Lexington, KY (December 7, 1981)

[IM42A]

I checked, and Pieratt's and Barney Miller's apparently don't even sell antennas anymore.

Kind of a wild idea, and it would admittedly be a niche market, but I wonder if anyone's ever considered starting up long-distance antenna sales and setup in Lexington again, with the advent of digital TV and the growing trend to "cut the cord". Louisville and Cincinnati are the same distance from Lexington that they were in analog days (just stating the obvious), and I've spot-checked various locations at random in Lexington, and I have to think stable reception would be a possibility in most areas, with a high-performance antenna such as the Televes DATBOSS, the Antennas Direct 91XG (or the new Goliath), or an AD DB8e. A 7-foot parabolic, if you could find one these days, would be even better.

I suppose the question then would be "and just what can we get from Louisville or Cincinnati that isn't available locally?". There would be, obviously, the local news, but that, too, would be a niche interest at best. Gone are the days when WLWT carried all the Reds games.

 

[Gravel Switch]

I checked, and Pieratt's and Barney Miller's apparently don't even sell antennas anymore.

Kind of a wild idea, and it would admittedly be a niche market, but I wonder if anyone's ever considered starting up long-distance antenna sales and setup in Lexington again, with the advent of digital TV and the growing trend to "cut the cord". Louisville and Cincinnati are the same distance from Lexington that they were in analog days (just stating the obvious), and I've spot-checked various locations at random in Lexington, and I have to think stable reception would be a possibility in most areas, with a high-performance antenna such as the Televes DATBOSS, the Antennas Direct 91XG (or the new Goliath), or an AD DB8e. A 7-foot parabolic, if you could find one these days, would be even better.

I suppose the question then would be "and just what can we get from Louisville or Cincinnati that isn't available locally?". There would be, obviously, the local news, but that, too, would be a niche interest at best. Gone are the days when WLWT carried all the Reds games.

You pretty much answered it with the quoted question you posed in your second paragraph as, except for local news, the Louisville and Cincinnati stations don’t provide any differentiated programming anymore that can’t be found on the Lexington stations. Plus, with the entrance of cable TV to Lexington in the late 1970s and 1980s, and now the blind rush to streaming, the days of people wanting to put up huge towers at their houses are long gone.

Antenna installation is a very small niche business anymore, depending on the TV market, and usually a one-or two-person outfit (and even then, a “side business.”). Here in Colorado, where OTA accounts for 20% of the TV households, there are a couple of folk who install TV antennas, along with other unrelated services, such as internet. I have an antenna on the roof (next to my DirecTV dish), and I’m fortunate I have an excellent antenna service guy, a one-person firm if you will. But the halcyon days of home TV towers, etc. are long gone, giving way to generations who never knew life with an antenna. In fact, people ask me if it’s legal that I pick up TV stations over the air. 😆

 

[IM42A]

You pretty much answered it with the quoted question you posed in your second paragraph as, except for local news, the Louisville and Cincinnati stations don’t provide any differentiated programming anymore that can’t be found on the Lexington stations. Plus, with the entrance of cable TV to Lexington in the late 1970s and 1980s, and now the blind rush to streaming, the days of people wanting to put up huge towers at their houses are long gone.

Antenna installation is a very small niche business anymore, depending on the TV market, and usually a one-or two-person outfit (and even then, a “side business.”). Here in Colorado, where OTA accounts for 20% of the TV households, there are a couple of folk who install TV antennas, along with other unrelated services, such as internet. I have an antenna on the roof (next to my DirecTV dish), and I’m fortunate I have an excellent antenna service guy, a one-person firm if you will. But the halcyon days of home TV towers, etc. are long gone, giving way to generations who never knew life with an antenna. In fact, people ask me if it’s legal that I pick up TV stations over the air. 😆

The closest thing to differentiated programming would be public TV from WCET and WPTO, but that would be quite a reach as regards reception, probably not possible unless you fell within a sweet spot. You're right, TV in various markets, aside from local news, is pretty much homogeneous anymore. Time was, you had any number of syndicated shows and reruns aired in some cities but not others, as well as pre-emptions and time-shifting, but those days are pretty much gone as well.

The most likely places with a viable demand for out-of-market stations would be short markets such as Zanesville or Parkersburg (the latter missing only ABC), or markets which only have a single news operation that bridges co-owned stations, again, think Zanesville and Parkersburg, or Lima, Harrisonburg, Alpena, Presque Isle, and a few others. Those are a minuscule portion of the total US TV markets.

 

[radiofan2023]

Plus homeowners associations I’ve been a part of would never allow a huge antenna to be mounted on or near anyone’s house.

 

[Gravel Switch]

The closest thing to differentiated programming would be public TV from WCET and WPTO, but that would be quite a reach as regards reception, probably not possible unless you fell within a sweet spot. You're right, TV in various markets, aside from local news, is pretty much homogeneous anymore. Time was, you had any number of syndicated shows and reruns aired in some cities but not others, as well as pre-emptions and time-shifting, but those days are pretty much gone as well.

The most likely places with a viable demand for out-of-market stations would be short markets such as Zanesville or Parkersburg (the latter missing only ABC), or markets which only have a single news operation that bridges co-owned stations, again, think Zanesville and Parkersburg, or Lima, Harrisonburg, Alpena, Presque Isle, and a few others. Those are a minuscule portion of the total US TV markets.

Heck, generations coming up behind us rarely even watch a TV set, as numbers show a lot are simple watching via their phones and other non-TV devices.

 

[IM42A]

Plus homeowners associations I’ve been a part of would never allow a huge antenna to be mounted on or near anyone’s house.

Tell me about it. I'm on one of the highest natural elevations in Richland County SC, and a 30' tower with my Antennacraft P7 would be the ultimate in reception, but I can't do it because of the HOA. I do have a Televes DATBOSS (with an add-on for low-VHF, not like that does me any good where I am) on the chimney of one of my homes, which they really can't do anything about per OTARD, but everything else, I have to hide behind the houses in what are admittedly suboptimal circumstances. Better half a loaf than none.

 

[KD4YQR]

I checked, and Pieratt's and Barney Miller's apparently don't even sell antennas anymore.

Kind of a wild idea, and it would admittedly be a niche market, but I wonder if anyone's ever considered starting up long-distance antenna sales and setup in Lexington again, with the advent of digital TV and the growing trend to "cut the cord". Louisville and Cincinnati are the same distance from Lexington that they were in analog days (just stating the obvious), and I've spot-checked various locations at random in Lexington, and I have to think stable reception would be a possibility in most areas, with a high-performance antenna such as the Televes DATBOSS, the Antennas Direct 91XG (or the new Goliath), or an AD DB8e. A 7-foot parabolic, if you could find one these days, would be even better.

I suppose the question then would be "and just what can we get from Louisville or Cincinnati that isn't available locally?". There would be, obviously, the local news, but that, too, would be a niche interest at best. Gone are the days when WLWT carried all the Reds games.

Walmart and Amazon sell quite a few low profile antennas mainly for "local" reception.
Indoor antennas even in metropolitan areas don't do well. So this latest crop of small antennas are aimed at DIYers who may have a leftover J pole from a dish service. Even a small antenna on the roof or peak of the house makes a big difference.

I have 2 such antennas in my attic. Zip tied to the roof trusses.
One aimed at Louisville and the other at Lexington. I get all stations from both markets, plus WCPO, WLWT and WXIX from Cincinnati off the "side". And often WYMT.

For me I watch mainly Louisville (my job takes me there 3 days a week so I have a greater interest in Louisville news and weather.)
However the appeal in getting more than one market doesn't have as much to do with the major networks as it does with getting a variety of sub- channels. At least for me, anyway.

Louisville has some sub channels that Lexington doesn't have and vice versa. MeTV, Antenna TV, Rewind TV, Charge, H&I, Start, Cozi, GET TV, and others.

Many of the "good" sub channels in the Lexington market are on WLJC Beattyville, which despite my best efforts, I can't get it here unless tropo kicks in.
In a nutshell, this would be the appeal of larger antennas but not enough appeal to build a business around it.

 

[KD4YQR]

You pretty much answered it with the quoted question you posed in your second paragraph as, except for local news, the Louisville and Cincinnati stations don’t provide any differentiated programming anymore that can’t be found on the Lexington stations. Plus, with the entrance of cable TV to Lexington in the late 1970s and 1980s, and now the blind rush to streaming, the days of people wanting to put up huge towers at their houses are long gone.

Antenna installation is a very small niche business anymore, depending on the TV market, and usually a one-or two-person outfit (and even then, a “side business.”). Here in Colorado, where OTA accounts for 20% of the TV households, there are a couple of folk who install TV antennas, along with other unrelated services, such as internet. I have an antenna on the roof (next to my DirecTV dish), and I’m fortunate I have an excellent antenna service guy, a one-person firm if you will. But the halcyon days of home TV towers, etc. are long gone, giving way to generations who never knew life with an antenna. In fact, people ask me if it’s legal that I pick up TV stations over the air. 😆

I remember during the digital switchover in 2009, cable and satellite companies were not being completely truthful with the public, telling them "You will need cable or satellite to continue receiving your local stations" . Wrong, but you would need a digital converter if you had an analog TV, and there were still quite a few then.

 

[IM42A]

Walmart and Amazon sell quite a few low profile antennas mainly for "local" reception.
Indoor antennas even in metropolitan areas don't do well. So this latest crop of small antennas are aimed at DIYers who may have a leftover J pole from a dish service. Even a small antenna on the roof or peak of the house makes a big difference.

I have 2 such antennas in my attic. Zip tied to the roof trusses.
One aimed at Louisville and the other at Lexington. I get all stations from both markets, plus WCPO, WLWT and WXIX from Cincinnati off the "side". And often WYMT.

For me I watch mainly Louisville (my job takes me there 3 days a week so I have a greater interest in Louisville news and weather.)
However the appeal in getting more than one market doesn't have as much to do with the major networks as it does with getting a variety of sub- channels. At least for me, anyway.

Louisville has some sub channels that Lexington doesn't have and vice versa. MeTV, Antenna TV, Rewind TV, Charge, H&I, Start, Cozi, GET TV, and others.

Many of the "good" sub channels in the Lexington market are on WLJC Beattyville, which despite my best efforts, I can't get it here unless tropo kicks in.
In a nutshell, this would be the appeal of larger antennas but not enough appeal to build a business around it.

That's pretty amazing. At the end of the day, Lexington is deep fringe for Louisville and Cincinnati, though if you live to the north or west of Lexington (such as Paris, Georgetown, or Versailles), Cincinnati or Louisville would be easier to receive than in Lexington proper. (Again, Frankfort is down in that valley.) I can see how WLJC would be difficult, in theory it gets all the way to the counties along the Ohio River, but in Kentucky, reception is often the luck of the draw. WLJC has done a good job in morphing from a Christian station to an independent with fairly strong subchannels (they still carry some religious programs on the Cozi 65.1 subchannel), but it's a reach to think of them as a "Lexington" station. I don't suppose that newscast WTVQ did for them at 9 pm ever really caught on.

Getting WYMT in Lexington would be, again, the luck of the draw, and sadly, it doesn't work in the other direction, it wouldn't be possible to get Lexington stations in Hazard unless you were on a mountaintop. I wonder how matters will change when they move from channel 12 to channel 20.

 

[KD4YQR]

That's pretty amazing. At the end of the day, Lexington is deep fringe for Louisville and Cincinnati, though if you live to the north or west of Lexington (such as Paris, Georgetown, or Versailles), Cincinnati or Louisville would be easier to receive than in Lexington proper. (Again, Frankfort is down in that valley.) I can see how WLJC would be difficult, in theory it gets all the way to the counties along the Ohio River, but in Kentucky, reception is often the luck of the draw. WLJC has done a good job in morphing from a Christian station to an independent with fairly strong subchannels (they still carry some religious programs on the Cozi 65.1 subchannel), but it's a reach to think of them as a "Lexington" station. I don't suppose that newscast WTVQ did for them at 9 pm ever really caught on.

Getting WYMT in Lexington would be, again, the luck of the draw, and sadly, it doesn't work in the other direction, it wouldn't be possible to get Lexington stations in Hazard unless you were on a mountaintop. I wonder how matters will change when they move from channel 12 to channel 20.

I live in Anderson county and ironically at the highest elevation in Anderson county.
50 miles from Louisville, 26 miles from Lexington, 10 miles south of Frankfort.
The Louisville stations are easy pickings here and WAVE, WLKY, and WDRB all acknowledged that they have viewers here "over the air" during severe weather coverage. All of them give at least 75% signal strength which is more than adequate to lock in a signal.
Lexington stations are all 100%.

When I moved here in 1993 and subscribed to cable, all of Louisville Big 4 had full carriage here.
Now I believe only WAVE and WHAS have carriage under significantly viewed status.

Dish Network and OTA make up my TV viewing these days. My Dish Network receiver has the built in OTA ASTC tuner module, so my OTA stations appear in the program guide, along with the dish channels.
That plus Dish allows you to decline the local channels package which knocks 13.00 a month off the bill. Direct TV doesn't give you that option.

 

[KD4YQR]

That's pretty amazing. At the end of the day, Lexington is deep fringe for Louisville and Cincinnati, though if you live to the north or west of Lexington (such as Paris, Georgetown, or Versailles), Cincinnati or Louisville would be easier to receive than in Lexington proper. (Again, Frankfort is down in that valley.) I can see how WLJC would be difficult, in theory it gets all the way to the counties along the Ohio River, but in Kentucky, reception is often the luck of the draw. WLJC has done a good job in morphing from a Christian station to an independent with fairly strong subchannels (they still carry some religious programs on the Cozi 65.1 subchannel), but it's a reach to think of them as a "Lexington" station. I don't suppose that newscast WTVQ did for them at 9 pm ever really caught on.

Getting WYMT in Lexington would be, again, the luck of the draw, and sadly, it doesn't work in the other direction, it wouldn't be possible to get Lexington stations in Hazard unless you were on a mountaintop. I wonder how matters will change when they move from channel 12 to channel 20.

WLJC runs 185 KW on VHF channel 7 at 1055' HAAT. (Most VHFs are running 15 to 25 KW average)
So it *should* put a watchable signal into the Lexington metro. And beyond....
The main channel and the H&I sub have carriage on Lexington cable.
The main channel is carried on Dish and Direct. I'm guessing since WLJC is *located* in one of the Lexington DMA counties, that makes it a Lexington station(!)
Margaret Drake, the stations owner, stated once, that the digital transition "saved" her station, with the additional revenue generated from the sub channels.

 

[Gravel Switch]

I live in Anderson county and ironically at the highest elevation in Anderson county.
50 miles from Louisville, 26 miles from Lexington, 10 miles south of Frankfort.
The Louisville stations are easy pickings here and WAVE, WLKY, and WDRB all acknowledged that they have viewers here "over the air" during severe weather coverage. All of them give at least 75% signal strength which is more than adequate to lock in a signal.
Lexington stations are all 100%.

When I moved here in 1993 and subscribed to cable, all of Louisville Big 4 had full carriage here.
Now I believe only WAVE and WHAS have carriage under significantly viewed status.

Dish Network and OTA make up my TV viewing these days. My Dish Network receiver has the built in OTA ASTC tuner module, so my OTA stations appear in the program guide, along with the dish channels.
That plus Dish allows you to decline the local channels package which knocks 13.00 a month off the bill. Direct TV doesn't give you that option.

DirecTv announced last year the option to drop local TV stations. While I have an OTA antenna on the roof, I haven’t yet pulled the trigger given the convenience of “all in one” DirecTv access in my home theatre.

DirecTV to Let Satellite Customers Drop Local Stations From Bundle to Cut Bill

Subscribers would get $12 discount if they opt out

www.nexttv.com

 

[IM42A]

I live in Anderson county and ironically at the highest elevation in Anderson county.
50 miles from Louisville, 26 miles from Lexington, 10 miles south of Frankfort.
The Louisville stations are easy pickings here and WAVE, WLKY, and WDRB all acknowledged that they have viewers here "over the air" during severe weather coverage. All of them give at least 75% signal strength which is more than adequate to lock in a signal.
Lexington stations are all 100%.

When I moved here in 1993 and subscribed to cable, all of Louisville Big 4 had full carriage here.
Now I believe only WAVE and WHAS have carriage under significantly viewed status.

Dish Network and OTA make up my TV viewing these days. My Dish Network receiver has the built in OTA ASTC tuner module, so my OTA stations appear in the program guide, along with the dish channels.
That plus Dish allows you to decline the local channels package which knocks 13.00 a month off the bill. Direct TV doesn't give you that option.

Anderson County, while in the Lexington DMA, is one of those "neither fish nor fowl" counties, but since a county can only be in one DMA, it comes down to a preponderance of viewing. Frankfort is in the same situation, indeed, up into the early 1980s, it was part of the Louisville market. Cable operators in recent years have trended more towards a "one station per network" scenario, this due to retransmission consent (though distant stations would possibly waive this, as well as remuneration, to get their stations additional coverage and possibly even flip the DMA in an edge situation), the wish of cable operators to have slots open (but is that an issue anymore in a thousand-channel universe?), and, to the extent they can do it, in-market stations blocking the carriage of out-of-market stations on the same network. As I've noted before, the Lexington stations engaged in a full-court press in the 1970s to blow out their market in all directions, peeling several counties off the Louisville, Cincinnati, Charleston-Huntington, Knoxville, and Tri-Cities markets, all to good effect. C-H had big bites taken out of it, as well as losing Athens and Pike counties in Ohio to the Columbus market (somehow Vinton County remains in the C-H market, don't ask me why). C-H is kinda-sorta a split market, with WSAZ leaning more towards Huntington and the counties in Ohio and Kentucky, and the rest of the stations being much more Charleston-oriented (indeed, WOWK, while still licensed to Huntington with their tower on Barkers Ridge, is for all intents and purposes a Charleston station, with their studios having moved from Huntington to Charleston years ago). Nobody in eastern Kentucky cares what is going on in Charleston, it might as well be in another country. Given their choice, viewers there would probably prefer to get WSAZ (which shares news resources with sister Gray stations WKYT and WYMT) as their NBC affiliate, with the rest of the stations coming from Lexington.

Frankfort cable (they actually had two parallel systems, one municipally-owned, the other private) back in the day attempted to carry all Lexington, Louisville, and even Cincinnati stations, indeed, they had to split some channels on a shared-time basis, as they only had twelve slots, and had to allocate at least one channel for community use. I once picked up WXIX in Frankfort on a TV set in my car with a loop or bowtie antenna, don't recall which. (My father, knowing of my keen interest in TV DX even in pre-teen years, got me a small B&W portable with a cigarette lighter adapter to take along on road trips, a tradition I continue with my Milanix portable 7" set and a 19" Insignia I keep in the trunk along with a small RCA yagi, amplifier, power inverter, PVC pipe mast sections, and a lightweight tripod. I've taken my setup to Mount Mitchell, Mount Pisgah, Little Mountain here in SC, and many other places in search of whatever DX I might be able to pick up.)

 

[IM42A]

WLJC runs 185 KW on VHF channel 7 at 1055' HAAT. (Most VHFs are running 15 to 25 KW average)
So it *should* put a watchable signal into the Lexington metro. And beyond....
The main channel and the H&I sub have carriage on Lexington cable.
The main channel is carried on Dish and Direct. I'm guessing since WLJC is *located* in one of the Lexington DMA counties, that makes it a Lexington station(!)
Margaret Drake, the stations owner, stated once, that the digital transition "saved" her station, with the additional revenue generated from the sub channels.

Sister Margaret impresses me as a pretty savvy businesswoman. Getting a VHF allocation for WLJC was indeed a windfall, and the subchannels enabled WLJC to diversify their programming enough to keep the station in business and thriving (I'm assuming it is a nonprofit).

WLJC is indeed a Lexington-market station.

 

[KD4YQR]

Anderson County, while in the Lexington DMA, is one of those "neither fish nor fowl" counties, but since a county can only be in one DMA, it comes down to a preponderance of viewing. Frankfort is in the same situation, indeed, up into the early 1980s, it was part of the Louisville market. Cable operators in recent years have trended more towards a "one station per network" scenario, this due to retransmission consent (though distant stations would possibly waive this, as well as remuneration, to get their stations additional coverage and possibly even flip the DMA in an edge situation), the wish of cable operators to have slots open (but is that an issue anymore in a thousand-channel universe?), and, to the extent they can do it, in-market stations blocking the carriage of out-of-market stations on the same network. As I've noted before, the Lexington stations engaged in a full-court press in the 1970s to blow out their market in all directions, peeling several counties off the Louisville, Cincinnati, Charleston-Huntington, Knoxville, and Tri-Cities markets, all to good effect. C-H had big bites taken out of it, as well as losing Athens and Pike counties in Ohio to the Columbus market (somehow Vinton County remains in the C-H market, don't ask me why). C-H is kinda-sorta a split market, with WSAZ leaning more towards Huntington and the counties in Ohio and Kentucky, and the rest of the stations being much more Charleston-oriented (indeed, WOWK, while still licensed to Huntington with their tower on Barkers Ridge, is for all intents and purposes a Charleston station, with their studios having moved from Huntington to Charleston years ago). Nobody in eastern Kentucky cares what is going on in Charleston, it might as well be in another country. Given their choice, viewers there would probably prefer to get WSAZ (which shares news resources with sister Gray stations WKYT and WYMT) as their NBC affiliate, with the rest of the stations coming from Lexington.

Frankfort cable (they actually had two parallel systems, one municipally-owned, the other private) back in the day attempted to carry all Lexington, Louisville, and even Cincinnati stations, indeed, they had to split some channels on a shared-time basis, as they only had twelve slots, and had to allocate at least one channel for community use. I once picked up WXIX in Frankfort on a TV set in my car with a loop or bowtie antenna, don't recall which. (My father, knowing of my keen interest in TV DX even in pre-teen years, got me a small B&W portable with a cigarette lighter adapter to take along on road trips, a tradition I continue with my Milanix portable 7" set and a 19" Insignia I keep in the trunk along with a small RCA yagi, amplifier, power inverter, PVC pipe mast sections, and a lightweight tripod. I've taken my setup to Mount Mitchell, Mount Pisgah, Little Mountain here in SC, and many other places in search of whatever DX I might be able to pick up.)

There are quite a few 30 ft towers here as well.
Judging from the antennas I still see here, people were watching 3,11,32 and 41 with a VHF yagi and a corner reflector bowtie aimed at Louisville and a corner reflector bowtie aimed at Lexington.

Most of these are fixed positions without a rotor.

I haven't seen any aimed at Cincinnati which leads me to believe that Lexington and Louisville stations were plenty for Anderson county.

You're right about "one station per network" in most cases.
It seems I read that FOX would only allow cable companies to carry that DMAs FOX affiliate.
That was the case here.
WDKY and WDRB were both carried full time, then sometime around 2000, the cable company here would "sim-sub" WDKY over WDRB during network hours, and eventually WDRB was dropped altogether. Then WLKY was dropped leaving WAVE and WHAS as the sole remaining Louisville channels on cable here.

Up the road in Frankfort, the viewers decided to pay the extra transmission fees to keep WAVE, WLKY, and WHAS. WDRB was dropped due to WDKY flexing their muscle. WLJC is carried on cable there, as well.

A little farther north in Owen county (Cincinnati DMA) the cable there, has a network from each market:
WLEX (NBC), WLKY (CBS), WCPO (ABC) and WXIX (FOX).
Owenton is equal distance from all 3 markets.

I had family that lived in Frankfort in 1974, and I remember WXIX as well as WDRB were in cable there. I can't remember if the other Cincy stations were there but as a teenager, WXIX and WDRB were more of an interest to me.

Back when I ran service I kept a 5" yard sale find black and white TV in my work truck, that I would watch when I stopped to eat lunch. (But not while I was driving!)
I traveled all over the eastern part of the state, so I would turn it on to see what I could, the farther out I was. Glad I'm not the only TV and antenna geek.

I have a good friend that's into model trains, and his layout is massive, however he thinks my TV and radio DXing hobby is " weird". To each his own, I guess.

 

[Gravel Switch]

There are quite a few 30 ft towers here as well.
Judging from the antennas I still see here, people were watching 3,11,32 and 41 with a VHF yagi and a corner reflector bowtie aimed at Louisville and a corner reflector bowtie aimed at Lexington.

Most of these are fixed positions without a rotor.

I haven't seen any aimed at Cincinnati which leads me to believe that Lexington and Louisville stations were plenty for Anderson county.

You're right about "one station per network" in most cases.
It seems I read that FOX would only allow cable companies to carry that DMAs FOX affiliate.
That was the case here.
WDKY and WDRB were both carried full time, then sometime around 2000, the cable company here would "sim-sub" WDKY over WDRB during network hours, and eventually WDRB was dropped altogether. Then WLKY was dropped leaving WAVE and WHAS as the sole remaining Louisville channels on cable here.

Up the road in Frankfort, the viewers decided to pay the extra transmission fees to keep WAVE, WLKY, and WHAS. WDRB was dropped due to WDKY flexing their muscle. WLJC is carried on cable there, as well.

A little farther north in Owen county (Cincinnati DMA) the cable there, has a network from each market:
WLEX (NBC), WLKY (CBS), WCPO (ABC) and WXIX (FOX).
Owenton is equal distance from all 3 markets.

I had family that lived in Frankfort in 1974, and I remember WXIX as well as WDRB were in cable there. I can't remember if the other Cincy stations were there but as a teenager, WXIX and WDRB were more of an interest to me.

Back when I ran service I kept a 5" yard sale find black and white TV in my work truck, that I would watch when I stopped to eat lunch. (But not while I was driving!)
I traveled all over the eastern part of the state, so I would turn it on to see what I could, the farther out I was. Glad I'm not the only TV and antenna geek.

I have a good friend that's into model trains, and his layout is massive, however he thinks my TV and radio DXing hobby is " weird". To each his own, I guess.

I worked at the State Capitol in Frankfort in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with TVs in the offices, and by that time, WXIX was the only remaining Cincinnati station on Frankfort CATV. The others stations were the full complement of Louisville and Lexington network affiliates. Now, only WAVE and WHAS remain outside of all of the Lexington market stations.

 

[KD4YQR]

I worked at the State Capitol in Frankfort in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with TVs in the offices, and by that time, WXIX was the only remaining Cincinnati station on Frankfort CATV. The others stations were the full complement of Louisville and Lexington network affiliates. Now, only WAVE and WHAS remain outside of all of the Lexington market stations.

Their latest channel guide shows they restored WLKY on cable channel 12.

 

[KD4YQR]

I worked at the State Capitol in Frankfort in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with TVs in the offices, and by that time, WXIX was the only remaining Cincinnati station on Frankfort CATV. The others stations were the full complement of Louisville and Lexington network affiliates. Now, only WAVE and WHAS remain outside of all of the Lexington market stations.

Oddly enough, after I moved to Anderson county in 1993, we had a crappy 24 channel "mom & pop" cable provider (R&V Cablevision)
A petition was circulated to allow Frankfort Plant Board to become our cable provider. Despite an adequate number of signatures, the town father's decided not to allow FPB into Anderson county and we were stuck with R&V. I switched to Dish Network in 1997 and have been with them since.
Satellite TV really hurt R&V so much they sold out to Adelphia in 1999.

 

[IM42A]

There are quite a few 30 ft towers here as well.
Judging from the antennas I still see here, people were watching 3,11,32 and 41 with a VHF yagi and a corner reflector bowtie aimed at Louisville and a corner reflector bowtie aimed at Lexington.

Most of these are fixed positions without a rotor.

I haven't seen any aimed at Cincinnati which leads me to believe that Lexington and Louisville stations were plenty for Anderson county.

You're right about "one station per network" in most cases.
It seems I read that FOX would only allow cable companies to carry that DMAs FOX affiliate.
That was the case here.
WDKY and WDRB were both carried full time, then sometime around 2000, the cable company here would "sim-sub" WDKY over WDRB during network hours, and eventually WDRB was dropped altogether. Then WLKY was dropped leaving WAVE and WHAS as the sole remaining Louisville channels on cable here.

Up the road in Frankfort, the viewers decided to pay the extra transmission fees to keep WAVE, WLKY, and WHAS. WDRB was dropped due to WDKY flexing their muscle. WLJC is carried on cable there, as well.

A little farther north in Owen county (Cincinnati DMA) the cable there, has a network from each market:
WLEX (NBC), WLKY (CBS), WCPO (ABC) and WXIX (FOX).
Owenton is equal distance from all 3 markets.

I had family that lived in Frankfort in 1974, and I remember WXIX as well as WDRB were in cable there. I can't remember if the other Cincy stations were there but as a teenager, WXIX and WDRB were more of an interest to me.

Back when I ran service I kept a 5" yard sale find black and white TV in my work truck, that I would watch when I stopped to eat lunch. (But not while I was driving!)
I traveled all over the eastern part of the state, so I would turn it on to see what I could, the farther out I was. Glad I'm not the only TV and antenna geek.

I have a good friend that's into model trains, and his layout is massive, however he thinks my TV and radio DXing hobby is " weird". To each his own, I guess.

Sim-sub is a pain in the... you get the idea. But in some circumstances, it's the only way viewers can get out-of-market content (usually local news).

I've wondered about how far from the core cities of a market that a cable operator can get by with carrying another market's network affiliates instead of (or as well as) the in-market affiliate. Owen County is another one of those "neither fish nor fowl" situations, nominally in the Cincinnati market, but from your example here, WLWT and WKRC aren't carried on cable there. In eastern Kentucky, per TVTV.com (which isn't always reliable), the cable system in Martin (Floyd County) has apparently dropped WOWK in favor of WYMT. In that case, there is really no point in carrying two CBS affiliates, least of all when one is out-of-state (based in Charleston) and of little interest to viewers. Given WYMT's location, I can't imagine that WOWK really needs to be carried any further south than Louisa, and even that is debatable. How far out can a station endorse must-carry, and block another market's stations? I know that in satellite carriage, it's pretty much cut-and-dried, you get all of the in-market stations and no others (unless it is an "orphan county" situation such as in Monongalia and Preston counties in West Virginia, which get Clarksburg as well as in-market Pittsburgh stations), but is there some kind of 35-mile or so rule for cable TV? I seem to recall reading that somewhere. Sim-sub might get around that, but again, it's irritating and complicated.

One problem I can see with an "a la carte" situation, such as in Owen County, is syndicated programming that might not sync up, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. I don't know how it lines up with the stations you described, but conceivably, you could end up not getting some shows at all.

I think that in 1974, Frankfort cable (at least one of the systems, possibly both) carried some Cincinnati (and maybe Louisville) stations on a shared-time basis, due to having only twelve channels available. I think they did something funky with WKPC from Louisville, maybe carried it shared-time with one of the Cincinnati stations or something, or shared time with a community access channel, that's been over 50 years ago and I can't recall in my mind's eye exactly what the cable channel chart looked like. At that time, Franklin County was still assigned to the Louisville market.

 

[IM42A]

Here's the Frankfort Plant Board lineup from 2001, thought I was going to get lucky and find one from the 1970s, but no such luck:

https://www.tvchannellists.com/w/List_of_Frankfort_Plant_Board_channels_(April_2001)

I didn't know this website existed until just a minute ago. Looks interesting.