WDKA

Not to be confused withKDKA-TV.

WDKA

Paducah, Kentucky Harrisburg, Illinois Cape Girardeau, Missouri United States
City	Paducah, Kentucky
Channels	Digital:25 (UHF) Virtual:49
Branding	My 49 WDKA
Programming
Affiliations	49.1:MyNetworkTV for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Community News Media (Paducah Television LicenseLLC)
Sister stations	KBSI
History
Founded	October 2, 1989
First air date	June 5, 1997(1997-06-05)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:49 (UHF, 1997–2009) Digital:50 (UHF, 2000–2010), 49 (UHF, 2010–2019)
Former affiliations	UPN(1997–2000) The WB(2000–2006)
Call signmeaning	Paducah (soundalike "K" substituting for "C" )
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	39561
ERP	1,000kW
HAAT	327 m (1,073 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	37°23′42″N88°56′23″W
Translator(s)	KBSI-DT23.2 (22.2 UHF) Cape Girardeau, MO
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	kbsi23.com

WDKA(channel 49) is atelevision stationlicensed toPaducah, Kentucky,United States, serving as theMyNetworkTVaffiliate forWestern Kentucky'sPurchaseregion,Southern Illinoisand SoutheasternMissouri,andNorthwest Tennessee.It is owned by the Community News Media subsidiary ofStandard MediaalongsideCape Girardeau, Missouri–licensedFoxaffiliateKBSI(channel 23). Both stations share studios on Enterprise Street in Cape Girardeau, while WDKA's transmitter is located inVienna, Illinois.

In addition to its own digital signal, WDKA issimulcastinstandard definitionon KBSI's seconddigital subchannel(23.2) from a transmitter north of Cape Girardeau inunincorporatedCape Girardeau County.

History

WDKA began broadcasting on June 5, 1997. It was aUPNaffiliate broadcasting ananalogsignal on UHF channel 49.In 2000, WDKA switched affiliations withlow-poweredstationWQTV-LP(licensed toMurray, Kentucky) and repeater WQWQ-LP to become an affiliate ofThe WB.In September 2006, The WB and UPN merged to becomeThe CW,and WQTV-LP was announced to become The CW affiliate for Paducah in advance of the merger. As a result, WDKA became affiliated with MyNetworkTV when it launched on September 5.

On August 30, 2014, WDKA became a charter affiliate of Sinclair's ad-hoc syndicated television network, theAmerican Sports Network.ASN providedOhio Valley ConferencebasketballandConference USAfootballand basketball games to the station's viewers.The ASN's programming content replacedSoutheastern Conferencefootball and basketball broadcasts fromESPN Plus-orientedSEC TV,which was run from 2009 until 2014, which was discontinued because of the launch of the pay TV-exclusiveSEC Network.

On March 3, 2016, WDKA Acquisition Corporation (owned by Paul T. Lucci) filed to sell WDKA to Sinclair's subsidiary WDKA Licensee, LLC.Sinclair bought the station for $1.9 million.The sale was completed on September 1, 2017.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WDKA

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
49.1	720p	16:9	WDKA-DT	Main WDKA programming /MyNetworkTV
49.2	480i		Charge!	Charge!
49.3			TBD	TBD
49.4			TheNest	The Nest
49.5			DABL	Dabl
49.6			CourtTV	Court TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WDKA shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 49, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50,usingvirtual channel49.

Spectrum reallocation

In October 2019, WDKA reallocated its digital signal onto UHF channel 25 as a result of the station's participation in the FCC's spectrum incentive auction.