WNKY
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WNKY | |
|---|---|
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| Bowling Green / Glasgow, Kentucky | |
| Branding | NBC 40 |
| Channels | 40 (UHF) analog, 16 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | Max Media |
| Founded | c. 1989 |
| Call letters meaning | We're NBC KentuckY |
| Former callsigns | WQQB (1989 - 1992) WKNT (1992 - 2001) |
| Former affiliations | Independent & Fox |
| Website | www.nbc40.tv |
WNKY is a NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Bowling Green, Kentucky on UHF channel 40. Owned by Max Media, the station's transmitter is located near Smiths Grove, Kentucky, about halfway between Bowling Green and Glasgow.
[edit] History
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Although granted a construction permit in 1983, the station first signed on the air in late 1989. At that time, the station operated as an independent station under the callsign WQQB. The station had a general entertainment format with a mixture of sitcoms, old movies, and cartoons.
In its early days, the picture and sound quality of the station were very poor and had a low-budget feel. Programs would often broadcast mistracked, sticking and skipping. Sometimes the picture would appear clear, but the sound would consist of complete static. The station had little presence in the market at that time; many locals didn't even know the station existed.
It would later become a Fox affiliate for the southern Kentucky region and change its callsign to WKNT. Ultimately, the station became a NBC affiliate in 2001, changed its calls to WNKY, and boosted its power from 776,000 watts to 1,640,000 watts directional, with a null to the east.
Before changing to NBC, the network's Nashville affiliate WSMV was the default station in the market. Even after WNKY flipped to NBC, WSMV could still be received in the Bowling Green market.
On December 12, 2003 WNKY-DT signed on from WNKY's Smiths Grove tower, broadcasting ATSC SDTV on UHF Channel 16. WNKY-DT was then added to Insight Cable Bowling Green and Glasgow Electric Power Board Cable in Glasgow Kentucky.
WNKY-DT began full 1080i High Definition broadcasting of the NBC-HD network August 7, 2004, in time to broadcast the 24 hour special NBC-HD coverage of the Olympics from Athens, Greece. WNKY also installed a Dolby model 569 AC-3 Surround Sound encoder, to realy the 5.1 full surround audio from the NBC-HD network. Competitor WBKO has not installed any AC-3 audio encoding equipment, according to ABC.COM as of November, 2006.
Currently, Bowling Green does not have its own CBS affiliate, making Nashville's WTVF or Louisville's WLKY-TV the default CBS stations in the market. But that will all change: On October 12, 2006 it inked a long term with CBS to air the network's programs on WNKY's digital subchannel. It will sign on in the first quarter of 2007.
WNKY is also adding a digital channel as well as one for FOX's new network, My Network TV. Rival WBKO already has a digital subchannel for Fox, and will add one for the merger of the UPN and WB networks, The CW, in Fall 2006.
More recently, WNKY discontinued its agreement with WeatherVision and decided to make changes to its weather programming. Live "NBC 40 First Look AccuWeather" broadcasts began in October of 2005 airing at 4:55PM, 5:55PM, and 10:00PM Central Time weekdays. In December of 2005, weekend weather was added to the schedule at 10PM Central Time on Saturdays and Sundays. In January of 2006, localized morning weather started during NBC's Today Show (7-10AM Central Time) weekdays. The weather team consists of Chief Meteorologist Chris Sowers (weekdays), Kristi Fox (mornings) and Jay Brandon (weekends). The team also covers severe weather in addition to the regular weather broadcasts. Also, there is a fourth non-human member of the weather team, Radar, the Weather Dog. Radar, a Border Collie adopted from the Bowling Green-Warren County Humane Society, has served as the station's mascot since the new weather broadcasts began in October of 2005. Viewers can often catch "Radar" interacting with one of the three weather anchors as they begin their broadcasts. The weather dog idea may have been inspired by a Houston station, KPRC, who also has a "Radar, The Weather Dog." WNKY's sister station in Tyler, Texas KYTX (owned by Max Media) took a similar approach with Stormy, the Weather Dog. KYTX-CBS, like WNKY-NBC, is a recent startup station, but KYTX has built a fully equipped local news department that began in late 2004/early 2005. It is rumored that Max Media will eventually fund a news department for WNKY. For now, WNKY has entered the market with a weather-only approach, only partially competing with rival station WBKO. For news coverage, WBKO currently has no competition with the exceptions of the nearby Nashville and Louisville TV markets.
[edit] External links
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WAVE 3 (Louisville) - WPSD 6 (Paducah) - WLEX 18 (Lexington) - WNKY 40 (Bowling Green) |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, PBS and Other Stations in Kentucky | |
