WDRB-TV
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WDRB (channel 41) 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 ...
in
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 the
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 ...
network. It is owned by
Block Communications Block Communications Inc. (also known as Blade Communications) is an American privately held holding company of various assets, mainly in the print and broadcast media, based in Toledo, Ohio. The company was founded in 1900 in New York City when ...
alongside
Salem, Indiana Salem is a city in and the county seat of Washington Township, Washington County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 6,319 at the 2010 census. History Salem was laid out and platted in 1814. It was named for Salem, North Carolin ...
–licensed dual CW/
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
affiliate WBKI (channel 58). Both stations share studios on West Muhammad Ali Boulevard (near
US 150 U.S. Route 150 (US 150) is a 571-mile (919 km) long northwest-southeast United States highway, signed as east–west. It runs from U.S. Route 6 outside of Moline, Illinois to U.S. Route 25 in Mount Vernon, Kentucky. Route description I ...
) 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 ...
, while WDRB's transmitter is located in rural northeastern
Floyd County, Indiana Floyd County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. Its county seat is New Albany. Floyd County has the second-smallest land area in the entire state. It was formed in the year 1819 from neighboring Clark, and Harrison counties. Flo ...
(northeast of Floyds Knobs).


History


As an independent station

The first
construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
for channel 41 in Louisville was issued in 1953 to Robert Rounsaville, owner of
WLOU WLOU (1350 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an urban oldies music format. Licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, United States, the station serves the Louisville, KY-IN market area. Its studios are located west of downtown and the transmitter is ...
(1350 AM), Louisville's first Black-oriented radio station. The station, if built, would have been the first Black-oriented TV station in the country. However, the construction of WQXL-TV depended on the success of the first of three planned stations, Atlanta's WQXI-TV, which failed and left the air in 1955. The permit remained active for several more years; the call letters were changed to WTAM-TV, and in 1963 the permit was sold to Producers, Inc., of
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 ...
, but no station ever materialized. Producers was related to the Polaris Corporation, which in Louisville owned WKYW (900 AM). On July 7, 1965, Consolidated Broadcasting Company, a group of five people from
Chillicothe, Missouri Chillicothe is a city in the state of Missouri and the county seat of Livingston County, Missouri, United States. The population was 9,107 at the 2020 census. The name "Chillicothe" is Shawnee for "big town", and was named after their ''Chillico ...
with no television station experience (but were eventually shareholders for what would become ill-fated
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
independent station KCIT-TV), filed for a construction permit for the channel. The permit was granted on April 20, 1966, but it would be nearly five years before any station came to air. Antenna height issues and permitting setbacks caused delays for the new WDRB-TV and for a channel 21 permittee. Approval was finally obtained that summer, and Consolidated renovated a building that had housed a lithograph studio on East Main Street in the Butchertown neighborhood to serve as WDRB-TV's studios. WDRB-TV finally signed on the air on February 28, 1971, becoming the first
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 ...
in the Louisville market. Initially, the station signed on at 3:00 p.m. on weekdays; its programming included low-budget afternoon children's programming and occasional news updates provided by anchor Wilson Hatcher, and, most notably, the Saturday night horror film strand ''Fright Night'', hosted by local theater actor Charlie Kissinger. Not long after going on air, WDRB-TV debuted an afternoon children's program, "Presto the Magic
Clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...
", hosted by Bill "Presto" Dopp. The station was profitable within months and tied then-ABC affiliate
WLKY-TV 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 Interstate 71 in Kentucky, I-71) on Louisville's east ...
in the ratings. By 1976, WDRB-TV carried a mix of cartoons,
westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
, outdoor shows and classic
movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
. The station's original owners sold the station for $6.5 million to the '' Minneapolis Star & Tribune'' Company (which later became the
Cowles Media Company Cowles Media Company ( ) (1935–1998) was a newspaper, magazine and information publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The company operated Cowles Business Media, Cowles Creative Publishing, and Cowles Enth ...
) in 1977. By that year, the station expanded its broadcast day to 11:00 a.m., with the addition of a four-hour block of religious programs; by 1979, WDRB-TV began signing on daily at 7:00 a.m. In 1980, the station moved from Butchertown to its present location on Muhammad Ali Boulevard. However, WDRB-TV would eventually pull out of a contest for something it had sought since December 1977; a move from channel 41 to channel 21. In 1981, an administrative law judge had denied the application and preferred the competing bid from the Word Broadcasting Network, only for the FCC review board to overturn the decision. Cowles exited television in the early 1980s. After selling its only other station,
KTVH KTVH-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Helena, Montana, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CBS affiliate KXLH-LD (channel 9). Both stations share studios on West Ly ...
in
Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city and county seat in Reno County, Kansas, United States, and located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch". As of the 2020 cen ...
, it sold WDRB to Block Communications of
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
for $10 million in 1983. Under Block, WDRB-TV dropped the channel 21 application, clearing the way for
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 ...
to launch. Block began to increase WDRB's profile in the market by acquiring higher-rated and more recent off-network sitcoms and dramas to its schedule, along with a focus on the broadcast rights for the burgeoning athletic programs of 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 ...
's
Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
, which the station won in 1985 and held for two years.


As a Fox affiliate

On October 9, 1986, WDRB-TV became an affiliate of the
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 ...
network and became known as "Fox 41" in late 1989. WDRB-TV became one of two Fox affiliates serving the Louisville market in 1990, when Campbellsville-based WGRB (channel 34, later CW affiliate WBKI-TV) affiliated with the network. Channel 34 served the southern portions of the market before it moved its transmitter farther north to service more of the market; WDRB became the sole Fox station in Louisville when WGRB became a WB affiliate in 1997. During the 1990s, WDRB shifted away from running older movies and classic sitcoms in favor of acquiring more talk and reality shows. In 1990, the station also regained rights to Louisville athletics in 1990 after the university spent three years with
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 ru ...
and upgraded its transmitter, improving signal coverage. In 1994, Block Communications entered into a
local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
to operate
Salem, Indiana Salem is a city in and the county seat of Washington Township, Washington County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 6,319 at the 2010 census. History Salem was laid out and platted in 1814. It was named for Salem, North Carolin ...
-based WFTE (channel 58, later WMYO, now WBKI); Block acquired WFTE outright in 2001, creating the first television station duopoly in the Louisville market. WDRB continued to carry cartoons through
Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...
throughout the 1990s; the Fox Kids weekday afternoon lineup was discontinued at the end of 2001, when the remaining Saturday block moved to channel 58 until its successor 4KidsTV was discontinued by Fox in November 2008. On April 21, 2007, WDRB became the first television station in Louisville to televise 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 ...
Festival's all-day "
Thunder Over Louisville Thunder Over Louisville, the annual kickoff event of the Kentucky Derby Festival, is an airshow and fireworks display in Louisville, Kentucky. It is generally held each April, about two weeks before the first Saturday in May, or Derby Day. In ye ...
"
air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
and
fireworks Fireworks are a class of Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a l ...
show in high definition—which, at the time, was one of the largest technical undertakings ever attempted by an American television station. This was followed by a second—even more elaborate—"Thunder" telecast in HD in April 2008. The station began phasing out the "Fox 41" branding in favor of simply branding by the WDRB call letters in May 2011. While this occurred shortly after sister station KTRV-TV in
Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...
unexpectedly lost its Fox affiliation, station management stated that the rebrand was done in order to bring its branding in line with Louisville's other major network stations–
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 ...
affiliate
WAVE In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...
(channel 3),
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 ...
affiliate WHAS-TV (channel 11) and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate
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 ...
(channel 32)–who have all long branded with their call letters. Additionally, station management wanted to distinguish the station from
Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
; WDRB is one of a handful of Fox affiliates that omit network references in their branding. In early 2011, the
master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...
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 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 ...
. On June 1, 2012, WDRB, WMYO and their respective subchannels were pulled from Insight Communications, what was then the market's major cable provider, as Block was unable to come to terms on a new
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 ...
agreement with
Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
(which purchased Insight in February 2012, but had not yet rebranded those systems under the latter until in 2013). The affected stations were restored on June 6, 2012, as a result of a new carriage agreement between Block and TWC. In May 2013, WDRB began construction of an additional of space at its Muhammad Ali Boulevard studio facility, including an expanded newsroom and sales area; the addition of two conference rooms; offices for finance and editing departments; and the addition of a secondary studio to be used for commercial and station projects. The $1.7 million expanded facility opened on May 5, 2014; as a result of the expansion, sister station WBKI-TV relocated their employees from that station's offices in the
Kaden Tower Kaden Tower is a 15-story office building at 6100 Dutchmans Lane in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. The building opened in 1966 as the headquarters for Lincoln Income Life Insurance Company and was originally named Lincoln Tower.Encyclopedia of Lo ...
into the WDRB facility.


Programming

In addition to carrying the entire Fox programming schedule, syndicated programs broadcast by WDRB include ''
Live with Kelly and Ryan ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...
'', ''
Rachael Ray Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American cook, television personality, businesswoman, and author. She hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program ''Rachael Ray'', and the Food Network series '' 30 Minute Meals''. ...
'', ''
Judge Judy ''Judge Judy'' is an American Court show#Arbitration-based reality court show, arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judy Sheindlin, Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudi ...
'' and '' Dr. Phil''.


Sports programming

Currently, all sports programming is provided by the network. However, for many years, WDRB had rights to University of Louisville Cardinals
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 men's basketball games, some of which were syndicated through the
Lorimar Sports Network The Lorimar Sports Network, or LSN, was an American ''ad hoc'' television network providing syndicated college football and basketball. It was based at Lorimar's original headquarters in Culver City, California, with an additional office in Dalla ...
or
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 ...
packages of
Metro Conference The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because its six charter members were all in urban metropolitan areas, though its later members did n ...
basketball games from the 1980s until the Metro Conference merger with the
Great Midwest Conference The Great Midwest Conference was an NCAA Division I athletics conference that existed from 1991 to 1995. History It was formed in 1990 with six members: Cincinnati and Memphis State (now Memphis) from the Metro Conference, UAB from the Sun Bel ...
to create
Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...
in 1995. WDRB also previously broadcast some
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
Wildcats basketball games at some point during the 1990s.


News operation

WDRB presently broadcasts 57½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 9½ hours each weekday and five hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among the broadcast television stations in the Louisville market and in the
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
of Kentucky. After more than a year of planning, WDRB launched its news department on March 12, 1990, with the debut of a half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast originally titled ''The News at 10''. Many longtime news personalities in the Louisville market joined the new WDRB news staff when the station formed its news operation; many others have joined channel 41 from other stations since that time. ''The News at 10'' was originally anchored by Lauretta Harris (who joined WDRB from WAVE), Jim Mitchell (who started in the market at WHAS-TV, before moving to WAVE), meteorologist Tammy Garrison, and sports anchor David Sullivan. In 1995, the program was retitled as ''Fox News at 10'' and expanded to one hour and added weekend editions on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Bill Francis (formerly of WLKY) and Susan Sweeney (formerly with radio station WHAS (840 AM)) joined the staff as anchors of the weekend newscasts; Tara Bassett (who had previously worked at WAVE) was the weekend weather anchor. The station launched additional newscasts on its schedule as its ratings position in the market strengthened: the first news expansion outside its established 10:00 slot came on October 5, 1998, when WDRB premiered the three-hour-long ''Fox in the Morning'' and a half-hour midday newscast at 11:30 a.m. (originally titled ''Fox First News''); the latter program expanded to an hour on September 21, 2015, with the addition of a half-hour noon newscast. This was later followed by the debut of an hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast in September 2001. In June 2002, WDRB became one of the few U.S. television stations to run a regular editorial segment, when it debuted "Point of View", a twice-weekly segment that is usually hosted by WDRB/WMYO president and general manager Bill Lamb; the segment introduced a weekly feature with viewer responses to the discussed topic via phone message in 2007. "Point of View" has evolved into one of the community's most prominent opinion forums, featuring frequent guest editorials by a wide array of community members. In 2006, WDRB—in partnership with Norton Healthcare—became the first and only station in Louisville to offer real-time
closed captioning Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio por ...
on all of its newscasts, making 100% of the station's news content available to over 147,000 deaf or hard of hearing viewers in the market. Prior to this, only pre-written studio-originated content was closed-captioned, while live field reports and breaking news stories were not transcribed. On April 17, 2010, WDRB became the second television station in Louisville market (after WAVE) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; it was the first (and presently, the only) television station in the market to provide news video from the field in true high definition, as WDRB upgraded its ENG vehicles, satellite truck, studio and field cameras and other equipment in order to broadcast news footage from the field in high definition, in addition to segments broadcast from the main studio. By comparison at the time, WAVE only broadcast studio segments in HD, while field reports are presented in widescreen standard definition, while WHAS-TV and WLKY were still broadcasting in SD, stretched to fill 16:9 widescreen sets. On January 17, 2011, WDRB launched a half-hour early evening newscast at 6:30 p.m. each weeknight (it is the only station in the United States that currently airs newscasts during the 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. timeslots); the program expanded to an hour-long broadcast on September 22, 2014, with the addition of a half-hour newscast at 6:00. WDRB began producing a half-hour weeknight 7:00 p.m. newscast on WBKI-TV on September 17, 2012; this was the result of a local marketing agreement that was forged between Block and WBKI-TV owner LM Communications, LLC (as such, WDRB is one of only a handful of Fox stations that produce a newscast for another station in the same market, among which include
KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet ...
in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
(which produces a 9:00 p.m. newscast for sister station
KZJO KZJO (channel 22) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Tacoma, Washin ...
) and
KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose†...
in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
(which produces a 7:00 p.m. newscast for sister station
KICU-TV KICU-TV (channel 36), branded on-air as KTVU Plus, is an independent television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by Fox Television Stations alongside Oakland-licensed Fox ...
)); the WBKI newscast was canceled on September 19, 2015. On January 26, 2013, the station debuted a three-hour weekend morning newscast, airing Saturdays and Sundays from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. On May 7, 2019, it was announced that WDRB had hired long-time WAVE anchor Scott Reynolds to anchor a new hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast starting in September 2019. In June 2013, WDRB gained notice in the television industry when it debuted a
promo Promo or promos may refer to: Promotions and advertising *Promo (media), a form of commercial advertising used to promote television or radio programs *Promo (professional wrestling), a televised interview in which a wrestler's on-screen personali ...
criticizing the broad, constant and generalized use of the term "
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
" by other news stations (both within the Louisville market and around the United States), stating that "breaking news" has been overused as a "marketing ploy" by other stations, who tend to apply the term to stories that are low in urgency and/or relevance. To coincide with the promo, WDRB posted on its website a "contract" outline of its journalism practices with its viewers and advertisers, with the former list promising to judiciously use "breaking news" (applying the term to stories that are "both 'breaking' and "news'"), as well as a general promise to deliver news in a truthful, balanced and informative manner, and without overt hype and
sensationalism In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotion ...
. June 2019 saw Bill Lamb departing the station after his successes with WDRB, and becoming the general manager of
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...
' West Coast flagship duopoly of
KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outle ...
and
KCOP-TV KCOP-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet KTTV (channel 11). Both stations ...
. Ricky Joseph from fellow Block station
WAND A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which c ...
will serve as an interim president/GM until Lamb's replacement is found. The station gained national attention in November 2019 for a
sweeps 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 ...
interview with the founder of
Papa John's Pizza Papa John's International, Inc., d/b/a Papa Johns, is an American pizza restaurant chain. It is the fourth largest pizza delivery restaurant chain in the United States, with headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky and Atlanta, Georgia metropolita ...
,
John Schnatter John Hampton "Papa John" Schnatter (born November 22 or 23, 1961) is an American entrepreneur who founded the Papa John's pizza restaurant chain in 1984. Schnatter started the business in the back of his father's tavern after selling his car and ...
(who had been a controversial local figure since his July 2018 ouster over use of a racial slur on a conference call). Schnatter had made the claim to WDRB's Stephan Johnson that he had found the quality control of the chain had declined after saying he ordered forty pizzas to eat from it in a month long period, and warned of a 'day of reckoning' for company board member Mark Shapiro for participating in Schnatter's ouster from the company.


Technical information


Subchannels

This 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 ...
: In late 2010, Block Communications began testing
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s on both WDRB and WMYO; on or about January 30, 2011, WDRB began carrying the
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...
-owned
Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...
network over its second digital subchannel. WDRB-DT2 was added to
Insight Communications Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
systems in the area on digital channel 187 on April 20, 2011. On March 1, 2017, WDRB added a third digital subchannel carrying
Ion Television Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...
on WDRB-DT3, after previous affiliate WBNA became an independent station, and eventually upgraded it to Ion's default 720p high-definition presentation (with the added advantage of few to no preemptions of Ion programming, which WBNA did regularly).


Analog-to-digital conversion

WDRB discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 41, 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 49. 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 AT ...
, 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 UHF analog channel 41.


Out-of-market coverage


Frankfort and the Bluegrass region

WDRB had previously been carried on many cable systems in areas adjacent to the Louisville market, including Kentucky's
capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...
, Frankfort. The channel was the first one sequentially on Frankfort's channel lineup (on channel 2), and was the sole source for Fox programming in HD in the capital city until 2012. 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 ...
, 2012, WDRB was removed from most cable systems outside of the market as a result of a corporate directive from Fox as part of its new affiliation agreement that forbade WDRB from being distributed on providers outside of its home market to protect ratings for the network's affiliates in nearby markets; this rule has been a source of conflict in several other markets, which have had out-of-market Fox affiliates from adjacent areas pulled from local cable providers. A few months later, the station removed the county outlines of
Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...
and
Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
counties in Kentucky (the westernmost counties in the Lexington television market) and
Switzerland County Switzerland County is a county in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 9,737. The county seat is Vevay, one of two incorporated towns in the county. History In 1787, the fl ...
in Indiana (within 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 ...
television market) from weather maps and severe weather alert displays; as a result, WDRB became the only Louisville area station that did not recognize Frankfort as being part of its viewing area. Despite this, Frankfort and Lawrenceburg are still occasionally mentioned during on-air weather segments. On December 20, 2017, the main cable provider in Frankfort, the Frankfort Plant Board, announced WDRB's return to their channel lineup, mainly for local news coverage, in 2018. Beginning sometime in April, WDRB returned on channels 4 and 504 in HD providing local news and syndicated programming while replacing Fox network programming with a cropped simulcast of Antenna TV from WDRB-DT2. At the same time, FPB began carrying the Antenna TV feed from WDRB-DT2 outright on channel 28, replacing the feed from WLJC-DT3 which had, in turn, replaced WTVQ-DT6 in early 2018 when Lexington's Antenna TV affiliation moved. WDRB was removed once again on January 1, 2021 after FPB and WDRB were unable to come to an agreement to continue carriage of the station, though this disagreement was based on financial differences rather than a network rule.


South-central Kentucky

From 1987 to 1992, and from 2001 to 2006, WDRB had also been one of the two default Fox affiliates for
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 ...
media market area, especially in the years after that area's original Fox 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 ...
lost its affiliation and replaced it with NBC in 2001. In the eastern half of that market area, WDRB was carried on the Glasgow Electric Plant Board and South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative's cable systems, despite the
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
area being in closer proximity to the viewing area of
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 ...
affiliate
WZTV WZTV (channel 17) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP-TV (channel 30); it is also sister to Dabl affiliate ...
. However, in September 2006, the Bowling Green area's ABC 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 stud ...
launched a second digital subchannel to serve as a Fox affiliate. As a result, blackouts of Fox programming by WBKO-DT2 were common, as was the blackouts of ABC programming from WHAS-TV were caused by WBKO's main channel. SCRTC and Glasgow EPB both dropped WDRB, WDRB-DT2 and WMYO in January 2015, with WDRB's main channel being dropped due to the presence of Fox affiliate WBKO-DT2; WMYO and WDRB-DT2 were respectively replaced by
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 ...
, which began operations the previous year as an upstart station serving as a primary MyNetworkTV and secondary Antenna TV affiliate. Both WBKO-DT2 and WCZU-LD (the latter of which is now a
Court TV Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former cable television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cove ...
affiliate) claimed exclusivity in terms of Fox, Antenna TV and MyNetworkTV affiliates on the Glasgow-based cable systems. Today, WDNZ-LD currently holds the MyNetworkTV and Antenna TV affiliations in Bowling Green. WDRB remains available to
Mediacom Mediacom Communications Corporation is the United States' fifth largest cable television provider based on the number of video subscribers, and among the leading cable operators focused on serving smaller cities and towns. The company has a s ...
customers in
Hart Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores * Hart's Reptile W ...
and Metcalfe counties.


Owensboro area

In parts of the
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 ...
market, WDRB is also available on Charter Spectrum channel 70 in the
Owensboro Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...
and
Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...
areas, as well as on Crystal Broadband Networks in Lewisport.


References


External links


WDRB official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wdrb Fox network affiliates Antenna TV affiliates Ion Television affiliates Newsy affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1971
DRB Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Bra ...
1971 establishments in Kentucky