WKYT-TV

WKYT-TV is the CBS & CW affiliated television station in Lexington, Kentucky, serving the east-central part of Kentucky. Through cable, the station also reaches much of eastern, southern & northern Kentucky. Its transmitter is located in Lexington, east of the intersection of I-75 & US 60. WKYT-TV studios are located at Winchester Road (US 60) and are less than a mile from the studios of competitor WTVQ-TV.

Its newscasts are also carried in the areas of northern Kentucky near Cincinnati on Insight Cable channel 6 weekdays at 6 am, noon, 5-6:30, 11 pm & weekends at 6 & 11 pm (although some newscasts, especially at 6 & 11 pm, may be delayed or not seen, due to sporting events carried on CBS, which are carried on WKRC-TV in that area).

WKYT regularly shows University of Kentucky Wildcats sports events which are popular in this market, as the television flagship station of the Big Blue Sports Network[1] and as part of the Southeastern Conference's contracts with CBS and the SEC Network, syndicated by ESPN Regional Television.[2]

History
WKYT signed on September 30, 1957 as WKXP-TV, owned by Community Broadcast Partners; Frederic Gregg, Charles Wright & Harry Feingold, principals. It was a primary ABC affiliate, sharing CBS programming with WLEX-TV.

In 1958, Taft Broadcasting Corporation bought the station and changed its calls to WKYT-TV. Kentucky Central Insurance Company bought the station in 1967. It lost ABC when WBLG-TV (channel 62, now WTVQ-TV, channel 36) signed on in 1968; and became a full-time CBS affiliate instead.

In 1993, after a protracted fraud investigation forced Kentucky Central into bankruptcy, WKYT and WYMT were acquired by Gray Television. At this stage WKYT became on air as 'KYT' instead of WKYT.

WKYT has a news share agreement with the local Fox affiliate WDKY-TV (which is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) and produces weekday morning 7 am and nightly 10 pm 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.

WKYT's digital signal is transmitted on UHF channel 36. It was originally assigned to VHF channel 13, but due to reception problems, WKYT moved to the UHF signal in September 2010.

On Wednesday, April 11, 2007, WKYT aired 27 News First at 11 in HD, becoming the first news station in Kentucky to air the local news in HD.[3] The WDKY newscasts were included in the upgrade. On August 21, 2007, WKYT broadcasts from its second digital channel in HD & CWKYT started broadcasting also in HD. 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 1080i, WKYT's two HD channels are transmitted over-the-air in 720p in order to minimize the loss in image quality (their feeds to cable service providers use the full 1080i). Since the move to digital channel 36 in September 2010, CWKYT's over-the-air transmission reverted to 4:3 SD although the cable version will remain in HD.

Programming
As a CBS affiliate, WKYT clears the entire CBS schedule in addition to its syndicated programming. While most CBS affiliates air The Young and the Restless at 12:30 pm in the Eastern Time Zone, WKYT airs it at 9 am instead. This, in part, is because the noon newscast airs for an entire hour; the 1 pm timeslot is filled in with syndicated programming. WKYT rejoins the CBS Daytime lineup at 1:30 pm with The Bold and the Beautiful.

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.[4] The two stations battle each other for the evening news lead[4] in this historically UHF-exclusive market although much of the local stations' viewership has been via cable because it is difficult for the over-the-air analog UHF signal to penetrate the eastern portion of the market, which is largely rugged, mountainous terrain.

CWKYT
The CWKYT which airs on Digital Channel 27.2 and on Insight channel 5, was launched in 2006 replacing UKYT, when CBS and Warner Brothers formed the CW.The CWKYT branding is a combination meaning of CW & WKYT. Until October 2006, Louisville WB affiliate & future CW affiliate WBKI was available on Lexington cable systems; WBKI was later dropped from Insight systems in the Lexington area, to accommodate for the new CWKYT.[5] CWKYT can now be seen on DirecTV on channel 14. Baltimore CW station WNUV was the formerly designated WB/CW station for DirecTV in the Lexington market.

Previously, CWKYT was a UPN affiliate under the name "UPN Lexington."

Digital television
The station's digital channel, UHF 36, is multiplexed:

Digital channels

On April 16, 2009,[6] WKYT-TV's digital signal remained on channel 13 when the analog to digital conversion completed.[7] [8] On August 22, 2009, WKYT-DT filed a petition of rulemaking with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move to digital UHF channel 36 (once used by WTVQ with its analog operations)[9] due to reception issues.[10] The FCC issued a Report & Order approved the petition on October 22.[11] On December 12, 2009, WKYT filed a minor change application for a construction permit, reflecting the channel change.[12] On January 11, 2010, the FCC approved the permit.[13] The switchover to the UHF signal took place on September 1 at 1 pm.[14]

Locally produced programs

 * Behind the Blue
 * Care Central
 * Heart of Gold
 * Kentucky Newsmakers
 * Scholastic Ball Report
 * THIS is Kentucky Basketball
 * The Rich Brooks Show
 * Transylvania Basketball with Brian Lane
 * The Matthew Mitchell Show

News anchors

 * Barbara Bailey - 27 Newsfirst at noon[15] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-HL1103_15-0">[16]
 * Bill Bryant - 27 Newsfirst This Morning & Newsfirst at noon<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-HL816_14-1">[15]
 * Stacy Ellison - 27 Newsfirst This Morning<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-HL816_14-2">[15]
 * Sam Dick - 27 Newsfirst at 5, 5:30, 6 & 11
 * Amber Philpott - 27 Newsfirst at 5, 5:30, 6 & 11
 * Elizabeth Dorsett - 27 Newsfirst weekend

Meteorologists

 * T.G. Shuck, Chief Meteorologist - 27 Newsfirst at 5, 5:30, 6 & 11
 * Kari Hall, Meteorologist - 27 Newsfirst weekend
 * Todd Borek, Meteorologist - 27 Newsfirst This Morning & noon

Sports

 * Dave Baker
 * Rob Bromley
 * Brandon Fisher
 * Ryan Lemond
 * Brian Milam

Reporters

 * Elizabeth Dorsett
 * Wendy Enneking
 * "Officer Don" Evans (LiveDrive Traffic)
 * Tamara Evans
 * Cheryl Glassford
 * Angela Beavin
 * Kristen Kennedy
 * Janet Kim
 * Phil Pendleton
 * Victor Puente
 * Gabriel Roxas
 * Dave Spencer

Newscast titles

 * WKXP News (1957–1958)
 * The Six O'Clock Report/The Eleven O'Clock Report (1958–1967)
 * Eyewitness News (1967–1970)
 * Action News (1970–1974)
 * 27 News Service (1974–1977)
 * NewsCenter 27 (1977–1982)
 * News 27 (1982–1985)
 * 27 Newsfirst (1985–present)
 * Newsfirst on WKYT (1985–present)
 * KYT (2002–present)

Station slogans
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.
 * Get Ready for 27 (1989–1991, local version of CBS ad campaign)
 * Central Kentucky's News Leader (1991–1993)
 * Your 24-Hour News Source (1993–1995)
 * Where Local News Comes First (1995–2001)
 * In Touch With You (2001–2004)
 * Where Your News Comes First. (2004–present)
 * Your News. First. (2009-November 2009)

[edit] External links

 * WKYT website
 * Query the FCC's TV station database for WKYT
 * BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WKYT-TV
 * Heart of Gold<sup class="noprint Inline-Template">[dead link]