WSIL-TV

WSIL-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Southern Illinois, Southeastern Missouri, and the Purchase area of Western Kentucky that is licensed to Harrisburg, Illinois. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in Creal Springs, Illinois. Owned by Melvin C. Wheeler, LLC, the station has studios on Country Aire Drive (IL 13) in Carterville, Illinois. The station operates a full-time satellite, KPOB-TV in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. This station airs a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter in the city along US 60/US 67. WSIL does not maintain any offices in Poplar Bluff. WSIL can also be seen on its digital translator, K10KM-D (channel 10), in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Syndicated programming on WSIL includes Entertainment Tonight, Ellen, and Rachael Ray.

History

WSIL signed-on for the first time December 1, 1953. It originally broadcast an analog signal on UHF channel 22, but moved to VHF channel 3 in March 1959 as did numerous stations originally assigned to UHF allocations before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that television-set manufacturers include UHF tuning capability in their products in 1964. The original UHF transmitter had been built in Harrisburg before Paducah, Harrisburg, and Cape Girardeau had been collapsed into one large market.