WJKT

WJKT
Channels
BrandingFox 16 Jackson
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
April 18, 1985
(39 years ago)
 (1985-04-18)
Former call signs
  • WJWT (1985–1990)
  • WMTU (1990–2001)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 16 (UHF, 1985–2009)
  • Digital: 39 (UHF, 2005–2018)
Call sign meaning
Jackson, Tennessee
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID68519
ERP193 kW
HAAT319 m (1,047 ft)
Transmitter coordinates35°47′27.1″N 89°5′58.2″W / 35.790861°N 89.099500°W / 35.790861; -89.099500
Links
Public license information

WJKT (channel 16) is a television station in Jackson, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with the Fox network and owned by Nexstar Media Group. Its advertising sales office is located on Oil Well Road in Jackson, and its transmitter is located in Alamo, Tennessee.

Channel 16 went on the air in April 1985 as WJWT, the first independent station in Jackson. It became a Fox affiliate in 1986. MT Communications, owner of then-Fox affiliate WLMT in Memphis, acquired the station at the end of 1989 and changed its call letters to WMTU in January 1990. Even though it lost the Fox affiliation for the Memphis market, WMTU continued to air Fox programming in the Jackson area until being turned into a full-time satellite station in 1992. Along with WLMT, it became an affiliate of UPN in 1995. The call letters were changed to WJKT in 2001, coinciding with the return of local advertising and an attempt to build a separate identity for the station.

Upon the merger of UPN and The WB into The CW in 2006, WJKT instead became a Fox affiliate again. It remained linked to WLMT through the simulcast of its local news programming and was sold along with WLMT and Memphis sister station WPTY-TV (now WATN-TV) twice. In 2019, Nexstar acquired Tribune Media and opted to divest WATN–WLMT in favor of WREG-TV in Memphis. WJKT shares management with WREG-TV and simulcasts some of its local newscasts.

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WJKT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.