, including Morgantown and Brownsville, as well as customers of Insight Communications 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 rather than the network's recommended 1080i format to preserve bandwidth. A direct-to-cable full 1080i high definition feed of WNKY-DT2 is available on select cable providers.
On June 3, 2010, as a result of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010, Dish Network began offering both of WNKY's NBC and CBS-affiliated digital subchannels, the latter of which was launched on February 1, 2007.