 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "WPSD-TV" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
 | |
| City | Paducah, Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | WPSD Local 6 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | May 28, 1957 (67 years ago) (1957-05-28) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
Call sign meaning | Paducah Sun-Democrat |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 51991 |
| ERP | 679 kW |
| HAAT | 492 m (1,614 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°11′31.2″N88°58′53.2″W / 37.192000°N 88.981444°W /37.192000; -88.981444 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WPSD-TV (channel 6) is atelevision station licensed toPaducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as theNBC affiliate forWestern Kentucky'sJackson Purchase region,Southern Illinois, theMissouri Bootheel, andnorthwest Tennessee. Owned by locally basedPaxton Media Group, the station maintains studios on Television Lane in Paducah, and its transmitter is located atMonkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2018) |
The station signed on as WPSD on May 28, 1957, with ananalog signal onVHF channel 6. It has been an NBC affiliate and owned by the Paxton family for its entire existence alongside Western Kentucky's major newspaper,The Paducah Sun. The "PSD" letters in thecall sign stands forPaducah Sun-Democrat which was the paper's name at the time the station launched in 1957.[2] It is one of the few television stations in the United States to have retained the same owners (Paxton Media Group) since signing on.
WPSD initially declined to carrySaturday Night Live. WPSD made a compromise after receiving negative feedback for the preemption; for several years, they delayed the variety show for an hour. In the early 1990s, the station finally decided to air the program at its network-recommended time of 10:30 p.m.CT.[citation needed]
WPSD serves more than fifty counties in southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and northwest Tennessee. Among the area'sbig three outlets, the station focuses more on Western Kentucky since it is based in Paducah. In addition to its main studios, WPSD operates a bureau on South Illinois Avenue in Downtown Carbondale.
Beginning in 2006, WPSD produced a nightly prime time newscast onFox affiliateKBSI through a news share agreement, known asLocal 6 at 9 on Fox 23 and featured a regional summary of headlines because KBSI is based in Cape Girardeau. For nearly eight years, the broadcast competed with KFVS' own nightly prime time news at 9 seen on the area's low-poweredCW affiliatesWQTV-LP/WQWQ-LP, which was canceled on July 29, 2007. WPSD's partnership with KBSI expired on September 30, 2010. KBSI entered into a new partnership with KFVS presumably to refocus the prime time production to the Missouri Bootheel area and expand it to 60 minutes. On October 3, 2010, WPSD brought back its own newscast at 9 p.m. to itsRTV andAntenna TV. Known asThe Nine and seen every night for a half-hour, this was simulcast on those two services. WPSD's newscast at 9 p.m. was canceled in 2019.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WPSD-HD | NBC |
| 6.2 | 480i | 4:3 | WPSD-SD | Cozi TV |
| 6.3 | WPSD-WX | Antenna TV |
WPSD-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 32,[4] usingvirtual channel 6.
WPSD's over-the-air signal can reach all parts of the western Kentucky, southern Illinois, and northwest Tennessee segments of the Paducah–Cape Girardeau market area. The signal can also be picked up in the southeastern Missouri segment of the market, with the exception of the Poplar Bluff and Farmington areas.[5]
WPSD formerly operated alow-power VHF analogrepeaterW10AH (channel 10) inCarbondale, Illinois, from a transmitter (sharing theWSIU-TV–FM tower) on theSouthern Illinois University campus. The license was last renewed in 2005 and canceled effective September 23, 2013.[6]
In addition to its in-market coverage, WPSD's over-the-air signal can also reach some of the Nashville media market's far western areas, like inHenry County, includingParis. Parts ofTrigg County, Kentucky, near theLand Between the Lakes National Recreation Area can also pick up the station's signal. InHopkinsville (Christian County (KY)), also part of the Nashville market, WPSD and WPSD-DT3 (its Antenna TV subchannel) is carried on that area's localCharter Spectrum system.[7] WPSD's main channel is also carried on Mediacom cable channel 15 on that provider's system in theCadiz and Trigg County areas (including the Land Between the Lakes area), which are also in the Nashville market.[8][9]
Residents ofDawson Springs (Hopkins County, in theEvansville market), can also pick up the station's signal with an outdoor antenna as that area is just within Grade B signal range of the station's signal area. WPSD is the only station in the Paducah market that can reach that area.[10] InWebster County, Kentucky, includingDixon (within the Evansville DMA), WPSD-TV's main channel is carried on Spectrum channel 37.[11]
While broadcasting in analog, the signal had also been known to reach as far as areas in northeasternArkansas, such asBlytheville,Trumann andOsceola.
Until the 2009 digital television transition, the signal also used to be able to reach the far northern areas ofDyer andGibson counties in northwest Tennessee, which are respectively in theMemphis andJackson, Tennessee, markets.