WKPD#WDXR-TV

On May 27, 1966, E. Weaks McKinney-Smith and George T. Bailey, doing business as Channel 29, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build a new commercial television on channel 29 at Paducah, which was granted by the FCC on January 30, 1967.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=84176 |title= History Cards for WKPD|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) The station took the call letters WDXR-TV; Smith and Bailey were the owners of Paducah radio station WDXR.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71267203/|date=May 31, 1966|title=TV Permit Sought By Paducahans|pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71267321/ 2]|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|accessdate=February 16, 2021}}

In 1968, Smith and Bailey bought land at the corner of Kentucky Avenue and 4th Street in downtown Paducah for a new building to house WDXR radio and television.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71267607/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|title=High Bid Accepted For Downtown Land|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|page=9|date=June 12, 1968|via=Newspapers.com}} Construction on the facility began in the summer of 1969;{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71268011/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|title=Work Starts For Downtown Building|page=6-C|date=July 27, 1969|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|via=Newspapers.com}} while the building was finished early the next year, it was not until December 1970 that the station announced a planned launch date for April 1, 1971, and programming focused on the Paducah area.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636425/wdxr-tv-to-open-programming-april-1/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|date=December 15, 1970|pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636445/wdxr-tv/ 2]|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|title=WDXR-TV To Open Programming April 1|via=Newspapers.com}}

Channel 29 began telecasting May 31, 1971, as an independent station.{{Cite book|last=Nash|first=Francis M.|date=1995|title=Towers Over Kentucky: A History of Radio and TV in the Bluegrass State|publisher=HOST Communications|page=311|isbn=9781879688933}} Programming offerings initially included two daily newscasts.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636084/wdxr-tv-is-scheduled-to-begin-operating/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|date=May 30, 1971|title=WDXR-TV Is Scheduled To Begin Operating Monday|page=1-C|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat}} It also aired syndicated programming and local sports telecasts,{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636316/amazing-facts-about-telecast/|title=Amazing Facts About Telecast|work=The Messenger|date=October 18, 1973|page=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71268553/ 10]}} as well as a local church service.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636012/television-station-in-paducah-ky-is/|title=Television station in Paducah, Ky., is going off air|work=The Courier-Journal|date=October 28, 1975|page=A11|accessdate=February 16, 2021}}

Tragedy struck WDXR radio and television on February 21, 1974, when Weaks McKinney-Smith died in a New York City hospital at the age of 49, nearly a month after suffering a heart attack on a business trip to try to affiliate the station with ABC,{{r|nash}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636468/weaks-mckinney-smith-tv-executive-dies/|title=Weaks McKinney-Smith, TV Executive, Dies|page=1|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|date=February 21, 1974|accessdate=February 16, 2021}} which was already seen in parts of the market from Harrisburg, Illinois-licensed WSIL-TV. With Weaks's death and Bailey selling his shares later that year, the station became 100 percent owned by Lady Sarah McKinney-Smith.{{r|hc}}

On October 22, 1975, at 12 midnight Central time,{{cite news|title=WDXR, Channel 29, ceases operations|work=The Southeastern Missourian|location=Cape Girardeau, Missouri|date=October 31, 1975|page=19|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s-8hAAAAIBAJ&dq=WDXR+29&pg=PA10&article_id=3860,6428481|via=Google Books}} WDXR-TV suspended operations after going bankrupt. A week later, the station issued a two-sentence statement confirming that it had asked the FCC to remain silent.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37636218/wdxr-tv-suspends-operations/|title=WDXR-TV Suspends Operations|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|page=1|date=October 27, 1975|access-date=February 16, 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} No reason was given,{{cite news|title=Channel 29 Quits In Unexplained Move|work=Kentucky New Era|location=Hopkinsville, Kentucky|date=October 28, 1975|page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=de8rAAAAIBAJ&dq=WDXR+29&pg=PA23&article_id=4158,6585865|via=Google Books}} but a representative of the church, when he visited the station to ask about the suspension, saw men from RCA carting away equipment.{{r|courier}}

That same year, Kentucky Educational Television commissioned a study that reported the establishment of new transmitters to serve Paducah and Owensboro a high priority. Parts of the Jackson Purchase area received a signal from WKMU, the network's transmitter that is licensed to Murray, but without specially designed antenna setups, as local schools had, the public could not receive a consistent clear signal. KET filed for the channel directly, only to discover that the WDXR-TV license was still active.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71269318/|title=KET plans run into trouble|date=February 1, 1976|accessdate=February 16, 2021|first=Bill|last=Matlock|page=1-C|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat}}

Lady Sarah sold the WDXR-TV building, though without any television production equipment (which had been removed), to J. Spencer Solomon, owner of a production firm in Benton, in September 1976.{{cite news|pages=1-A, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71269590/ 2-A]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71269658/|date=September 3, 1976|title=Benton-based corporation purchases WDXR Building|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|accessdate=February 16, 2021}} A lengthy courtship for facilities and the worse nature of the signal gap in the Owensboro area threatened to cost Paducah its shot at having a KET transmitter.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71269801/|title=Technical points could cost city KET transmitter|pages=1-A, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71269905/ 14-A]|date=December 26, 1976|first=Bill|last=Matlock|accessdate=February 16, 2021}} However, in January 1977, a deal was reached to donate the WDXR-TV license to KET.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37635767/|page=1|title=License held by WDXR-TV donated to KET|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat|date=January 7, 1977|accessdate=February 16, 2021}}

The FCC approved the license transfer on January 30, 1978.{{r|hc}} KET, however, opted not to use the former tower of WDXR-TV near Melber and instead pressed forward with plans to build at a site owned by the McCracken County government. The new tower, located on Coleman Road, would also provide facilities to the state early warning system{{r|donated}} and would cost $1 a year instead of $26,000 to buy the WDXR-TV tower site.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71270367/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|date=April 22, 1977|page=Highlights 5|title=County-owned property picked for transmitter|first=Bill|last=Bartleman|work=Paducah Sun-Democrat}} Construction on WKPD, as the transmitter was renamed, was delayed by a backlog of state projects;{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71270621/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|date=October 2, 1978|title=TV transmitter project is delayed|page=9-A|work=Paducah Sun}} the station returned to the air September 9, 1979, as the 14th KET transmitter.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71270728/|accessdate=February 16, 2021|first=Bill|last=Matlock|page=1-C|work=Paducah Sun|title=KET will flip switch on WKPD here today|date=September 9, 1979}}

==Coverage area==

Although WKPD covers most of the same areas of the Purchase region as WKMU except for Fulton County, WKPD's signal can also be received in areas of the region where WKMU cannot. Examples include parts of Ballard County, as well as areas of southernmost Illinois and parts of Mississippi County in southeast Missouri. WKPD's signal coverage extends from Charleston, Missouri, to Cairo, Illinois. The WKPD signal is received as far east as Eddyville, as far south as Mayfield near WKMU's tower, and as far north as northern Johnson and Pope counties in Illinois.[http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_current/Paducah_KY-Cape_Girardeau_MO-Harrisburg-Mt_Vernon_IL.pdf Maps of the coverage areas of all Full-power stations in Paducah, KY and Cape Girardeau, MO]. Federal Communications Commission (2009).

Since 2003, the main channel of WKPD is available on DirecTV and Dish Network satellite television in the entirety of the Paducah–Cape Girardeau market, including both customers who live on the Illinois or Missouri sides of the market, and the Paducah market's two other principal cities of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Harrisburg, Illinois.{{cite news|first=Scott|last=Moyers|title=TV plans for local channels in lineup|work=The Southeastern Missourian|date=April 23, 2003|page=1A, 2A}} All cable television providers in the Kentucky segment of the media market provide at least the main channel of the network. WSIU-TV is mostly carried on cable in the Illinois and Missouri segments of the market.

== Technical information ==

{{main|Kentucky Educational Television#Subchannels}}

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

WKPD-TV shut down its analog signal over UHF channel 29 in compliance with the 2009 digital television transition. Although the mandatory deadline was June 12, 2009, after the DTV Delay Act pushed back the deadline from February 17, the analog signal was shut down on April 16. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 29.{{cite news|title=Calls come after KET, WKYT digital TV transition|url=http://www.kentucky.com/2009/04/17/763776/calls-come-after-ket-wkyt-digital.html#storylink=cpy|newspaper=Lexington Herald-Leader|date=April 17, 2009|accessdate=January 17, 2017}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.ket.org/about/macwall.htm|title = The Digital Transition: The Malcolm (Mac) Wall Years|date = |accessdate = 2017-01-13|website = KET|publisher = Kentucky Educational Television|last = |first = |archive-date = 2015-06-25|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150625033501/http://www.ket.org/about/macwall.htm|url-status = dead}}

WKPD moved its digital signal to UHF channel 23 as part of the network's participation in the 2016–17 FCC Spectrum incentive auction.

==Programming==

{{main|List of programs broadcast by Kentucky Educational Television}}

==See also==

• Kentucky Educational Television

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.ket.org/ KET]
• {{FCC-LMS-Facility|65758|WKPD}}

{{Paducah TV}}

{{Kentucky TV}}

{{Illinois TV}}

{{Kentucky Educational Television}}

Category:Kentucky Educational Television

WKPD

Category:Television channels and stations established in 1971

Category:1971 establishments in Kentucky