City Paducah | Branding My 49 WDKA | |
Channels Digital: 49 (UHF) &
KBSI-DT 22.2 (UHF)
Virtual: 49 (PSIP) Subchannels 49.1 MyNetworkTV
49.2 Charge!
49.3 TBD Affiliations MyNetworkTV (2006–present) Owner Paul T. Lucci
(WDKA Acquisition Corporation) | ||
WDKA is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Jackson Purchase area of Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, and Southeastern Missouri that is licensed to Paducah, Kentucky. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 49 from a transmitter in Vienna, Illinois. Owned by Paul T. Lucci, the station is operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by the Sinclair Broadcast Group as sister to Fox affiliate KBSI. The two stations share studios on Enterprise Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
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It can also be seen on KBSI's second digital subchannel (UHF channel 22.2) in standard definition from a transmitter north of Cape Girardeau in rural Cape Girardeau County.
History
WDKA began broadcasting on June 5, 1997. It was a UPN affiliate broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 49. In 2000, WDKA switched affiliations with low-powered station WQTV-LP (licensed to Murray, Kentucky) and repeater WQWQ-LP to become an affiliate of The WB. The station became a MyNetworkTV affiliate on September 5, 2006. In the same month, The WB and UPN merged to become The CW, and WQTV-LP was announced to become The CW affiliate for Paducah.
GetTV, a new movie-oriented network owned by Sony Pictures Television, started broadcasting over WDKA-DT2 in July 2014 (exact date unknown) as part of a deal with Sinclair Broadcasting to add 33 markets to GetTV's roster of affiliates.
On August 30, 2014, WDKA became a charter affiliate of Sinclair's ad-hoc syndicated television network, the American Sports Network. The ASN provides Ohio Valley Conference basketball and Conference USA football and basketball games to the station's viewers. The ASN's programming content replaces Southeastern Conference football and basketball broadcasts from ESPN Plus-oriented SEC TV, which was run from 2009 until 2014, which was discontinued because of the launch of the cable-exclusive SEC Network.
On March 3, 2016, WDKA Acquisition Corporation filed to sell WDKA to Sinclair's subsidiary WDKA Licensee, LLC. Sinclair bought the station for $1.9 million.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
WDKA-DT2
WDKA-DT2 previously aired TheCoolTV from 2010 until August 31, 2012. It went silent for two years before becoming a GetTV affiliate in Summer 2014. On February 28, 2017, WDKA-DT2 became affiliated with an action-based network Charge!
WDKA-DT3
As a part of a deal involving several Sinclair Broadcast Group owned stations similar to the earlier deal between Sinclair and TheCoolTV, WDKA-DT3 was added to carry The Country Network on September 18, 2010. The Country Network changed its name and was rebranded to ZUUS Country on June 1, 2013. On February 28, 2017, WDKA-DT3 became affiliated with the TBD network.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WDKA shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 49, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 49.