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WPSD-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase region, Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel, Northwestern Tennessee, and far Northeastern Arkansas. Licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 (or virtual channel 6.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 5, Mediacom channel 6, and Charter channel 10. There is a high definition feed provided on Comcast digital channel 432, Mediacom digital channel 706, and Charter digital channel 785.

Owned by the Paxton Media Group, WPSD has studios on Television Lane in Paducah. Syndicated programming on the station includes Wheel of Fortune, Inside Edition, Jeopardy!, and Dr. Phil among others. It formerly operated a low-powered VHF analog repeater W10AH (channel 10) in Carbondale, Illinois from a transmitter (sharing the WSIU-TV-FM tower) on the Southern Illinois University campus, but the station's license has since been cancelled by the FCC.

History

The station signed-on as WPSD on May 28, 1957 with an analog signal on VHF 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 station would add the -TV suffix to its call sign on April 23, 1979. The "PSD" letters in the calls stands for Paducah Sun-Democrat which was the paper's name at the time the station launched in 1957.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPSD-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, 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 32. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6.

News operation

WPSD serves more than fifty counties in its large four state territory including all of southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and north Western Tennessee. Among the area's big three outlets, the station has traditionally focused more on the Western Kentucky side since it is based in Paducah. In addition to its main studios, WPSD operates a bureau on South Illinois Avenue in Downtown Carbondale.

With headquarters in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, CBS affiliate KFVS-TV primarily features coverage of southeastern Missouri although it also maintains a bureau in southern Illinois. Meanwhile, the market's ABC affiliate WSIL-TV focuses almost exclusively on Illinois from studios in Carterville. This is despite the presence of full-time satellite KPOB in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. In fact, WSIL does not even mention the region's other two main cities (Paducah and Cape Girardeau) in its on-air identifications.

For several years, WPSD produced a nightly prime time newscast on Fox affiliate KBSI (owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) through a news share agreement. The thirty-minute show was known as Local 6 News at 9 on Fox 23 and featured a regional summary of headlines because KBSI is based in Cape Girardeau. For a while, the broadcast competed with KFVS' own nightly prime time news at 9 seen on the area's low-powered CW affiliates WQTV-LP/WQWQ-LP.

That newscast, however, was produced specifically for southeastern Missouri viewers. It would eventually be cancelled on July 29, 2007. WPSD's outsourcing arrangement with KBSI expired on September 30, 2010. The next day, the latter entered into a new partnership with KFVS presumably to refocus the prime time production to the Missouri Bootheel area and expand it to sixty minutes every night. With that addition, KFVS now offers more than thirty hours of local news each week and continues to retain its market dominance as the most watched outlet. On October 3, 2010, WPSD brought back its own newscast at 9 to its RTV and Antenna TV. Known as The Nine and seen every night for a half-hour, this is simulcasted on those two services.

On June 3, 2012, starting with the 5:00 PM newscast, WPSD-TV became the last station in the market to offer local news in high definition. Minor set and graphics changes have been made to accommodate the move.

Notable former on-air staff

• Sam Champion - now Managing Editor for The Weather Channel and host of AMHQ

Availability

Over-the-air signal

WPSD's over-the-air signal can also reach some of the Nashville media market's far western areas, like in Henry County, including Paris. Parts of Trigg County, Kentucky, near the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area can also pick up the station's signal. People in Dawson Springs (Hopkins County, in the Evansville market), can also pick up the station's signal with an outdoor antenna as that area is just within range of the station's signal area. WPSD is the only station in the Paducah market that can reach that area.

Until the 2009 Digital Television Transition, the signal also used to be able to reach the far northern areas of Dyer and Gibson Counties in northwest Tennessee, which is in the small Jackson, Tennessee market.

Out-of-market coverage

In Hopkinsville (Christian County (KY)), which is in the Nashville media market, WPSD and WPSD-DT3 (its Antenna TV subchannel) is carried on that area's local Time Warner Cable system. WPSD's main channel is also carried on Mediacom cable channel 15 on that provider's system in the Cadiz and Trigg County areas (including the Land Between the Lakes area), which are also in the Nashville market.

In Webster County, Kentucky, including Dixon (within the Evansville DMA), WPSD-TV's main channel is carried on Time Warner Cable channel 37.

References

1. RabbitEars TV Query for WPSD
2. http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/story/32554372/heartland-on-wpsd-62-being-replaced-with-this-tv
3. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. RECNet CDBS Query for WPSD-TV
5. Time Warner Cable Channel Lineup for Hopkinsville/Christian County, KY
6. Mediacom Channel Lineup: Cadiz, KY
7. Mediacom Channel Lineup: Trigg County, KY
8. Time Warner Cable Channel Lineup for Dixon, Clay, and Wheatcraft, KY (Webster County, KY)

External links

• WPSD-TV "Local 6"
• Template:TVQ
• Template:BIA

• NBC affiliates
• Television channels and stations established in 1957
• Antenna TV affiliates
• Television stations in Kentucky
• NBC network affiliates
• 1957 establishments in Kentucky