WUKY Low Power Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why can’t I hear your station during the day?
A: The FCC is currently making all the television stations in the country go through equipment and tower upgrades as part of something called the “repack”. Find out more here: https://www.nab.org/repacking/ Since WUKY’s antenna is on KET’s tower, we have to go to low power so the workers can strengthen the tower for KET’s new antenna. They can only climb during daylight hours, so we’re at low power during the day. We are back to full power from dusk to sunrise.
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Q: How long will this go on?
A: We don’t know. The project is set for three parts: strengthening the tower, installing the new DTV antenna, and removing the existing DTV antenna. The crew is climbing every day that weather permits. Once phase one is complete, we should get a reprieve until the new antenna arrives sometime this Spring.
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Q: Who is affected?
A: Generally speaking, listeners in Fayette County shouldn’t notice a difference. It’s the outer parts of our broadcast radius that is affected the most. We’ve been getting reports of low/no signal in Danville and Frankfort. WUKY is still streaming on our website, and the signal is also available via the WUKY phone app for Apple and Android.
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Q: Is there anything more you can do?
A: We are working closely with KET to try and minimize disruptions, but the work must proceed. WUKY/ University of Kentucky does not own the tower. KET does. We have to go along with this until the process is finished. There is a deadline set by the FCC, so hopefully if won’t be too much longer. Many other radio stations around the country are also affected by the repack. It is frustrating, but our hands are tied on this. The good news is this project is allowing us to work on our transmission facility and fix problems that have been bothersome. Hopefully, we’ll have a better signal all around from this.
