WKYT-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW.

The station is owned by Gray Media, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Winchester Road (US 60), near I-75, on the east side of Lexington.

While the authorization to build channel 27 in Lexington was given in 1953, the original owner, radio station WLAP, opted to hold off on construction for economic reasons.

The American Broadcasting Corporation (no relationship to the American Broadcasting Company, ABC), owner of Lexington radio station WLAP, applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in June 1952 for a new television station on the newly available ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 27 in Lexington.

[6] The West–Bingham application was dismissed in November,[7] and the permit was granted on December 3,[3] with WLAP officials claiming they would be on the air with Lexington's first TV station within six months.

That day, in a full-page advertisement entitled "So The People May Know", the American Broadcasting Corporation laid out its reasons to suspend construction.

The firm believed that a UHF television station would have trouble reaching the promised service area, and it cited the difficulties of UHF television operations that had surrendered construction permits or left the air, making particular mention of the difficulties of KCTY in Kansas City and WROV-TV in Roanoke, Virginia.

[11] At this time, even with the fine cooperation and wishful thinking of the many interested parties, we believe an acceptable AREA-WIDE UHF television service from Lexington would be an economic imposition on everyone concerned.Two years later, the sale of WLAP to Community Broadcasting Company—one of the largest sales in Kentucky broadcasting history to that time—included the unused WLAP-TV construction permit.

[12][13] The new owners of WLAP announced they would build out the unused construction permit by September 1 and changed the call sign to WKXP-TV.

[15] The station would not have any network affiliation at launch and was heavily dependent on a Warner Bros. film package to fill out its broadcast day.

[17]: 250  In its annual report, Taft noted that Lexington "represented by far the smallest market ... and in the opinion of management is also afforded less opportunity for growth and development than the possible acquisition of new property".

[36] In 1985, Kentucky Central expanded its CBS service in the Lexington market by purchasing WKYH-TV, a small NBC affiliate in Hazard with failing equipment, and relaunching it as a semi-satellite of WKYT-TV, WYMT-TV, from new facilities.

The general manager of competitor WTVQ derided the purchase as part of an "empire plan" that would give WKYT a competitive advantage.

[40] In the wake of the state takeover, Kentucky Central's broadcast portfolio—consisting of WKYT-TV, WYMT, and WVLK AM and FM—was put on the market to raise cash for the company, as the stations represented the most saleable assets of the insurer and were highly successful properties;[41] Kentucky Central's board of directors had intended to sell the stations and other non–life insurance divisions as part of a salvage plan but ran out of time to implement it.

[42] At the same time that inquiries were received from around the United States, Ralph Gabbard began to put together a consortium of investors to bid on WKYT and WYMT.

[49] After the sale, Gabbard, who was widely respected in the industry and had chaired the CBS affiliates board, became president of Gray's television division; he died on a business trip in 1996.

[52] In 2007, WKYT began broadcasting its CW subchannel in high-definition, making it among the first stations to transmit two HD channels on its multiplex.

[61] This relationship ended in January 2022, when new WDKY owner Nexstar Media Group opted to staff its own newsroom.

[66] Since 2003, WKYT has produced the weekly Scholastic Ball Report program during the Kentucky high school basketball season.

[72][73][74] However, on August 22, 2009, WKYT-DT filed a petition of rulemaking with the FCC to move to digital UHF channel 36, vacated by WTVQ's analog signal,[75] due to reception issues.