WBKI (TV)

"WBKI-TV" redirects here. For the defunct station in Campbellsville, Kentucky, which used this call sign, seeWBKI-TV (1983–2017)."WMYO" redirects here. For the current Louisville low-power station with this call sign, seeWMYO-CD.

WBKI

ATSC 3.0station
Salem, Indiana Louisville, Kentucky United States
City	Salem, Indiana
Channels	Digital:16 (UHF) Virtual:58
Branding	WBKI-TV, The CW Louisville MyTV 58.3 (DT3)
Programming
Affiliations	58.1:The CW 58.3:MyNetworkTV for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Block Communications (Independence Television Company)
Sister stations	WDRB
History
Founded	November 1, 1990
First air date	March 16, 1994(1994-03-16)
Former call signs	WFTE (1994–2006) WMYO (2006–2018) WBKI-TV (February 12–19, 2018)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:58 (UHF, 1994–2009) Digital:51 (UHF, 2002–2019)
Former affiliations	Independent(1994–1995) UPN(1995–2006) MyNetworkTV (2006–2018; now on DT3) The CW (DT3, via the previous WBKI, 2012–2018)
Call signmeaning	"WBKentuckiana"(carried over from the originalWBKI-TV)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	34167
ERP	860kW
HAAT	390.4 m (1,281 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	38°21′1″N85°50′57″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wbki.tv

WBKI(channel 58) is atelevision stationlicensed toSalem, Indiana,United States, serving theLouisville, Kentucky,area as a dual affiliate ofThe CWandMyNetworkTV.It is the only full-power Louisville-area station licensed to the Indiana side of the market. WBKI is owned byBlock CommunicationsalongsideFoxaffiliateWDRB(channel 41). Both stations share studios on WestMuhammad AliBoulevard (nearUS 150) indowntown Louisville,while WBKI's transmitter is located in rural northeasternFloyd County, Indiana(northeast ofFloyds Knobs). Despite Salem being WBKI's city of license, the station maintains no physical presence there.

Block formerly operated a CW affiliate with theWBKI-TVcall sign on channel 34, licensed toCampbellsville, Kentucky,under alocal marketing agreement(LMA) with owner LM Communications,LLC.Following the sale of channel 34's spectrum in theFederal Communications Commission(FCC)'sincentive auction,the Campbellsville stationceased broadcastingon October 25, 2017 (with its license canceled onOctober 31); its channels are now broadcast solely through channel 58 on that station's license.

History

The station first signed on the air on March 16, 1994, as WFTE, with thecall lettersbeing an abbreviation of its channel number. Branded on-air as "Big 58", it originally operated as anindependent station.It was originally licensed to Salem, Indiana businessman Don Martin Jr. Martin sold the license in 1993 to another Salem businessman, Tom Ledford, who worked with WDRB to program the station under one of the earliestlocal marketing agreementsin existence. WFTE also aired thepolice proceduralseriesNYPD Blueduring the 1994–95 season asABCaffiliateWHAS-TV(channel 11) declined to carry the program, as many ABC affiliates in theSouthern United Statesdid when it premiered, but would later cede to viewer and advertiser pressure to carry it when the show gained traction in the national ratings.

The original logo for channel 58 under its original WFTE calls is visible on the sign at the entrance of its shared transmitter with WDRB north of Louisville atopFloyds Knobs, Indiana;it was only used for one year before it took on UPN's affiliate design language upon that network's launch.

The station became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN), when the network launched on January 16, 1995. Block Communications purchased the station outright in 2001, creating the first television duopoly in the Louisville market; that year, the station was rebranded as "Great 58," becoming one of the few full-time UPN affiliates not to incorporate any network branding during its tenure with the network.

On January 24, 2006,CBS Corporationand theWarner Bros.unit ofTime Warnerannounced that the two companies would shut down UPN andThe WB,and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.On March 1, 2006, WB affiliateWBKI-TV(channel 34) signed an agreement to become Louisville's CW affiliate, becoming among the first stations outside the charterTribune BroadcastingandCBS Television Stationsgroups to sign affiliation deals with the network.

On February 22, 2006,News Corporationannounced the launch ofMyNetworkTV,a new "sixth" network that would be operated byFox Television Stationsand its syndication division20th Television.MyNetworkTV was created to compete against another upstart network that would launch at the same time that September, The CW (an amalgamated network that originally consisted primarily of UPN and The WB's higher-rated programs) as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.Fifteen days after WBKI's affiliation deal with The CW was announced, on March 15, 2006, WFTE signed a deal to affiliate with MyNetworkTV.Block Communications filed an application with theFederal Communications Commissionto change the station's call letters to WMYO (to reflect its new network affiliation, standing for "MyNetworkTV Ohio Valley" ) on July 7, 2006; the station joined the network when it launched on September 5, 2006.

In early 2011, themaster controloperations for WDRB and WMYO were upgraded to allow the transmission of syndicated and locally produced programs inhigh definition;it also upgraded its severe weather ticker seen on both stations to be overlaid on HD programming without having to downconvert the content tostandard definition.

Channel 58 has been co-operated with WDRB since coming to the air in 1995 from the latter's studio on Muhammad Ali Blvd. in downtown Louisville.

On June 1, 2012, WMYO, WDRB and their respective subchannels were pulled from the market's major cable providerInsight Communications,as Block was unable to come to terms on a newretransmission consentagreement withTime Warner Cable(which purchased Insight in February 2012 and officially took over and rebranded the company under the Time Warner Cable name in 2013).Great American Countrytemporarily replaced WMYO on its designated slots on channel 10 and digital channel 999. The affected stations were restored on June 6, 2012, as a result of a new carriage agreement between Block and TWC. According to the contract terms, WMYO is offered at no cost, with all fees going towards carriage of WDRB and affiliation dues that Block pays to Fox and MyNetworkTV.

On February 12, 2018, the station took the WBKI-TV callsign formerly associated with the Campbellsville-licensed CW affiliate which existed from 1983 to 2017 on channel 34 and had their programming merged onto after WBKI's sale of spectrum in October 2017; its channels were numbered 34 in the interim period. The same day, Block downgraded the former WMYO schedule onto its DT3 subchannel, making The CW schedule the primary affiliation and ended their use of the defunct channel 34 allocation. This solved an issue whereDirecTVandDishrefused to carry the new form of WBKI and its CW schedule as a subchannel, though WMYO's carriage for the MyNetworkTV subchannel on those providers was sacrificed as a result (but retained as-is on area cable providers). Block coordinated with New Albany Broadcasting, the owners of WKYI-CD (channel 24) to finesse the callsign change; WKYI took the calls WBKI-CD temporarily in November 2017 (with the WKYI calls moving to New Albany'sradio station on 1600 AMuntil being abandoned in August 2022), then exchanged those calls for the calls of WMYO on February 12, thus channel 24 now holds the call lettersWMYO-CD,preventing any re-use (or at least allowing New Albany and Block to sell them at a premium to another out-of-market station). The "-TV" suffix was dropped on February 19.

Programming

WBKI-DT3 is utilized as an 'overflow' station for WDRB's newscasts (especially the 10 p.m. newscast), whenFox Sportsprogramming overlays the timeslot. Both WBKI-DT1 and WBKI-DT3 carry an alert map display denoted with WDRB's news logo on the bottom of the screen during severe weather situations affecting theKentuckianaregion, and may break into both stations' programming in rare weather or news situations.

Sports programming

WMYO formerly carriedIndiana HoosiersandBig Ten Conferencefootballand men'sbasketballgames; this ended when the conference moved all of its non-network games to the cable- and satellite-exclusiveBig Ten Networkwhen it launched in 2007. WMYO also carried someNotre Dame Fighting Irish footballgames televised byNBCin lieu ofWAVE(channel 3), during situations in which the games conflicted with the station's telecasts ofSoutheastern Conferencecollege football games (which were syndicated by corporate parentRaycom Media's sports divisionRaycom Sports) until Raycom's contract with the SEC ended in 2009. It also broadcastIndianapolis Coltspreseason games, home and away. In 2017, WMYO carried eightLouisville City FCsoccer matches as part of their three-station broadcast deal with WDRB andWBNA.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels provided by WBKI (ATSC 1.0)

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming	ATSC 1.0 host
58.1	720p	16:9	WBKI-CW	The CW	WAVE
58.2	480i		COZI	Cozi TV
58.3	720p		My_TV	MyNetworkTV	WDRB
58.4	480i		Movies!	Movies!	WLKY
58.5			Mystery	Ion Mystery	WDRB
58.6			Defy	Ion Plus

The station launched its seconddigital subchannelin early 2011, which initially carried only atest pattern(with a coded textstation IDreading "WMYO58-2SALM" ) until December 1, 2011; on that date, the subchannel became a charter affiliate of My Family TV (which was of no relation to MyNetworkTV, despite the similar naming scheme; the network was rebranded asThe Family Channelin December 2013).

On July 17, 2012, WMYO began carrying a simulcast ofCampbellsville-licensed CW affiliate WBKI-TV (channel 34) in the720phigh definition format (a downconverted signal of WBKI's main channel that broadcast in the1080iformat) on a new third digital subchannel. This gave WBKI full over-the-air signal coverage throughout the Louisville market, as its transmitter was located inRaywick(about 65 miles (105 km) south of Louisville), requiring it to rely mostly on cable to cover the market. The simulcast on WMYO (which was remapped as virtual channel 34.1 to correspond with WBKI's PSIP channel) resulted from the formation of a local marketing agreement between Block Communications and new WBKI owner LM Communications, LLC.Sometime in late March 2014, the station relaunched 58.3, which had the PSIP label "COZI TV" and featured only SMPTE color bars.Cozi TVprogramming began sometime on April 1, 2014. The Family Channel was subsequently removed from 58.2 in late August 2014, with Cozi moving up to the 58.2 slot. A fourth subchannel was put into service on September 1, 2014, as a simulcast of WBKI-DT2, which carriesMovies!.

On April 13, 2017, the FCC announced that WBKI had successfully sold their spectrum in the 2016spectrum auctionfor $20 million without any outside channel sharing agreement. With Block already having divided up WMYO's channel successfully with WBKI's subchannels, the simulcast was discontinued with WBKI-TV's owner taking the station silent on October 25, 2017, leaving 34.1 and 34.2 exclusive to WMYO and effectively being the last step in a 'merger' between the two stations ongoing since 2012. Under the current WBKI calls, its physical channel was moved to channel 16 on October 18, 2019, as part of the FCC's spectrum reallocation.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBKI (as WMYO) discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHFchannel 58, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 51,usingvirtual channel58.

ATSC 3.0 lighthouse

Subchannels of WBKI (ATSC 3.0)

Channel	Short name	Programming
3.1	3nxtgen	NBC(WAVE)
11.1	WHAS-HD	ABC(WHAS-TV)
21.1	WBNA-DT	Independent
32.1	WLKY-HD	CBS(WLKY)
41.1	WDRB-4K	Fox(WDRB)
58.1	WBKI-4K	The CW

Subchannel broadcast withdigital rights management

Out-of-market coverage

In theBowling Green, Kentuckymedia market, the station, as WMYO, was previously carried on the cable systems of theGlasgowElectric Plant Board, in spite of the close proximity ofWUXP-TVinNashville.It was also available on the cable system of the South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative (also based in Glasgow), which servesBarren,Hart,andMetcalfecounties in the Bowling Green market. In January 2015, both cable providers dropped WMYO as Bowling Green's then-new MyNetworkTV outletWCZU-LD(now aCourt TVaffiliate), which also hadAntenna TVas a primary affiliation outside of MyNetworkTV prime time hours, claimed market exclusivity.WBKO-DT2also did the same for Fox, and WDRB was also removed.Today,WDNZ-LDhas the MyNetworkTV affiliation in Bowling Green.

External links

• Official website