WMYO

WMYO
Louisville, Kentucky
United States
City Salem, Indiana
Branding WMYO, MyTV 58
Channels Digital: 51 (UHF)
Virtual: 58 (PSIP)
Subchannels 58.1 MyNetworkTV
58.2 COZI TV
34.1 The CW (WBKI-TV)
34.2 Movies! (WBKI-DT2)
Affiliations MyNetworkTV
Owner Block Communications
(Independence Television Company)
First air date March 16, 1994 (1994-03-16)
Call letters' meaning MYNetworkTV Ohio Valley
Sister station(s) WDRB, WBKI-TV
Former callsigns WFTE (1994–2006)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
58 (UHF, 1994–2009)
Former affiliations Independent (1994–1995)
UPN (1995–2006)
The Family Channel (Formerly My Family TV) (DT2, 2012–2014)
Transmitter power 1000 kW
Height 390.4 metres (1,281 ft)
Facility ID 34167
Transmitter coordinates 38°21′0″N 85°50′57″W / 38.35000°N 85.84917°W / 38.35000; -85.84917
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.wmyo.com/

WMYO, virtual channel 58 (UHF digital channel 51), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station serving Louisville, Kentucky, United States that is licensed to Salem, Indiana (as such, it is the only full-power Louisville-area station licensed to the Indiana side of the market). The station is owned by Block Communications, as part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate WDRB (channel 41); Block also operates Campbellsville-licensed CW affiliate WBKI-TV (channel 34) under a local marketing agreement with owner LM Communications, LLC. WDRB and WMYO share studio facilities located on West Muhammad Ali Bloulevard (near Route 150) in downtown Louisville, and its transmitter is located in rural northeastern Floyd County, Indiana (northeast of Floyds Knobs). On cable, WMYO is available on Time Warner Cable channel 10 and in high definition on digital channel 915.

History

The station first signed on the air on March 16, 1994, as WFTE. Branded on-air as "Big 58," it originally operated as an independent station. It was originally licensed to Salem, Indiana businessman Don Martin, Jr. Martin sold the license in 1993 to another Salem businessman, Tom Ledford, who worked with WDRB to program the station under one of the earliest local marketing agreements in existence. WFTE also aired the police procedural series NYPD Blue during the 1994-95 season as ABC affiliate WHAS-TV (channel 11) declined to carry the program, as many ABC affiliates in the Southern U.S. did when it premiered, but would later cede to viewer and advertiser pressure to carry it when the show gained traction in the national ratings.

The station became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN), when the network launched on January 16, 1995. Block Communications purchased the station outright in 2001, creating the first television duopoly in the Louisville market; that year, the station was rebranded as "Great 58," becoming one of the few full-time UPN affiliates not to incorporate any network branding during its tenure with the network.

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner announced that the two companies would shut down UPN and The WB, and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[1][2] On March 1, 2006, WB affiliate WBKI-TV (channel 34) signed an agreement to become Louisville's CW affiliate, becoming among the first stations outside the charter Tribune Broadcasting and CBS Television Stations groups to sign affiliation deals with the network.

On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a new "sixth" network that would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to compete against another upstart network that would launch at the same time that September, The CW (an amalgamated network that originally consisted primarily of UPN and The WB's higher-rated programs) as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.[3][4] Fifteen days after WBKI's affiliation deal with The CW was announced, on March 15, 2006, WFTE signed a deal to affiliate with MyNetworkTV.[5] Block Communications filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to change the station's call letters to WMYO (to reflect its new network affiliation) on July 7, 2006; the station joined the network when it launched on September 5, 2006.[6]

In early 2011, the master control operations for WDRB and WMYO were upgraded to allow the transmission of syndicated and locally produced programs in high definition; it also upgraded its severe weather ticker seen on both stations to be overlaid on HD programming without having to downconvert the content to standard definition.

On June 1, 2012, WMYO, WDRB and their respective subchannels were pulled from the market's major cable provider Insight Communications, as Block was unable to come to terms on a new retransmission consent agreement with Time Warner Cable (which purchased Insight in February 2012 and officially took over and rebranded the company under the Time Warner Cable name in 2013).[7] Great American Country temporarily replaced WMYO on its designated slots on channel 10 and digital channel 999. The affected stations were restored on June 6, 2012, as a result of a new carriage agreement between Block and TWC. According to the contract terms, WMYO is offered at no cost, with all fees going towards carriage of WDRB and affiliation dues that Block paid to Fox and MyNetworkTV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[8]
58.1 720p 16:9 WMYO-DT Main WMYO programming / MyNetworkTV
58.2 480i 4:3 COZI TV Cozi TV
34.1 720p 16:9 WBKI-DT Simulcast of WBKI-TV / The CW [9]
34.2 480i MOVIES! Simulcast of WBKI-DT2 / Movies!

The station launched its second digital subchannel in early 2011, which initially carried only a test pattern (with a coded text station ID reading "WMYO58-2SALM") until December 1, 2011; on that date, the subchannel became a charter affiliate of My Family TV (which was of no relation to MyNetworkTV, despite the similar naming scheme; the network changed their name to The Family Channel in December 2013).

On July 17, 2012, WMYO began carrying a simulcast of Campbellsville-licensed CW affiliate WBKI-TV (channel 34) in the 720p high definition format (a downconverted signal of WBKI's main channel that broadcasts in the 1080i format) on a new third digital subchannel. This gave WBKI full over-the-air signal coverage throughout the Louisville market, as its transmitter is located in Raywick (about 65 miles (105 km) south of Louisville), requiring it to rely mostly on cable to cover the market. The simulcast on WMYO (which has since remapped the subchannel as virtual channel 34.1 to correspond with WBKI's PSIP channel) resulted from the formation of a local marketing agreement between Block Communications and new WBKI owner LM Communications, LLC.[10] Sometime in late March 2014, the station relaunched 58.3, which had the PSIP label "COZI TV" and featured only SMPTE color bars. Cozi TV programming began sometime on April 1, 2014. The Family Channel was subsequently removed from 58.2 in late August 2014, with Cozi moving up to the 58.2 slot. A fourth subchannel was put into service on September 1, 2014 as a simulcast of WBKI-DT2, which carries Movies!.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WMYO discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 58, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 51.[11] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 58, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Programming

Syndicated programs broadcast by WMYO (as of September 2015) include Maury, Community, The Office, Family Guy, Elementary, The Jerry Springer Show and The Simpsons. WMYO previously aired the syndicated morning news/talk program The Daily Buzz each weekday morning from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. (the program later moved to WBKI, and subsequently moved to WKYI-CD (channel 24), where it remained until that program's cancellation in April 2015). Occasionally as time permits, WMYO occasionally broadcasts WDRB's 10:00 p.m. newscast during instances in which a Fox Sports telecast or rarely, a special primetime movie scheduled by Fox is expected to run past 10:00 p.m.; in addition, the station carries an alert map display denoted with WDRB's news logo on the bottom of the screen during severe weather situations affecting the Kentuckiana region.

Sports programming

WMYO formerly carried Indiana Hoosiers and Big Ten Conference football and basketball games; this ended when the conference moved all of its non-network games to the cable- and satellite-exclusive Big Ten Network when it launched in 2007. WMYO also carried some Notre Dame football games televised by NBC in lieu of WAVE-TV (channel 3), during situations in which the games conflict with the station's telecasts of Southeastern Conference college football games (which were syndicated by corporate parent Raycom Media's sports division Raycom Sports) until the broadcast contract ended in 2009.

Out-of-market coverage

In the Bowling Green, Kentucky media market, WMYO was previously carried on the cable systems of the Glasgow Electric Plant Board, even though it was WUXP-TV in Nashville that was in closer proximity to that area. It was also available on the cable system of the South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative (also based in Glasgow), which serves Barren, Metcalfe, and Hart Counties in the Bowling Green market. In January 2015, Both cable providers dropped WMYO in favor of Bowling Green's new upstart MyNetworkTV outlet WCZU-LD, which also supplies Antenna TV programming to that area, hence the reason why WDRB and that station's second subchannel was also dropped. WDRB's main channel was also dropped, making WBKO-DT2 the sole Fox affiliate available on the two cable systems.[12][13][14][15]

The only other out-of-market coverage WMYO has is anyone in surrounding markets that pick up WMYO's signal with an antenna. Those areas include Frankfort and Lawrenceburg.

References

  1. ↑ 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.
  2. ↑ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
  3. ↑ "News Corp. to launch new mini-network for UPN stations". USA Today. February 22, 2006. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
  4. ↑ News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006.
  5. ↑ Romano, Allison (15 March 2006). "My Network TV Signs 13 More Affils". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  6. ↑ http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060620/COLUMNISTS15/606200330
  7. ↑ Farrell, Mike (31 May 2012). "Louisville Stations Could Go Dark on TWC; WDRB, WMYO Face Midnight Deadline". Multichannel News. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "RabbitEars.Info".
  9. ↑ "TV Schedule".
  10. ↑ Newkirk, Jake (16 July 2012). "WBKI coverage area expands greatly with addition to WMYO; CW programming in Louisville market can now be seen over the air on channel 58.3". Jake's DTV Blog. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  11. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  12. ↑ SCRTC Cable Channel Lineup for Barren, Hart, and Metcalfe Counties (January 2015) South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative
  13. ↑ Glasgow EPB Cable Channel Lineup Glasgow Electric Plant Board. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  14. ↑ Brown, James (December 2, 2014). "Glasgow Electric Plant Board's customers will see changes in channels and bills." Glasgow Daily Times. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  15. ↑ Overstreet, Melinda (December 11, 2014). "South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative Corp. program costs are going up". Glasgow Daily Times. Retrieved January 13, 2015.

External links

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