Q: Is the station finally back at full power?
A: Yes. WUKY’s antenna is on a tower owned by KET. 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/
Now that KET has completed Phase One (tower strengthening), they are ready for Phase Two.
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Q: What is Phase Two, and when will it happen?
A: KET is scheduled to install their new antenna sometime between May 20and June 17. Depending on the circumstances, it could take a couple of days, or it could take the entire time. We don’t know yet. WUKY will have to go to low power when work is being done on the tower. We can stay at full power until the May 20. We’ll get a better idea as we get closer to the installation date.
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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 are 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: Actually, we are in the process of installing a new antenna at our auxiliary site, which should allow us to broadcast at a higher power when we go to backup. This should help fill in the dead spots in Fayette County. Those outside Fayette County won’t get the same benefit, but we hope it does extend the signal a bit. We are working closely with KET to minimize disruptions, but the work will proceed. If we’re lucky, both Phase Two (new KET antenna installation) and Phase Three (old KET antenna removal) can take place in one shot. WUKY will post the latest information about low power at our website (wuky.org), where you can also stream the signal.
