WHKY-TV

WHKY-TV, virtual channel 14 (UHF digital channel 40), is an independent television station located in Hickory, North Carolina, United States serving the northwestern corner of the Charlotte media market, a region locally referred to as "The Unifour"). The station is owned by Long Communications, LLC, and is sister to radio station WHKY (1290 AM). WHKY maintains studio facilities located on Main Avenue SE in Hickory, and its transmitter is located on Baker Mountain in southwestern Catawba County.

On cable, the station is available on Charter Communications cable channel 7 in the Hickory area, and Time Warner Cable channel 18 in the Charlotte area (CW affiliate WCCB, which broadcasts on virtual channel 18, is carried by Time Warner Cable on cable channel 11). WHKY is also carried on cable in Mountain City, Tennessee, which is part of the Tri-Cities television market.

History

The station first signed on the air on February 14, 1968; WHKY holds the distinction of being the oldest independent station in the state of North Carolina. (Charlotte's WCTU-TV channel 36, now NBC affiliate WCNC-TV, was the first independent station in North Carolina, signing on eight months before WHKY-TV.) During the 1980s, WHKY-TV aired Major League Baseball games from the Cincinnati Reds. In 2002, WHKY-TV installed two new antennas: one for its digital signal and one which replaced its older analog antenna. The latter antenna's installation helped to increase WHKY-TV's analog signal coverage into the far northern corner of Mecklenburg County. As a result, the station was granted a must-carry claim, allowing it to be added to Time Warner Cable's systems in the Charlotte area; the station also began identifying as "Hickory/Charlotte" in its on-air legal identifications.