[4] In 1968, Smith and Bailey bought land at the corner of Kentucky Avenue and 4th Street in downtown Paducah for a new building to house WDXR radio and television.

[5] Construction on the facility began in the summer of 1969;[6] while the building was finished early the next year, it was not until December 1970 that the station announced a planned launch date for April 1, 1971, and programming focused on the Paducah area.

[11] Tragedy struck WDXR radio and television on February 21, 1974, when Weaks McKinney-Smith died in a New York City hospital at the age of 49, nearly a month after suffering a heart attack on a business trip to try to affiliate the station with ABC,[8][12] which was already seen in parts of the market from Harrisburg, Illinois-licensed WSIL-TV.

[11] That same year, Kentucky Educational Television commissioned a study that reported the establishment of new transmitters to serve Paducah and Owensboro a high priority.

[17] A lengthy courtship for facilities and the worse nature of the signal gap in the Owensboro area threatened to cost Paducah its shot at having a KET transmitter.

[3] KET, however, opted not to use the former tower of WDXR-TV near Melber and instead pressed forward with plans to build at a site owned by the McCracken County government.

The WKPD signal is received as far east as Eddyville, as far south as Mayfield near WKMU's tower, and as far north as northern Johnson and Pope counties in Illinois.