WTCT (channel 27) is a religious television station licensed to Marion, Illinois, United States, serving the Paducah–Cape Girardeau–Harrisburg television market as the flagship station of the locally based Tri-State Christian Television (TCT) network. WTCT's transmitter is located near Goreville, Illinois. The national feed of TCT via WTCT is available on DirecTV channel 377.
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| History | |
First air date | August 1981[a] |
Former call signs | WDDD-TV (1981–1984) |
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Call sign meaning | Tri-State Christian Television |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 67786 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 228.5 m (750 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°33′26″N 89°1′24″W / 37.55722°N 89.02333°W |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
History
The station signed on the air in August 1981 as independent station WDDD-TV. In 1984, its call letters were changed to WTCT. The station carried business news programming from the Financial News Network after the late movie each weeknight before sign-off until 1985. It became a TBN station in 1986 along with a few independent stations that switched to the religious network during that year. In 2007, the TCT network permanently dropped all TBN programming.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WTCT HD | TCT |
| 27.2 | 480i | SBN | Sonlife | |
| 27.4 | LAFF | Laff | ||
| 27.5 | StartTV | Start TV | ||
| 27.6 | StoryTV | Story Television | ||
| 27.7 | Quest | Quest | ||
| 27.8 | INFO CH | Infomercials | ||
| 27.9 | Blank | |||
| 27.10 | ShopLC | Shop LC |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WTCT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 27, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17,[3] using virtual channel 27.
Former translators
WTCT previously broadcast on low-power translators W54AE (channel 54) in Paducah, Kentucky, KCGI-CA (channel 45) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and K54CA (channel 54) in Sikeston, Missouri; these translators ceased operation around 2010.