Diemazz

WBKO
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Branding	WBKO WBKO Fox (on DT2) South Central Kentucky's CW (on DT3)
Slogan	Stay Connected
Channels	Analog: off-air due to flash-cut Digital: 13 (VHF, beginning on or after 12/22/2008)
Affiliations	ABC Fox (on DT2) The CW (on DT3)
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, Inc.)
First air date	June 3, 1962
Call letters’ meaning	We're Bowling Green, Kentucky's Own
Former callsigns	WLTV (1962-1971)
Former affiliations	Independent (1962-1967)
Transmitter Power	316 kW (analog) 490 kW (digital)
Height	226 m (analog) 202.6 m (digital)
Facility ID	4692
Transmitter Coordinates	37°3′49.4″N 86°26′6.7″W / 37.063722, -86.435194
Website	wbko.com

WBKO, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Bowling Green, Kentucky. Its transmitter is located in Richardsville on KY 185. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on Russellville Road (a.k.a. U.S. 68 and KY 80) in Bowling Green. Syndicated programming on WBKO includes: Wheel of Fortune, Oprah, and Ellen. The station operates the area's Fox affiliate on its second digital subchannel. Known on-air as WBKO Fox, it is also offered on Insight cable channel 8 with a high definition signal on Insight digital channel 910. Syndicated programming on WBKO-DT2 includes: Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, and Frasier. Overnight, it airs Jewelry Television paid programming. WBKO also operates the area's CW affiliate on its third digital subchannel. Known on-air as South Central Kentucky's CW, it is also offered on Insight cable channel 12. WBKO-DT3 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed.

History

WBKO's weeknight 6 o'clock news open.

The station began broadcasting on June 3, 1962 with the call letters WLTV (standing for Wonderful Live Television). It was an independent station owned by Argus Broadcasting and had studios located in rural Warren County outside Bowling Green proper. On March 6, 1967, WLTV became affiliated with ABC and aired all of its shows. After spending some time off-the-air in late-1969 due to an explosion destroying its transmitter, WLTV changed hands to Professional Telecasting Systems in 1970. The new owner adopted the current WBKO (meaning Bowling Green, Kentucky's Own) call sign and instituted color telecasting for local in-studio programming and newscasts in 1971. Also by this time, the station had moved to studios to downtown Bowling Green. Five years later, a local group known as Bluegrass Media, bought WBKO from Professional Telecasting. It remained in their hands until 1983 when broadcaster A. Richard Benedek took over. Under Benedek's management, WBKO built its present studios on Russellville Road in 1985.

In 2002, Benedek sold most of his stations (including WBKO) to current owner Gray Television. In 2000, the station began broadcasting a digital signal on UHF channel 33. Due to its fairly close proximity to Nashville, Tennessee (about 60 miles), WBKO has often competed with that market's ABC affiliate, WKRN, for viewing allegiances. WBKO was one of the few stations nationwide that refused to broadcast NYPD Blue its first season. From its startup, WBKO operated the area's cable-only WB affiliate "WBWG" that was known on-air as "WB 12". The call sign was fictional as the station was part of The WB 100+, a group of cable-only WB affiliates that broadcasted in television markets ranked above 100 (the Bowling Green market had a rank of 183). On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge.

The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On September 5, WBKO began to broadcast a Fox affiliate on a new second digital subchannel. This filled a gap created in 2001 when WNKY dropped its Fox affiliation and switched to NBC. The CW launched on September 18 and WBWG became affiliated with The CW via The CW Plus (which is a similar operation to The WB 100+). Also, the station's call letters became WBKO-DT3 officially after becoming available on a new third digital subchannel of WBKO. As a result of the addition of "WBKO Fox", Bowling Green now offers every major network except MyNetworkTV. At some point in time, WNKY has plans to add a new third digital subchannel to broadcast MyNetworkTV. If that network comes to Bowling Green, the city would be able to sustain its own complete television market without relying on other markets for programming.

On December 8, 2008, at 1:15 am CST (0715 UTC), WBKO shut down its analog transmitter in a flash-cut procedure.^[1][2] The station is in the process of installing its new digital antenna and other equipment. Originally, its over-the air digital signal was scheduled to move to VHF channel 13 on or immediately after December 22. However, due to inclement weather and the holiday season, the construction is taking longer, with eight more days of construction resuming on January 3, 2009.^[3] Due to the installation of the equipment at the transmitter site, the digital signal will be off the air during daytime hours.^[4] Until the completion of the over-the-air transition, WBKO can be seen non-stop on several cable systems.

News operation

The station's first newscasts were branded as Channel 13 News Report and began airing in 1963. In 1973, they became known as NewsCenter 13. Most recently, the newscasts were rebranded to the station's call letters. Currently, WBKO airs the only full-length local newscasts in the Bowling Green market as NBC / CBS affiliate WNKY shows only brief weather updates. WBKO does not air an early evening newscast on the weekends. WBKO-DT2 began broadcasting WBKO Fox News at 9 on October 21, 2007. Reporter Sarah Goebel briefly anchored the show until early-2008 when she was promoted to WBKO's weeknight 5, 6, and 10 o'clock broadcasts. Daniel Kemp anchored the show through early-June until moving to weekend anchor on "WBKO ABC". Julie Talley anchored for a short time in mid-2008, then reporter and internet producer Sam Provenzano anchored the show until its end. The show was canceled on November 28, 2008 due to financial issues. WBKO-DT2 continues to rebroadcast Midday Live at Noon. Like most CW plus affiliates, WBKO-DT3 airs the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz, on weekdays mornings from 5 to 9. WBKO operates its own weather radar, known as "First Alert Live Doppler", that is south central Kentucky's only live doppler radar.

News team

Anchors

• Laura Rogers - weekday mornings and 11 A.M.
• Lauren Hansen - weekday morings
• Darla Oglesby - weekdays at 11 A.M.
• Gene Birk - Managing Editor seen weeknights
• Sarah Goebel - weeknights
• Daniel Kemp - weekends at 10
• Lacey Steele - weekends at 10

First Alert Storm Team

• Chris Allen (NWA Seal of Approval) - Director seen weekday mornings
• Shane Holinde (NWA Seal of Approval) - weeknights
• Jason Berry - weekends

Sports

• James Brandenburg - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 10
• Jeff Woods - weekends and sports editor

Reporters

• Kirk Butts - internet reporter and producer
• Sam Provenzano - internet reporter and producer
• Lauren Hanson - general assignment and education
  • Assignment Manager
• Ryan Dearbone
• Forrest Sanders
• Lacey Steele

References

External links

• WBKO channel 13
• WBKO wireless
• WBKO-DT2 Fox
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBKO

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