WKSO-TV


WKSO-TV, virtual channel 29, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to Somerset, Kentucky, United States. Owned by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, the station is operated as part of the statewide Kentucky Educational Television network. WKSO-TV's transmitter is located at Dye Knob, along the Pulaski–Casey county line on KY 837 near Mintonville.

History

WKSO signed on the air on September 23, 1968, as one of the ten charter stations of the Kentucky Educational Television network. The station is the first and only full-power television station locally based in Somerset, Kentucky. Although Knoxville, Tennessee, is the closest major city to much of this area, Somerset is included as part of the Lexington television market. Over-the-air reception of TV stations from both cities is possible in the lower Daniel Boone National Forest area, and cable systems in this area carry stations from their home market along with Knoxville stations. Two low-powered stations also serve the Somerset–London area.

Former translators

In Tompkinsville, WKSO-TV's signal was repeated via W55AL on analog UHF channel 55 from the 1990s until 2006. This translator mostly served Monroe County in south-central Kentucky, along with portions of neighboring Clay County, Tennessee. Those areas are included in the television market of Nashville, Tennessee.

Digital television

The station's digital television companion signal, WKSO-DT, along with the digital companions of thirteen other KET stations, signed on the air in May 2002.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On April 16, 2009, WKSO-TV shut down its analog signal on UHF channel 29 as part of the mandatory analog-to-digital television transition of 2009. All KET stations completed the transition on April 16. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14. Digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 29.

Spectrum auction results

WKSO-TV held a construction permit to move its digital signal to UHF channel 17 as part of the network's participation in the 2016–17 FCC Spectrum incentive auction. The station reallocated its digital signal to the new frequency on October 18, 2019; the station's virtual channel number remained the same.

Availability

Over-the-air

WKSO's signal mainly reaches the southern tier of counties in the Lexington media market, along with northern portions of the Knoxville market, as well as the far northeastern fringes of the Nashville market. Some southeastern counties of the Louisville market, as well as Metcalfe County, Kentucky, in the small Bowling Green market, are also within range of the signal coverage area. The signal can be picked up near Center to just west of Barbourville, and from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Byrdstown and Oneida, Tennessee. Other populated cities within range of WKSO include Campbellsville, Danville, London, and Mount Vernon, Kentucky, as well as Oneida and Jellico, Tennessee.
The station's broadcast coverage overlaps with other KET stations: network flagship station WKLE Lexington, WKZT-TV Elizabethtown, and WKHA Hazard. The network's satellites were strategically located to maximize signal coverage in the state of Kentucky. Portions of the WKSO signal coverage area can also pickup the signals of standalone PBS station WCTE from Cookeville, Tennessee, and WKOP-TV in Knoxville, which is part of the two-station East Tennessee PBS network.

Cable availability

KET's statewide cable coverage includes the local Mediacom systems in Casey and Lincoln Counties, along with Charter Spectrum systems in Somerset, London, Corbin, and Williamsburg, Duo County Cable in Russell County, and Community Telecom Services in Monticello. WKLE is the only KET station uplinked on satellite television in the Lexington market. The network is not available on satellite in Clinton, Cumberland, Monroe or McCreary Counties as those areas are within the out-of-state media market areas.