WNKY

As an independent station

Although granted a construction permit in 1983, the station did not begin broadcasting until December 17, 1989. At its sign-on, the outlet operated as an Independent under the call sign WQQB. Airing an analog signal on UHF channel 40, the station had a general entertainment format with a mixture of low-budget syndicated programming, like old movies, sitcoms, and cartoons. In its early days, the picture and sound quality of the station was very poor resulting in a low-budget feel. Programs would often broadcast mis-tracked, sticking, and skipping. Sometimes, the picture would appear clear but the sound would consist of complete static. It had little presence in the market at the time; indeed, most residents didn't even know it existed.

As a Fox affiliate

WQQB's original owner, Word Broadcasting Network, sold the station to Southeastern Communications for $1 million in 1991. On January 10, 1992, WQQB would not only change its call letters to WKNT, but the station would also become the area's first Fox affiliate, and adopt the then-new branding Fox 40. At one time during its time as a Fox station in the 1990s, WKNT broadcast select Southeastern Conference football games via Jefferson Pilot Sports until ABC affiliate WBKO took over to air those games to go with JP Sports (later Lincoln Financial Sports, now Raycom Sports) SEC basketball broadcasts in 2002. During the overnight hours (except Fridays), WKNT also aired programming from the Shop at Home Network from 1:00 to 5:00 a.m CT until that network's closure in 2005. Despite being a Fox affiliate, UPN's Disney's One Too also aired on the station from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. weekday mornings and from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. CT Sunday mornings to cover the Children's educational programming requirements. That programming block, which aired on the station until 2003, was the only UPN programming that was ever available in Bowling Green. Reception of WUXP in Nashville was necessary to receive all other UPN programming, as that station was the default UPN affiliate for the market.

On January 1, 1997, the operations of WKNT were taken over by Crossroads Communications under a local marketing agreement. Crossroads, a subsidiary of Northwest Broadcasting, would buy the station outright on July 17, 2000.

Switch to NBC

In March 2001, Fox announced that it had dropped its affiliation with WKNT, saying that the station did not comply with the terms of the affiliation agreement; almost immediately, NBC agreed to affiliate with the station. On March 27, 2001, the station changed its call sign to the current WNKY. At the same time, the station boosted its power from 776,000 watts to 1,640,000 directional with a null to the east. Previously, WBKO had been the only station in Bowling Green with a "Big Three" network, and WSMV in Nashville had been the default NBC affiliate for the area. Even after WNKY flipped to NBC, WSMV could still be received in the Bowling Green market in parts that WNKY could not, and certain cable systems still carried WSMV. Following the loss of channel 40's Fox affiliation, Bowling Green was served on cable and over-the-air by Nashville's Fox affiliate WZTV.

In March 2003, Northwest Broadcasting sold WNKY to Max Media for $7 million. On December 12 of that year, it signed-on a digital signal on UHF channel 16 from its transmitter tower in Smiths Grove. WNKY-DT was then added to digital cable systems including Insight in Bowling Green and the Electric Plant Board in Glasgow. On August 7, 2004, this signal began airing the NBC network programming in high definition. The upgrade was made in time to broadcast special coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics from Athens, Greece. WNKY also installed a Dolby model 569 AC-3 surround sound encoder to relay the 5.1 full surround audio from the network.

WNKY-CBS

In October 2006, WNKY reached an agreement with CBS to air that network on a new digital subchannel. It was officially launched as WNKY-DT2 on February 1, 2007. Until that point, the Bowling Green media market was one of the few areas east of the Mississippi River without its own CBS affiliate. The default CBS affiliates for the area were WTVF in Nashville and WLKY-TV in Louisville. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, they were both available on cable in Glasgow and Bowling Green. The distant CBS and NBC affiliates, including WSMV, have now been mostly removed from cable providers in Bowling Green. WBKO had launched two new subchannels to serve as Fox and CW affiliates, respectively, in September 2006. After WNKY added CBS in 2007, with WCZU-LD signing on in the first quarter of 2014 with MyNetworkTV and Antenna TV programming, Bowling Green now has all major television networks available in the area except for the ION Television programming service, which is majorly available on cable and satellite television via its national feed, or over-the-air via Cookeville-licensed ION Owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV. In spite of the existence of WNKY-DT2, WTVF remains available on Time Warner systems, and the cable systems of the South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative and the Glasgow Electric Plant Board. Both WNKY-DT2 and WTVF is also available to Mediacom cable customers in Butler and Edmonson Counties, including Morgantown and Brownsville, respectively. WTVF and WLKY are both available to Mediacom's customers in Park City.

Digital transition

On June 12, 2009, WNKY shut down its analog signal in compliance with the FCC-mandated digital TV transition of 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition channel assignment, UHF channel 16. Through the use of PSIP, viewers see it displayed as virtual channel 40, the station's former analog channel number. WNKY was the last station within the Bowling Green market to make the transition since the other three full-powered stations in the market shut down their analog signal at earlier dates.

2010s

On June 3, 2010, Dish Network began offering both of WNKY's digital subchannels, along with WBKO's ABC and Fox-affiliated subchannels on its system. Thanks to the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 of 2010 signed by President Barack Obama in the week prior to that change, viewers within the Bowling Green DMA who already subscribe to Dish can access WNKY and WNKY-DT2 on their system. Bowling Green area channels are not currently carried on DirecTV.

On November 5, 2013, the station's licensee, MMK License, was assessed a $39,000 fine by the Federal Communications Commission due to a mid-June 2012 ad filmed by and aired on the WNKY stations for a licensed sports apparel store which featured Emergency Alert System tones being used in a promotional and non-warning situation which went out over the air. WNKY's stations, in addition to the FCC fine, will also launch a local campaign about the EAS through their programs and the stations' website, air additional emergency preparation public service announcements, and lease space on their tower to the Warren County Emergency Management agency and the City of Bowling Green for modernized warning equipment.

On April 5, 2017, Max Media announced that it would sell WNKY to Marquee Broadcasting.

Cable carriage dispute

On January 1, 2015, the Glasgow Electric Plant Board dropped both of WNKY's digital subchannels from its lineup. The reason for that is because a 1,000 percent increase in cost was in store for cable carriage. Both WNKY and WNKY-DT2 returned to the EPB's cable lineup in February 2015 after agreeing on a 100 percent increase rather than the 1,000, but also were placed on different channels (WNKY on 16, and WNKY-DT2 on 23) as their positions were given to WTVF and WSMV; in addition, WNKY's HD signals are not seen on the system, with both WTVF and WSMV's high definition signals featured as the HD sources for CBS and NBC programming on the system.

Programming

Outside of NBC programming, syndicated programming on WNKY includes Entertainment Tonight, Jeopardy!, The Doctors, and Dish Nation, among others.

In 2016, WNKY began broadcasting Tennessee Titans preseason games not nationally televised. This would especially apply to non-Olympic years.

Newscasts

As the first commercial television station to launch in Bowling Green, ABC afifliate WBKO has been a longtime leader according to Nielsen ratings. Even after the sign-on of WQQB in 1989, WBKO has remained the dominant outlet for South Central Kentucky. However, it has also competed with Nashville stations transmitting rimshot signals into parts of the Bowling Green area. As the area's original Fox affiliate in the mid-1990s, WKNT established its own news department. Unable to gain consistent viewership and ratings against WBKO, channel 40's short lived full news operation was eventually shut down.

After the station's switch to NBC, WNKY simulcast WSMV's 10 p.m. newscasts from April 2001 until the end of the 2002-03 television season, when they were replaced with syndicated programming. However, only the intro originated from WNKY, and a WNKY logo was covering up WSMV's channel 4 logo, and WNKY's commercials usually cover up the commercials run by WSMV.

On September 10, 2005, WNKY slowly re-entered the market with an unusual weather-only approach. Instead of full newscasts, it offers weekday morning and nightly local weather forecast cut-ins provided through AccuWeather of State College, Pennsylvania. It began airing five-minute First Look AccuWeather forecasts on weeknights. In December of that year, weekend weather forecasts were added to the schedule at 10. In January 2006, local weather updates began airing during NBC's Today on weekday mornings from 7 until 11. It covers severe weather events in addition to the regular updates. Its weather team currently consists of three people although a fourth non-human member of the weather team, "Radar the Weather Dog", can also be seen on-air.

"Radar" is a Border Collie that was adopted from the Bowling Green/Warren County Humane Society in 2005, and has served as the station's mascot since the weather shows began with former meteorologist Chris Sowers. Viewers can often catch "Radar" interacting with one of the three meteorologists as they begin the weather updates. The weather dog idea may have been inspired by KPRC-TV in Houston which once had a "Radar, the Weather Dog". WNKY's former sister station in Tyler, Texas, KYTX, took a similar approach with "Stormy, the Weather Dog."

In late January 2009 in an attempt to increase its presence against WBKO, WNKY launched a weekday morning show known as Bowling Green Today. Airing for a half-hour at 6:30, the broadcast is produced in partnership with the Bowling Green Daily News. The newspaper provides short local news updates and WNKY produces traditional weather segments. The show is replayed at 9 in the morning on WNKY's CBS-affiliated second subchannel. Weather forecasts from this station can be heard on these radio stations: WBGN-AM 1340, WBVR-FM 96.7, WUHU-FM 107.1, and WLYE-FM 94.1. Despite airing a news program in the morning period, WNKY does not produce newscasts in the traditional 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm slots or on weekends.

During the Summer of 2012 television season, WNKY debuted a weekend news magazine program called In K.Y. News, which includes interviews and highlights many happenings in and around south central Kentucky.

On October 26, 2015, Bowling Green Today was renamed SoKY Sunrise, and was expanded to a one-hour program.

SoKY Sunrise

Weather

Out of Market Coverage

WNKY has limited out of market coverage, due in part of the station's 120,000 watts and the small signal coverage area, especially since the 2009 Digital TV transition. On the other hand, the station's signal can cover the northernmost areas of the Nashville media market, including Allen, Monroe, Simpson, and much of Logan County in southern Kentucky, along with much of Macon and Sumner counties of northern Middle Tennessee. Some Louisville market counties like Grayson and Green counties can also pick up WNKY's signal.

Suddenlink cable customers in Logan County, including Russellville and Lewisburg (but excluding Adairville), can access WNKY's main subchannel on cable channel 15. Both WNKY and WNKY-DT2 are available to Mediacom's cable customers in the Sonora and Upton area along Hardin County's boundary with Larue County.