Branding Fox 56 (general)Fox 56 News (newscasts) Subchannels 56.1 Fox56.2 Comet56.3 Charge!56.4 TBD | ||
WDKY-TV, UHF digital channel 31 (virtual channel 56), is the Fox-affiliated television station for Lexington, Kentucky, United States, that is licensed to nearby Danville. Its transmitter is located southeast of Lexington. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has offices on Euclid Avenue in Lexington's Chevy Chase neighborhood but broadcasts newscasts from WKYT's studio on Winchester Road. Syndicated programming on WDKY includes Maury, The Steve Harvey Show, and Judge Judy, among others.
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The station can be viewed in the Lexington area on Charter Spectrum channels 7 (SD) and 910 (HD). Cable subscribers in Frankfort can view WDKY on Frankfort Plant Board channels 5 (SD) and 505 (HD).
History
WDKY began broadcasting on February 10, 1986 as an independent station. The station was founded by John D. Backe. For a few months, WDKY and then-independent station WLKT (now off the air) competed with each other for the best programming and movies and even airing the Independent Network News. On October 9, 1986, the station became a charter affiliate of Fox. The station began operating from studio facilities located at 434 Interstate Avenue in Lexington. Backe sold WDKY to the MMC Television Corporation in 1989. MMC in turn sold the station to Superior Communications in 1992. In 1996, the station relocated to its current studios on Euclid Avenue in Lexington's Chevy Chase neighborhood. That same year, WDKY and sister station KOCB in Oklahoma City were both acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
On May 15, 2012, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's 19 Fox stations, including WDKY-TV, that will run through 2017.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WDKY-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal moved from its pre-transition VHF channel 4 to UHF channel 31. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 56, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
Programming
Until 2014, the station cleared the entire Fox network schedule; however the entire Sinclair chain opted not to clear Xploration Station when it was launched that fall, allowing the station to continue airing Weekend Marketplace on Saturday mornings instead.
WDKY-DT2
WDKY-DT2 was launched in 2011 to serve as an affiliate of TheCoolTV, which is a digital multi-cast network that only broadcasts music videos. The subchannel went silent in 2012 due to poor viewership ratings. In 2014, WDKY-DT2 was relaunched to serve as an affiliate of Sony Pictures Television's GetTV movie channel as part of an affiliation deal between GetTV and Sinclair Broadcasting. WDKY-DT2 is also the Lexington market's home for the Conference USA and Ohio Valley Conference sports syndication packages from Sinclair's syndicated sports programming service, the American Sports Network, hence the sub-channel being transmitted in widescreen standard definition.
On January 15, 2016, WDKY announced the launch of Comet on 56.2, dropping GetTV. WDKY also commented that ASN programming will be shared with 56.3.
WDKY-DT3
In 2015, WDKY-DT3 was launched to serve as an affiliation with another upstart movie network, Grit. WDKY-DT3 also shares ASN programming with WDKY-DT2.
Newscasts
In 1995, CBS affiliate WKYT-TV began producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast. On March 12, 2007, WDKY began airing an hour of news on weekday mornings at 7 a.m., that is also produced by WKYT. Weeknights at 10:45, there is a 15-minute sports replay show called the Fox 56 Sports Extra. All news programs originate from WKYT's studios on Winchester Road in the Brighton section of Lexington. On April 11, 2008, WKYT began broadcasting WDKY's newscasts in high definition becoming the first station in Kentucky to make the transition. The WDKY newscasts were included in the upgrade, making WDKY the first Sinclair station to air local news in high definition.