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WKPC-TV is a non-commercial public television station that is licensed to and located in Louisville, Kentucky. The station is a broadcast relay station of the Kentucky Educational Television network (KET). As a KET satellite, the station is a PBS affiliate owned by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The station’s master control hub and internal operations are located at KET’s main studios at the O. Leonard Press Telecommunications Center in Lexington, Kentucky. The station transmits its signal on UHF channel 17 (virtual channel 15 via PSIP) from its transmitter located in the tower farm at Floyd Knobs, in Floyd County, Indiana, hence making it and sister station WKMJ-TV the only two KET stations whose transmitters are located outside of Kentucky.

History

The station began broadcasting on September 5, 1958 as WFPK-TV, an affiliate of National Educational Television. Originally licensed to the Louisville Free Public Library, which also owned WFPK radio, it was the first educational television station to sign on in the state of Kentucky. [1]In the first few years on the air, the station only broadcast programs for 6 1/2 hours per day, mainly during school hours. The station expanded programming schedule to at least the primetime hours by the mid to late 1960s. The station joined PBS when it succeeded NET in October 1970. [2]

Even after the Kentucky Educational Television (KET) network signed on in late September 1968, WFPK was the only standalone educational television outlet in the state. Louisville wasn’t directly served by a KET satellite until the network signed on WKMJ-TV on August 31, 1970. In the same year, WFPK’s call letters were changed to the current WKPC-TV after it was acquired by the Jefferson County Board of Education at some point in the early 1970s. At some time between 1981 and 1984, the license was transferred to Fifteen Telecommunications, Inc., with the station retaining the PBS affiliation.[3]

WKPC-TV was sold to the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television on May 30, 1997. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission three days later, on June 2. WKPC became part of the statewide KET network on July 1, 1997. This made Western Kentucky University’s PBS affiliate WKYU-TV of Bowling Green, which signed on in January 1989, the only remaining standalone PBS affiliate in Kentucky that is not aligned with KET. WKMJ-TV, the original KET station in Louisville since 1970, went silent for approximately one calendar month for a transmitter upgrade before becoming the charter station for KET2, the network’s second programming service. [4] [5]

Digital television

Main article: Kentucky Educational Television § Digital television

WKPC’s digital television companion, WKPC-DT, was launched over digital UHF channel 17, on August 19, 1999. WKPC-DT is Kentucky’s first ever digital television station, and the first KET station to broadcast in digital. Paul E. Patton, who was Governor of Kentucky at the time, turned on the digital signal as part of the opening day festivities of that year’s Kentucky State Fair at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center on the south side of Louisville. [6] [7]

WKPC-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15 in compliance with the 2009 digital television transition. Even though the mandatory deadline was moved from the original February 17 deadline to June 12, 2009, the analog signal was shut down on April 16. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 15. [8] [9]

Programming

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Kentucky Educational Television

Signal coverage

Over-the-air

Both WKPC and WKMJ’s signals, which both cover the same areas as each other, cover more of the Indiana side of the Louisville than the Kentucky side. The signal of both stations can be received from Elizabethtown to just short of North Vernon, Indiana, and from Paoli, Indiana to just short of Frankfort. [10] Areas to the northeast of Louisville can also pick up the signal of WKON-TV/Owenton, and the southern portions of the Louisville market can also pick up that of WKZT-TV Elizabethtown, mainly in areas from Louisville’s southern suburbs to near Munfordville.

Cable carriage

On satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network, both WKPC and WKMJ are available in the Louisville DMA in its entirety.

KET is available on all of Kentucky’s cable systems. Charter/Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable) also carries both of KET’s Louisville stations, along with the Kentucky Channel, on all of its Louisville market systems, including in the Metro Louisville area, and in Floyd, Clark, and Harrison Counties in southern Indiana. Other Indiana cable coverage that WKPC has includes but not limited to the Comcast/Xfinity system in Tell City, Indiana, and Spectrum systems in Perry County, Indiana. [11] The network is not available on all Louisville market systems on the Indiana side; some systems in the northern and northwestern sections of the market’s Indiana counties carry Bloomington, Indiana’s WTIU instead.

References

  1. ^ ”Directory of Radio Stations in the United States and Canada”. Broadcasting Yearbook 1965. Washington, DC: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1965. p. A-22. [1]
  2. ^ ”Directory of Radio Stations in the United States and Canada”. Broadcasting Yearbook 1974. Washington, DC: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1974. p. A-24. [2]
  3. ^ ”Directory of Radio Stations in the United States and Canada”. Broadcasting Yearbook 1984. Washington, DC: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1984. p. C-23. [3]
  4. ^ KET Milestones (1997-1998) Archived from the original May 6, 2001. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Press Release (May 30, 1997). “KET Acquires WKPC/Channel 15 License”. KET. Archived from the original July 22, 1997. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  6. ^ KET Milestones (1999-2000). Archived from the original May 6, 2001. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
  7. ^ Experience the Future with KET. Archived from the original May 1, 2001. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  8. ^ "Calls come after KET, WKYT digital TV transition". Lexington Herald-Leader. April 17, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2017. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
  9. ^ "The Digital Transition: The Malcolm (Mac) Wall Years". KET. Kentucky Educational Television. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
  10. ^ Maps of the coverage areas of all Full-power stations in Louisville, Kentucky. Fedreal Communications Commission (2009).
  11. ^ KET Cable and Satellite Company Channel Listings

External links

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