WLEX-TV
 
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Lexington-Frankfort, Kentucky United States |
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| Branding | LEX 18 (general) LEX 18 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Count on LEX 18 |
| Channels |
Digital: 39 (UHF) Virtual: 18 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 18.1 NBC 18.2 MeTV 18.3 Bounce TV |
| Affiliations | NBC (Secondary through 1968) |
| Owner |
Cordillera Communications (WLEX Communications, LLC) |
| First air date | March 15, 1955 |
| Call letters' meaning | LEXington |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 18 (UHF, 1955–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
All secondary: DuMont (1955) CBS (1955–1957, 1958–1968) ABC (1955–1958) DT2: Wazoo Sports Network (2009–2011) |
| Transmitter power | 475 kW (digital) |
| Height | 286 metres (938 ft) |
| Facility ID | 73203 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°2′3″N 84°23′39″W / 38.03417°N 84.39417°W (digital) |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www |
WLEX-TV, channel 18, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Lexington, Kentucky and the East-Central Kentucky region. Its transmitter is located in Southern Lexington near Hamburg Pavilion on WTVQ-DT's tower. WLEX's studios are located on Russell Cave Road (KY 353) in Lexington.
The station can also be viewed within the Lexington area on Charter Spectrum channels 8 and 906 (channel numbers will vary throughout the market). It is also available on Frankfort Plant Board channels 7 and 507.
Channel 18 signed on March 15, 1955 as Lexington's first television station and the third in Kentucky (following Louisville's WAVE-TV and WHAS-TV). It was co-owned with WLEX radio (1300 AM, now WLXG) and carried programming from all four networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, and DuMont). The DuMont network went out of business later that year. On February 18, 1956, WLEX broadcast the first-ever telecast of a Kentucky Wildcats basketball game. In 1957, CBS programming moved to WKXP-TV (channel 27, now WKYT-TV). After only one year, however, new owners switched channel 27 to primary ABC affiliation, leaving WLEX to pick up a secondary CBS affiliation once again.
In 1968 CBS moved to WKYT when WBLG-TV (now WTVQ-TV) signed on and took the ABC affiliation, making WLEX a full-time NBC affiliate. For many years, the station was owned by the Gay & Bell families until they sold WLEX to the Evening Post in 1999.
In November 2009, WLEX added the Wazoo Sports Network, which was dedicated to Kentucky sports, on a digital subchannel as part of a service branded as WZLEX. Wazoo Sports filed for bankruptcy in December 2011; WLEX pulled the network at that time, with the station's general manager stating that Wazoo was "[not] strong enough to make a second commitment to it." Wazoo Sports would be replaced by MeTV.
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Wikipedia