WLEX-TV (channel 18) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company.

WLEX-TV began broadcasting in March 1955 as the first television station in Lexington, primarily an NBC affiliate for its entire history.

For the same reason, WVLK withdrew its channel 18 application, effectively handing the license to WLEX parent Central Kentucky Broadcasting Company (later WLEX-TV, Inc.), a consortium of the Gay and Bell families.

[8] Its launch was not heavily noticed in town: Snooky Lanson, master of ceremonies for the dedication program, asked to be taken to the TV station in a taxi and found himself at the WLAP radio studios instead.

[11][12] The Gay and Bell families spun off WLEX radio in 1958 to Roy White (who renamed it WBLG) but retained WLEX-TV;[13] the move was necessary to raise capital to shore up the money-losing television station.

[9] On January 21, 1959, the station's 654-foot (199 m) tower collapsed in a windstorm and landed on the building, inflicting significant damage; a WLEX-TV receptionist, Suzanne Grasley, was killed, and two other people were hurt.

A nearby tower used by the state highway department collapsed onto the guy wires, causing an impact that buckled the mast.

[15] After WKYT-TV switched to full-time ABC affiliation in 1961, WLEX-TV began carrying some CBS programs the next year.

Crosley officials cited the fact that WLEX-TV was the first UHF station in the nation to air network and local color programming among other factors for the purchase.

It also outlasted Harry Barfield, who had started with the station as one of its original salesmen, rising to became general manager and then chairman before dying in 1991.