WHAS 11 |
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About |
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WHAS-TV channel 11 is the ABC affiliated television station in Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by Belo Corporation, the station's transmitter is located in Floyd County, Indiana, near the community of Floyds Knobs. The station began broadcasting on March 27, 1950 on channel 9 as Kentucky's second television station. It moved to its current location of channel 11 on February 7, 1953, after an increase in effective radiated power caused interference with WCPO-TV, Cincinnati. It was owned by the Bingham family, publishers of the The Courier-Journal newspaper, along with WHAS-AM, Kentucky's first radio station. Family patriarch Barry Bingham, Sr. handed over control to his son, Barry, Jr. in 1971. A 15-year family dispute culminated in a decision to split up the family's media holdings. WHAS-TV was sold to The Providence Journal Company in 1986, while WHAS-AM went to Clear Channel Communications and the Courier-Journal went to Gannett. The Journal Company merged with Belo in 1997. The station originally was a primary CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. When WLKY-TV signed on in 1961, WHAS-TV became a sole CBS affiliate. In September 1990, WHAS-TV swapped affiliations with WLKY-TV and became an ABC affiliate. At the time of the exchange, ABC was the #1 rated network, with CBS a distant third in the midpoint of the Laurence Tisch era of the network's history. WLKY has since made strong strides in the market as cable penetration allowed WLKY's traditional UHF disadvantage to fade, and other factors allowed the station to strengthen its news operation and compete with WHAS's newscasts evenly. WHAS has seen some struggles over the years within seasons where ABC's schedule is weak, while WLKY's ties to CBS have boosted that station through most of the 2000s. With ABC's current schedule, both stations usually exchange top rankings in the news ratings race. |
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