WCVN-TV came to the air on September 8, 1969, becoming the 12th KET station to sign on and the 13th educational television station to broadcast within the State of Kentucky. Beforehand, the northernmost areas of the state of Kentucky had been receiving an educational television signal from WCET Cincinnati for 15 years. It signed on in July 1954, together with WMUB-TV of Oxford, Ohio. After WCVN began broadcasting, the Cincinnati metropolitan area had three choices for educational programming courtesy of PBS, although WPTO did not have a presence on the Kentucky-side of the river until their digital FCC-mandated signal upgrade 2009 digital television transition. All three were members of the National Educational Television network before joining PBS in October 1970. In the Cincinnati market, KET often competes with WCET and WPTO, but KET, through WCVN, does have viewership in the Cincinnati metro area, including a few contributors to KET's Fund for Excellence. WCVN was one of three satellites slated to be part of the network, but signed on later than the ten other charter satellites; the other two were WKMU/Murray and WKMJ-TV/Louisville, which signed on in October 1968 and September 1970, respectively. In the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati market, however, before WCVN's inaugural sign-on, WKON/Owenton was the default KET satellite in the northern Kentucky area for more than eleven months after KET's ten charter stations signed on.
Digital television
The station's digital television companion signal, WCVN-DT, along with the digital companions of thirteen other KET stations, signed on the air in May 2002.
Analog-to-digital conversion
In compliance with the 2009 digital television transition, WCVN-TV shut down its analog signal, UHF channel 54. Although the mandatory deadline was June 12, 2009, the analog signal was shut down on April 16. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 54, which was among the high-band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
WCVN holds a construction permit to move its digital signal to UHF channel 22 as part of the network's participation in the 2016–17 FCC Spectrum incentive auction. WCVN must relocate its digital signal to its new allocation no later than the time between September 7, 2019, and October 18, 2019. As of October 18, 2019.
KET's statewide cable coverage includes Charter Spectrum systems in northern Kentucky. Spectrum also carries the first three subchannels in the metro Cincinnati area along with WPTO and WCET. All three public television stations in the Cincinnati market are also available on satellite via Dish Network and DirecTV. Cincinnati Bell's FiOptics IPTV service carries KET and KET2 alongside three channels of WCET.
