WYMT-TV

As an NBC affiliate

The station began broadcasting on analog UHF channel 57 as WKYH-TV (meaning KentuckY, Hazard) on October 20, 1969, as an NBC affiliate.^[1] Prior to its inception, some counties in southeastern Kentucky were among the last remaining parts of the country unable to clearly receive a commercial television signal over the air. Kentucky Educational Television had set up a transmitter there the year before. Although this area is considered part of the Lexington market, none of that city's television signals covered the area at the time. Lexington was an all-UHF market, and UHF stations don't get good reception in rugged terrain. This area has long been one of the poorest in the nation, and many people still couldn't afford to buy a television set. Such conditions made the Lexington stations unwilling to set up even low-powered satellites in this area. Instead, WKYH was founded by local businessman Bill Gorman, who, in addition to owning the Hazard-area Cable television company, also served as mayor of Hazard from 1978 until his October 2010 death.^[2] Martin Ogrosky served as News Director and in other posltions along with William "Bill" Helton, William "Bill" Gorman, Jr., and others.

In keeping with the region's strong musical traditions, country, bluegrass, and Southern Gospel music constituted a good part of WKYH's early local programs. These shows lasted well into the 1980s (in the case of the Goins Brothers, as late as 1994) after country-music programs had fallen out of favor even on other Southern stations.

Throughout its entire run as WKYH, the station's on-air look was very primitive, even by small-market standards. Much of its equipment had been bought as surplus from other stations, and was usually in a poor state of repair after as much as two decades of use. This was especially true of the transmitter; by the early 1980s the station's signal had deteriorated to the point of unacceptability. A video clip of the station's nightly sign-off provided evidence of the shaky signal quality.^[3][4] Matters weren't helped by the fact that the station's coverage area is very mountainous; UHF stations don't get much penetration in rugged terrain even under the best conditions. It didn't even have a character generator for newscasts. The station was unable to get a network feed, forcing station engineers to rely on microwave links from WLEX-TV in Lexington and WCYB-TV in Bristol, Virginia (from the Tri-Cities, Tennessee/Virginia market) for network programming. WCYB was used as a backup in case WLEX preempted an NBC show to show local programming. Whenever the microwave system failed, WKYH was forced to switch to and from WLEX or WCYB's signal, usually with less-than-satisfactory results. When this happened, WKYH sometimes aired WLEX or WCYB's commercials or station IDs when it was unable to cover them up in time. As such, the station never thrived, even when cable arrived in the area in the early 1980s, and this situation allowed WKYH to relate to NBC during the period in which that network was presided over by Fred Silverman.

New ownership to present

In June 1985, Gorman sold the station to Kentucky Central Insurance Company, then owner of WKYT.^[5] After approval of the sale, the new owner changed the calls on the morning of Saturday, October 19 of that year to the current WYMT, meaning We're Your Mountain Television.^[6] The old WKYH callsign now exists on a Paintsville-licensed AM radio station in nearby Johnson County which, incidentally, launched in 1985 as WKLW. WYMT's then-new owner also changed the station's affiliation to CBS to match that of WKYT.^[7] With wealthier ownership, WYMT was able to build a much more modern studio and a stronger transmitter. The station also got a significant on-air facelift, making it look much more modern. When Kentucky Central went bankrupt in 1993, WYMT and WKYT were bought by Gray Communications (now Gray Television). In 2004, WYMT’s digital television companion was assigned VHF channel 12 as its final transmission frequency. One benefit to viewers in the area is that VHF signals "bend" over mountainous terrain better than UHF. This not only greatly improved WYMT's signal, but made reception available over a larger area than was previously available, even after the FCC-mandated digital transition of 2009. Beginning February 26, 2010, the station stretched non-HD programming from 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9 aspect image, a process called "Stretch-o-Vision".

As of February 17, 2009, WYMT broadcasts exclusively in digital. Even with the switch to digital, the great majority of WYMT's viewers still watch the station on cable, which is all but essential for acceptable television in this part of Kentucky. WYMT is not carried on satellite. As Hazard is in the Lexington market, WYMT is not seen on satellite since WKYT must be provided to the area, and satellite providers have a right not to carry a duplicate network affiliate in the same market due to bandwidth limitations. Gray Television applied to the FCC to carve out a unique satellite carriage area for WYMT alone, including the easternmost portion of the Lexington market and Kentucky counties assigned to the Tri-Cities, Knoxville, and Charleston-Huntington markets. DirecTV and Dish Network argued it would be technically and economically infeasible, as they would be required to create a new spot beam for this particular area, and cited their right to refuse carriage. The FCC ruled in the satellite companies' favor on May 16, 2018.^[8]

Over-the-air availability

To this day, WYMT is the only full-power commercial station in Hazard; cable or satellite is necessary to receive any other commercial network affiliates of any kind. The only stations that can be received over-the-air in much of this region includes WYMT, along with Christian television station WLJC-TV in Beattyville, and KET satellites WKHA in Hazard and WKPI-TV in Pikeville. In addition, WOBZ-LD (which is partially owned by former WKYH weatherman/sportscaster Joey Kesler) is a low-power station serving the London area. There are also several public access channels that serve the region. The area was also served by WAGV, a Harlan-based satellite station of WLFG in Grundy, Virginia.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WYMT-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 57, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12.^[10] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

WYMT-DT2

WYMT-DT2's former logo.

In 2009, WYMT-DT2 was launched as a standard-definition simulcast of WKYT. The simulcast ended on August 1, 2014, when that simulcast was replaced by the This TV network that provides classic movies and a few classic TV shows. Some additional syndicated programming is also broadcast on the DT2 subchannel. In early 2017, This TV was replaced with the Weigel Broadcasting-operated Heroes & Icons network.

General programming

All of the CBS programming schedule has been run on WYMT since 1985, when the station affiliated with CBS. Syndicated programs on WYMT include The King of Queens, The Andy Griffith Show, and Family Feud. One noticeable difference in the schedules of WYMT and WKYT is that The Young and the Restless airs on WYMT at the same time as most other affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone at 12:30 p.m., while WKYT airs it at 1 p.m. because it has an hour-long noon newscast.^[12][13]

Sports programming

WYMT regularly broadcasts programming from the UK Sports Network.

WYMT-TV and WKYT had broadcast Southeastern Conference football and men's basketball broadcasts via Raycom Sports (formerly Jefferson Pilot, later Lincoln Financial Sports) from 1987 until 2009.^[14] The two stations began carrying games from ESPN Plus-oriented SEC TV (formerly SEC Network) from 2009 until its cancellation at the end of the 2013-14 season. SEC TV went defunct because of the inception of the then-new pay-TV-exclusive SEC Network in August 2014. Early-season basketball games from the UK Sports Network were also discontinued because of the new SEC Network being launched. The only sports programming on WYMT is provided by the network through CBS Sports.

Beginning with the 2015–2016 season, WYMT-DT2 serves as an affiliate of ad-hoc programming service ACC Network, which is operated by Raycom Sports. That service provides Atlantic Coast Conference football and men's basketball events.^[15]

Locally produced programs

• Appalachian Wireless Sports Overtime
• Issues & Answers: The Mountain Edition
• Sports Overtime Saturday Night

Notable former on-air staff

• Jay Crawford (Creator of Sports Overtime on WYMT) - went on to become host of ESPN2's Cold Pizza (later changed to First Take). Later anchor of ESPN's SportsCenter, laid off from ESPN in April 2017.