Branding The CW Lexington Affiliations The CW (2006–present) | Slogan TV Now Founded 2004 | |
Channels Digital: WKYT-DT 36.2 (UHF)
Virtual: 27.2 (PSIP) Owner Gray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC) | ||
WKYT-DT2 is the Lexington, Kentucky area affiliate of The CW Television Network. It is a digital subchannel of CBS-affiliated station WKYT owned by Gray Television. Over the air, it broadcasts a high-definition signal on UHF Channel 36.2 from a transmitter east of the junction of Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 60. The studios of its parent station is located on Winchester Road (US 60) on the east side of Lexington within a mile of the studios of competing ABC-affiliate WTVQ-DT and MyNetworkTV-affiliate WTVQ-DT2.
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The station is also received on cable throughout much of eastern, southern and northern Kentucky.
History
WKYT-DT2 signed on as a UPN affiliate in September 2004, replacing WBLU-LP (which was a secondary WB affiliate from 1999 to 2003), which became an independent station afterwards. It was originally branded as UPN Lexington, or "UKYT." The subchannel served as Lexington's UPN affiliate until the network merged with The WB in September 2006 to create The CW Television Network.
In September 2006, WKYT-DT2 was announced as Lexington's affiliate of The CW. From then until 2013, it was branded as The CWKYT (a portmanteau of the subchannel's affiliated network and the station's callsign).
Until October 2006, WBKI, the WB (now CW) affiliate in Louisville (licensed to Campbellsville) was the default WB/CW affiliate over the air and on Insight (now Time Warner Cable) systems in the Lexington market. Insight dropped WBKI to accommodate WKYT-DT2 as the new CW affiliate that same month. The station now can be viewed on DirecTV, Dish Network, and Insight (now) Time Warner Cable in the Lexington market. WNUV in Baltimore, Maryland was designated as the default WB/CW affiliate on DirecTV before this change. WBKI can still be viewed over-the-air in many locations between Louisville and Lexington, and now in southern Indiana via WMYO's signal.
The channel was rebranded as "The CW Lexington" in January 2013. In 2014, Gray Television extended affiliation deals with The CW, thereby WKYT-DT2 remaining the CW outlet for Lexington.
General programming
WKYT-DT2 clears the entire CW network schedule, along with some syndicated programming, including Anger Management, Hot Bench, Family Feud, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, and Kentucky Afield, among others. In addition to The CW's Saturday morning programming block, WKYT-DT2 also broadcasts the Fox network's Xploration Station block on Sunday mornings since it was turned down by the local Fox affiliate, WDKY-TV.
Sports programming
WKYT-DT2 has been the Lexington home of Atlantic Coast Conference Football and basketball broadcasts from the Raycom Sports-operated ACC Network since 2012, two years before the University of Louisville Cardinals officially became a member of that conference. It currently shares the ACC Network programming with the main channel.
The KHSAA High School Boys and Girls Sweet 16 Basketball Championship Games are also aired on the station in March.