WTCT

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.

WTCT

Marion–Harrisburg, Illinois Paducah, Kentucky Cape Girardeau, Missouri United States
City	Marion, Illinois
Channels	Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 27
Programming
Affiliations	27.1: TCT for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Tri-State Christian Television (Radiant Life Ministries, Inc.)
History
First air date	August 1981 (43 years ago) (1981-08)[a]
Former call signs	WDDD-TV (1981–1984)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 27 (UHF, 1981–2009) Digital: 17 (UHF, 2009–2020)
Former affiliations	Independent (1981–1986) TBN (1986–2007)
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
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.tct.tv

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:

Subchannels of WTCT^[2]

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
27.1	1080i	16:9	WTCT HD	TCT
27.2	480i		SBN	Sonlife
27.3			Positiv	Positiv
27.4			LAFF	Laff
27.5			StartTV	Start TV
27.6			StoryTV	Story Television
27.7			Quest	Quest
27.8			BuzzrTV	Buzzr
27.9			OANPLUS	One America Plus
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.

Notes

1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says August 16, while the Television and Cable Factbook says August 24.