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WNKY-DT2

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WNKY-DT2 is the CBS-affiliated television station for South Central Kentucky. The station is a second digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WNKY owned by Max Media. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 16.2 (virtual channel 40.2 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Pilot Knob in Smiths Grove along I-65. Known on-air as CBS 40, its parent station has studios on Emmett Avenue in Bowling Green.

This station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channels 10 (SD) and 912 (HD), as well as Dish Network channel 4.[1] It can also be viewed on South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative (SCRTC) cable channels 2 (SD) and 302 (digital HD).[2]

There is no separate website for this station. From its inception until 2013, its local logo includes the network's "eye logo" representing the "0" in "40".

History

The CBS Television Network never had an affiliated station in the Bowling Green media market even after it was made out of areas that were formerly of the Nashville and Louisville markets. Bowling Green was one of the only few areas of the eastern United States east of the Mississippi River to not have their own CBS station. Two distant CBS affiliates were the default CBS stations for the Bowling Green area, and they were WTVF NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, and WLKY-TV channel 32 in Louisville. Cable providers in the area carried either one or both of these stations, so cable was necessary to get the two stations, although WTVF had a signal strong enough to cover most of the Bowling Green DMA.

In the Fall of 2006, when digital TV began to be more utilized, WNKY, the NBC affiliate in Bowling Green, signed a long-term agreement with CBS to air the network on a new second digital subchannel.[3] The new CBS-affiliated sub-channel officially launched as WNKY-DT2 on February 1, 2007.

ABC affiliate WBKO began carrying the Fox network (WNKY's original affiliated network 1992-2001) and The CW on their second and third digital subchannels, respectively, in September 2006, and now, with CBS available on WNKY-DT2, and with the MyNetworkTV programming service and classic TV-specialty network Antenna TV available via WCZU-LD channel 39 since early 2014, the only major network or programming service Bowling Green does not currently have is ION Television. ION is only available via cable or satellite television, or through ION O&O Cookeville-licensed WNPX-TV in Nashville, which would be the default over-the-air ION station.

In early January 2015 just before the 2014-15 NFL Playoffs, WNKY-DT2 began broadcasting in 16:9 Standard definition widescreen.

Availability

Despite the existence of WNKY-DT2, cable systems in the Bowling Green market still offer WTVF, along with WNKY-DT2, including Insight Communications (now Time Warner Cable). Glasgow's South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative (SCRTC) and Electric Plant Board cable systems carry WNKY-DT2, as well as the distant WTVF and WLKY.[4][5][6] At one point during the 1990s and 2000s, the SCRTC in Glasgow offered WKYT from Lexington on its cable lineup.

In Morgantown (Butler County) and Brownsville (Edmonson County), WTVF NewsChannel 5 remains available on Mediacom cable systems. WNKY-DT2 is also available to Mediacom's Butler and Edmonson County customers along with WTVF, with only one restriction: a digital-ready TV or a Mediacom digital converter is required for the recepton of WNKY-DT2.[7] Mediacom systems in Munfordville (Hart County) and Edmonton (Metcalfe County), however, still carries WLKY in Louisville, but WNKY-DT2 replaced WTVF as a second choice for CBS.[8]

Programming

General programming

Syndicated programming on WNKY-DT2, as of July 25, 2014, includes The Insider, Divorce Court, Modern Family, Judge Mathis, The Simpsons, and TMZ, among others.

WNKY-DT2 clears the entire CBS network schedule, including CBS This Morning (weekday and Saturday editions). Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Central Time Zone, The Young and the Restless actually airs on WNKY-DT2 at 11 a.m. CT, which is 30 minutes earlier than the time WTVF usually airs that program. Evansville's WEVV also airs that program at 11 a.m.

This station simulcasts weather updates from the main channel, which are aired at 4:55, 5:55, and 10:00 p.m. CT. WNKY-DT2 replayed the main channel's Bowling Green Today show at 9 a.m. until October 23, 2015, when it was replaced by SoKY Sunrise, which made its debut three days later. Weather forecasts from the station can be heard on WBGN-AM 1340, WBVR-FM 96.7, WUHU-FM 107.1, and WLYE-FM 94.1.

Sports programming

WNKY-DT2 is also Bowling Green's local home to the Tennessee Titans (based in nearby Nashville, TN) games since the 2007 NFL Season. This comes with the CBS affiliation, for the NFL on CBS carries all National Football League games played in the afternoon that feature a road team from the American Football Conference, in which the Titans play. In 2016, WNKY began broadcasting the Titans Preseason Football games that are not nationally televised. However, the first two games of the 2016 preseason were broadcast on WNKY-DT2 to avoid scheduling conflict with NBC's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics on the main channel. [9]

Because the University of Kentucky Wildcats and University of Louisville Cardinals men's basketball teams are long-time fixtures in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, a major windfall in ratings has been in store for WNKY-DT2. NCAA Tournament games on both WTVF and WNKY-DT2 are, in some cases, among the most-watched programs in the market during the tournament's run. However, the involvement of TNT, TBS, and TruTV in the rights to the tournament cuts into the ratings a little, depending on the scheduling of the games.

References