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| City | Paducah, Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | WPSD Local 6 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | May 28, 1957 (1957-05-28) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Paducah Sun-Democrat |
| Technical information2 | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| 51991 | |
| ERP | 679 kW |
| HAAT | 492 m (1,614 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 37°11′31.2″N 88°58′53.2″W / 37.192000°N 88.981444°W / 37.192000; -88.981444 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WPSD-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase region, Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel, and northwest Tennessee. Owned by locally based Paxton Media Group as its sole television property, the station maintains studios on 4th Street and Kentucky Avenue in downtown Paducah, and its transmitter is located at Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky.
History
The station signed on as WPSD on May 28, 1957, with an analog signal on VHF channel 6. It has been an NBC affiliate and owned by the Paxton family for its entire existence alongside Western Kentucky's major newspaper, The Paducah Sun. The "PSD" letters in the call sign stands for Paducah Sun-Democrat which was the paper's name at the time the station launched in 1957.3
On June 7, 2025, WPSD moved from its original facility at 100 Television Lane to 408 Kentucky Avenue where The Paducah Sun is also located.45
Programming
WPSD initially declined to carry Saturday Night Live. WPSD made a compromise after receiving negative feedback for the preemption; for several years, they delayed the variety show for an hour. In the early 1990s, the station finally decided to air the program at its network-recommended time of 10:30 p.m. CT.
News operation
WPSD serves more than fifty counties in southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and northwest Tennessee. Among the area's big three outlets, the station focuses more on Western Kentucky since it is based in Paducah. In addition to its main studios, WPSD operates a bureau on South Illinois Avenue in Downtown Carbondale.
Beginning in 2006, WPSD produced a nightly prime time newscast on Fox affiliate KBSI through a news share agreement, known as Local 6 at 9 on Fox 23 and featured a regional summary of headlines because KBSI is based in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. For nearly eight years, the broadcast competed with KFVS' own nightly prime time news at 9 seen on the area's low-powered CW affiliates WQTV-LP/WQWQ-LP, which was canceled on July 29, 2007. WPSD's partnership with KBSI expired on September 30, 2010. KBSI entered into a new partnership with KFVS presumably to refocus the prime time production to the Missouri Bootheel area and expand it to 60 minutes. On October 3, 2010, WPSD brought back its own newscast at 9 p.m. to its RTV and Antenna TV. Known as The Nine and seen every night for a half-hour, this was simulcast on those two services. WPSD's newscast at 9 p.m. was canceled in 2019.
Notable former on-air staff
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 1080i | WPSD-HD | NBC |
| 6.2 | 480i | WPSD-SD | Cozi TV |
| 6.3 | WPSD-WX | Antenna TV (4:3) |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WPSD-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 32, using virtual channel 6.7
Former translator
WPSD formerly operated a low-power VHF analog repeater W10AH (channel 10) in Carbondale, Illinois, from a transmitter (sharing the WSIU-FM tower) on the Southern Illinois University campus. The license was last renewed in 2005 and canceled effective September 23, 2013.8
References
References
- "ABC Programs Also To Be On WPSD-TV". The Paducah Sun-Democrat. Paducah, Kentucky. April 24, 1957. p. 2-A. Retrieved June 24, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Facility Technical Data for WPSD-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- Nash, Francis M. (1995). Towers Over Kentucky: A History of Radio and TV in the Bluegrass State. ISBN 9781879688933.
- Patterson, Bryce (June 7, 2025). "WPSD broadcasts final newscast at 100 Television Lane, marks a new beginning at The Sun building". The Paducah Sun. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
- Thomason, Jason (May 30, 2025). "WPSD sign installed at Sun building as newsroom move nears". The Paducah Sun. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
- "RabbitEars TV Query for WPSD". RabbitEars. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
- "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- "DW10AH Facility Data". FCCData.