WAVE (channel 3) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, United States, affiliated with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and owned by

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

. The station's studios are located on South Floyd Street in

downtown Louisville Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jaco ...

, and its transmitter is located in

Floyds Knobs, Indiana Floyds Knobs is a small unincorporated community in Lafayette Township, Floyd County, Indiana, United States. Historically a farming community on the outskirts of New Albany, it has since become a bedroom community for Louisville, Kentucky. It ...

History

The station first signed on the air on November 24, 1948, originally broadcasting on

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 5 with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

of 24,100

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. WAVE was the first television station to sign on in the state of Kentucky, and the 41st to debut in the United States. The station has been a primary NBC affiliate since its debut, owing to its sister radio station's longtime affiliation with the

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

; however, it also initially carried secondary affiliations with

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, CBS and the

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...

. The national coaxial cable did not reach Louisville until 1950, so prior to that, NBC programs were shown on film, as was national and foreign news. On May 7, 1949, WAVE-TV became the first television station in the United States to present a live telecast of the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

. The station shipped a canned newsreel of the event to NBC to broadcast nationally. The telecast was the first use of a Zoomar Lens in a television sports broadcast. The lens was loaned to WAVE by inventor Frank Back. Not long after the Derby, WAVE acquired a Zoomar lens of its own, which was frequently loaned to the other stations owned by WAVE-TV. WAVE-TV lost CBS programming when

WHAS-TV WHAS-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on West Chestnut Street in Downtown Louisville, and its transmitter is located in rural ...

(channel 11, now an ABC affiliate) signed on in March 1950; it later lost DuMont when the network folded in August 1956. Channel 3 continued to share ABC programming with WHAS-TV until

WLKY WLKY (channel 32) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with CBS. The station is owned by Hearst Television, and maintains studios on Mellwood Avenue (near I-71) on Louisville's east side; its transmitter is l ...

(channel 32) signed on as a full-time affiliate in September 1961. It has remained with NBC since then, and as such, WAVE is the only commercial television station in the Louisville market that has never changed its primary network affiliation. In 1953, WAVE-TV moved to VHF channel 3, due to signal interference issues with fellow NBC affiliate

WLWT WLWT (channel 5) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Young Street, and its transmitter is located on Chickasaw Street, both in the ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. The move included a new, 100,000 watt transmitter and tower atop a (above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

) knob above New Albany, Indiana. This increased WAVE-TV's coverage by 66%. WAVE-TV made history again in 1954 as it became the first station in Louisville to broadcast programming in color; viewers were treated to a vivid image of the new NBC Peacock logo. During 1958–59, WAVE-TV produced in its studios educational programs for Jefferson County Schools—the forerunner of WFPK-TV (channel 15, now

WKPC-TV WKPC-TV (channel 15) is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Owned by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, the station is operated as part of the statewide Ke ...

). From 1954 to 1962, WAVE-TV also produced in its studio ''Tomorrow's Champions'', a police-sponsored program for young amateur boxers.

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

(then Cassius Clay) got his start there. In July 1959, having long since outgrown its original studio facility on East Broadway (which now houses the Louisville offices for Metro

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016. United Way organizations raise funds ...

), WAVE-TV moved into its current downtown facility at 725 South Floyd Street. The new, specially designed building was dedicated with a commissioned opera, ''Beatrice'', by Lee Hoiby. George Norton's wife, Jane Morton Norton, an accomplished artist herself, also commissioned original paintings for the building and statues for the adjacent WAVE Garden. The Garden, facing on Broadway, is a small park with water and greenery, now dedicated to the late George Norton. Three years later, in 1962, channel 3 became the first station in the region to transmit live, locally produced programming in

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

. By 1966, it was the only Kentucky station that processed its own news footage on color film and, in 1969, WAVE-TV became the first station in the market to employ a certified television meteorologist (Tom Wills) and operate its own weather-forecasting system. The station notably refers to its coverage area as "WAVE Country", echoing a popular

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

and image campaign that the station introduced in the early 1970s. In fact, that very jingle served as the image campaign of the

Al Ham Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in Malden, Massachusetts — October 4, 2001 in Spring Hill, Florida) was an American composer and jingle writer. He was notable as the composer of the ''Move Closer to Your World'' music package used since the 19 ...

-composed news music package "Home Country." On January 18, 2022, WAVE-TV introduced a new logo that is reminiscent of its 1962-68 logo. The station also dropped the "3" from its branding to become simply, "WAVE."

Ownership

WAVE-TV was founded and owned by George W. Norton Jr., a lawyer and financier who had also put WAVE radio (970 AM, now WGTK) on the air in 1933. Over the years, the Nortons acquired three other television stations and two other radio stations. They purchased

WFIE-TV WFIE (channel 14) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on Mount Auburn Road in Evansville, and its transmitter is located in the Wolf H ...

(

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

) in 1956;

WFRV-TV WFRV-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, and its transmitter is located north of Mor ...

(

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

) and

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

WJMN-TV WJMN-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Escanaba, Michigan, United States, serving the Central and Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains ...

(

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...

) in 1961; and WMT-AM- FM- TV (

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

) in 1968, all of which shared a common logotype style. Following the last acquisition, the Norton holdings became known as Orion Broadcasting, "after a prominent and brilliant

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

". With WAVE-TV-AM serving as the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...

, Orion greatly expanded its news, weather, editorials, agricultural programs, and documentaries. News bureaus were set up in

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...

, and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

As a result, WAVE-TV-AM won a number of national awards, including a Peabody in 1978. Orion merged with

Liberty Corporation The Liberty Corporation was a media corporation originally based in Greenville, South Carolina. At its peak, Liberty owned 15 network-affiliated television stations across the Midwest and Southern regions of the United States. Cable advertising ...

in 1981. WAVE-TV then became part of Liberty's broadcast arm, Cosmos Broadcasting. WAVE radio was then sold off; the WAVE cluster had been

grandfathered A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...

when the FCC banned common ownership of radio and television stations in the same market in the 1960s, but lost its grandfathered protection with the Liberty merger. As the radio station promptly changed its call sign to WAVG, Cosmos dropped the "-TV" suffix from the WAVE callsign in 1987. In 1991, the station began transmitting its signal from a new broadcast tower in Oldham County; the transmitter tower (which is 70% taller than most television broadcast towers), which is the tallest structure in the state, cost $5 million to build and helped to improve WAVE's signal coverage. When the Liberty Corporation exited the insurance industry in 2000, WAVE came directly under the Liberty banner; in August 2005, Liberty announced that it would merge with

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

-based

Raycom Media Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its Commun ...

; the sale was finalized on January 31, 2006. This brought it a new sister station nearby in the Cincinnati market to the north,

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

affiliate

WXIX-TV WXIX-TV (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Newport, Kentucky, United States, serving the Cincinnati metro as the market's Fox affiliate. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Cozi TV affiliate WBQC-LD (channel 25). ...

Sale to Gray Television

On June 25, 2018,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

-based

announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including WAVE), and Gray's 93 television stations) under Gray's corporate umbrella. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion – in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom – resulted in WAVE gaining new

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

s in nearby markets, including CBS affiliate

WKYT-TV WKYT-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Winchester Road (US 60) near I-75 on ...

in Lexington (and its semi-satellite

WYMT-TV WYMT-TV (channel 57) is a television station licensed to Hazard, Kentucky, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield region. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Black Gold Boulevard off ...

Hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm Harm is a moral and legal concept. Bernard Gert construes harm as any of the following: * pain * death * disability * mortality * loss of abil ity or freedom * loss of pleasure. Joel Feinberg giv ...

) and ABC/Fox affiliate

WBKO WBKO (channel 13) is a television station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC, Fox, and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Telemundo affiliate WBGS-LD (channel 34). The two stations maintain studio ...

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

, in addition to its current Raycom sister stations. The sale was approved on December 20, and was completed on January 2, 2019. With the acquisition of

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...

's Local Media division (including

WSMV-TV WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 15). The two stations share studios on Knob Road in ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

) on December 1, 2021, Gray now owns stations in every market in or surrounding Kentucky.

Programming

As of 2021, the only syndicated programming airing on WAVE-TV consists of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...

distributed ''LX.TV: 1st Look'' and ''Open House NYC'' on weekends, as the bulk of the schedule outside of NBC programming consists of newscasts and other locally produced programming.

News operation

WAVE presently broadcasts 51 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces two live call-in discussion programs each weekday, ''Listens Live'' at noon (following ''WAVE News Midday'') and ''WAVE Country with Dawne Gee'' at 2 p.m. (before ''WAVE News at 3:00 p.m.''). In the early days, both WAVE television and radio news was done live with Livingston Gilbert; he anchored for 39 years. Channel 3 was the ratings leader in the Louisville market for over 20 years, before WHAS-TV overtook it at #1 in the 1970s. The station has spent most of the last four decades as runner-up to WHAS-TV, though in recent years it has had to fend off a spirited challenge from WLKY. Louisville is also one of the few markets in the country where all four of the major network-affiliated stations have roughly equal ratings in recent years, although WLKY pulled ahead of WAVE, WHAS-TV and Fox affiliate

WDRB WDRB (channel 41) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Block Communications alongside Salem, Indiana–licensed dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBKI (channel 58). Both st ...

(channel 41) during the May 2011

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

period. On July 9, 1990, WAVE debuted the first 5:00 p.m. newscast in the Louisville market; titled ''FirstNews'', it was anchored by veteran broadcaster Jackie Hays, who went on to become the longest-serving female anchor in the station's history (before WAVE, Hays anchored at then-NBC affiliate

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...

in Philadelphia; that station is currently a CBS O&O). Hays and co-anchor Don Schroeder were voted "Best TV News Anchor Team" and the station itself was chosen as "Best Source for Local News" by readers of ''Louisville Magazine''. Jackie Hays retired from WAVE in 2009 and was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2011. Former chief meteorologist Tom Wills holds the record as the station's longest-tenured on-air personality, having been with WAVE from 1969 until his retirement in July 2009; Wills stated that he would serve as a fill-in whenever one of the station's meteorologists was on vacation, and announced that he was considering a return to the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

to teach meteorology as he did for several years. The station celebrated his 40-year tenure with the station during a special two-hour edition of ''WAVE 3 Listens Live'', in which Wills's family and co-workers appeared as guests. Meteorologist John Belski, who left channel 3 in September 2010 (he now works as a severe weather specialist for WLKY), received numerous awards during his 20+ years at WAVE, including being named "Best Of Louisville" by the readers of ''Louisville Magazine'' for a number of years and was named "Best of Kentucky" by the readers of ''

Kentucky Monthly ''Kentucky Monthly'' is a general interest regional magazine about the U.S. state of Kentucky and Kentuckians. Founded in 1998 by Stephen M. Vest, publisher, Michael Embry, editor, (who retired in 2006) and business manager Kay Vest, it featured ...

'' magazine, as well as receiving the LEO's Readers' Choice Award and a "Best of the Best" award from ''Louisville Magazine'' (which is given to people and organizations that have won the "Best of Louisville" award more than 10 times). Belski anchored severe weather coverage that earned him and the station several

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s; he was also presented the prestigious Mark Trail Award for bringing public awareness to

weather radio A weather radio is a specialized radio receiver that is designed to receive a public broadcast service, typically from government-owned radio stations, dedicated to broadcasting weather forecasts and reports on a continual basis, with the routine we ...

s as a lifeline during severe weather, which was presented to Belski on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

in Washington, D.C. Sports director Kent Taylor was voted "Kentucky TV Sportscaster of the Year" by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

in 2008, 2009 and 2012. On June 30, 2008, WAVE became the first television station in the Louisville market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. WAVE is the only one of two stations that broadcast at least some portion of their newscasts in HD; footage shot in-studio is broadcast in high definition, while all news video from on-remote locations is broadcast in

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

. In March 2011, WAVE and WHAS-TV began sharing a news helicopter supplied by St. Louis-based Helicopters Inc., through a

Local News Service The name Local News Service refers to a variety of news resource share services all started in 2008 and 2009. It sometimes does not refer to a specific sharing service but to the category in general. Typically, these services include pooling video ...

agreement, allowing the two stations to share news video, especially during breaking news events, while also partitioning time for individual use of the chopper. The starboard side of the copter displays a "Sky 11" decal (referencing WHAS-TV), while the port side carries the "Air 3" logo (referencing WAVE). Following a disappointing November 2011 sweeps period, WAVE moved its midday newscast from noon to 11:00 a.m. in January 2012. With the change, WAVE is the only station in the market whose midday newscast airs in the 11:00 a.m. timeslot (however, WDRB has carried a newscast at 11:30 a.m. since 1999). The midday newscast was rebroadcast at 1:00 p.m. on

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

WBNA WBNA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, owned by local charismatic megachurch Evangel World Prayer Center. The station's offices are located on Fern Valley Road (just north of State Rout ...

(channel 21). In 2013, WAVE began airing a rebroadcasts of its 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. newscasts on its Bounce TV-affiliated third digital subchannel at 8:00 p.m. In 2016, the 7 and 7:30 p.m. newscasts began

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

ing live on Bounce 3.2. The station added a half-hour 3 p.m. newscast on January 28, 2019; it expanded to a full hour on September 9. On April 24, 2020, WAVE added an additional hour of news each weekday at 4 p.m.

Notable former on-air staff

Foster Brooks Foster Brooks (May 11, 1912 – December 20, 2001) was an American actor and comedian best known for his portrayal of a lovable drunk in nightclub performances and television programs. Early life Brooks was born in Louisville, Kentucky on ...

– show host; now deceased * Allen Denton – anchor (later with

KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded as NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's NBC network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Sta ...

in San Jose, and

KUSI-TV KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is the sole property of locally based McKinnon Broadcasting Company. KUSI-TV's studios are located on Viewridge Avenue (near I-15) in the ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

) *

Emily Gimmel Emily Gimmel (born May 17, 1984) is an American journalist, entrepreneur, businesswoman, and television personality. Biography Family Emily Gimmel's great grandfather, Robert Gimmel, started Atlas Machine and Supply, Inc. in 1907; a company ...

– teen feature reporter (now at

in Lexington) * Steve Kmetko – anchor (1981–1982); later an E! host * David Nakdimen – reporter (1961-1997); now deceased

Sports programming

During the 1990s and 2000s, WAVE carried

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

through Jefferson-Pilot Sports (later Lincoln Financial Sports) which merged into

Raycom Sports Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television. It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...

in 2007–08, although some football games were aired on WBKI-TV or WFTE (now WBKI). This ended in 2009 when Raycom Sports, coincidentally a subsidiary of WAVE-TV's current owner, lost the rights to ESPN Regional Television at the end of the 2008–09 basketball season. The SEC syndication package by

ESPN Plus ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, in partnership with ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Compa ...

ended up with WBNA throughout the 2009–2014 existence of the syndicated SEC Network (later

SEC TV SEC TV (formerly SEC Network) was a syndicated package featuring live broadcasts of college football and basketball events from the Southeastern Conference. It was owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television and shown in more than 50 percent ...

). In 2014, after the

joined the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

, WAVE and WHAS-TV began sharing Raycom Sports'

ACC Network ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel o ...

package until its discontinuation in 2019.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

: WAVE-DT2 carried

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...

programming from 2008 until 2014, when it was replaced by

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans", the channel fe ...

, with This moving to WKYI-CD. Bounce TV was carried on WAVE-DT3 (channel 3.3) until it was moved up to channel 3.2 to make way for the Grit TV network in late 2014.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WAVE discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, 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 Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 47. Through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

, digital television receivers display the station's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as its former VHF analog channel 3.

Out-of-market coverage

WAVE is available on cable providers in the eastern portion of the Evansville market (in Dubois and

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made ...

counties), the southern portion of the

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

(in Lawrence County) and Cincinnati (in Ripley and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

counties in Indiana, and Owen County in Kentucky) markets, and the northern portion of the small Bowling Green market (in Hart County). WAVE had been carried on Frankfort Plant Board's cable system in Frankfort, which is part of the Lexington market; cable providers in Frankfort have carried stations from both Lexington and Louisville for decades. On December 20, 2017, the Frankfort Plant Board announced that it would drop WAVE and competitor WHAS on

January 1 January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the yea ...

, 2018 in order to curb rising

retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercia ...

costs that were being passed on to its customers. While they announced the continued carriage of WHAS on December 29, 2017; WAVE was still dropped on January 1. On December 28, 2020, the FPB Board of Directors voted to approve a retransmission consent agreement with Gray Television negotiated by the National Cable Television Cooperative for WAVE and in-market CBS affiliate WKYT, bringing the NBC affiliate back starting in January 2021. After the three year hiatus, WAVE officially returned to its former channel slots on 3 and 503 on January 12, 2021. FPB also began carrying Grit from WAVE-DT4 on channel 98 following the discontinuation of the network on in-market ABC affiliate

WTVQ-DT WTVQ-DT (channel 36) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on the outer loop of Man o' War Boulev ...

's seventh subchannel. The latter practice ended when in-market NBC affiliate WLEX-TV replaced their MeTV affiliation with Grit in September 2022. WAVE was also available to all customers of the cable system of

Glasgow, Kentucky Glasgow is a home rule-class city in Barren County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. Glasgow is the principal city of the Glasgow micropolitan area, which comprises Barren and Metcalfe counties. The population was 14,028 ...

-based South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative (SCRTC), which serve Barren, Hart, and Metcalfe counties in the Bowling Green media market,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and Larue counties (within the Louisville market), as well as

Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: * Monroe County, Alabama *Monroe County, Arkansas * Monroe County, Florida * Monroe County, Georgia *Monroe County, Illinois *Monroe County, Indian ...

, which is actually in the Nashville media market. WAVE and WHAS were dropped in January 2018 from the SCRTC's systems in Barren, Hart, Metcalfe and Monroe Counties due to local NBC affiliate

WNKY WNKY (channel 40) is a television station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with NBC and CBS. Owned by Marquee Broadcasting, the station has studios on Chestnut Street in downtown Bowling Green, and its transmitter is located ...

(and in Monroe County's case, WSMV-TV) claiming market exclusivity. WAVE's Bounce TV subchannel was replaced with that of

WCZU-LD WCZU-LD (channel 39) is a low-power television station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with Court TV. The station is owned by HC2 Holdings and licensed to its subsidiary DTV America Corporation. WCZU-LD's transmitter is l ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wave (Tv) NBC network affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Circle (TV network) affiliates Grit (TV network) affiliates Gray Television AVE (TV) Television channels and stations established in 1948 1948 establishments in Kentucky Kentucky Derby