Chattanooga, Tennessee United States |
|
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Branding | WTCI |
Slogan | Your Favorite Public Television Station Tennessee Valley PBS |
Channels |
Digital: 29 (UHF) Virtual: 45 (PSIP) |
Subchannels | 45.1 PBS 45.2 Create 45.3 PBS Kids |
Affiliations | PBS (1970–present) |
Owner | The Greater Chattanooga Public Television Corporation |
First air date | March 4, 1970 |
Call letters' meaning | Tennessee Chattanooga Instructional Television |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 45 (UHF, 1970–2009) |
Former affiliations | NET (March–October 1970) |
Transmitter power | 200 kW (digital) |
Height | 336 m (digital) |
Facility ID | 65667 |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°12′26″N 85°16′52″W / 35.20722°N 85.28111°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.wtcitv.org |
WTCI is the PBS member television station for Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley. It transmits on digital channel 29 from a location north of Chattanooga, and west of Middle Valley, covering much of southeast Tennessee. The station is carried on cable channel 5.
The Tennessee Department of Education began WTCI on March 4, 1970 on channel 45, as the third in a series of public television stations that included WLJT in Martin and WSJK-TV (now WETP) in the Tri-Cities and Knoxville; WCTE-TV in Cookeville followed later in the decade. It is now operated by the Greater Chattanooga Public Television Corporation, a non-profit community organization, which assumed the station's broadcast license in 1984.
WTCI offers a diverse mix of programming and cultural entertainment shows from both local and PBS resources to viewers in portions of four states (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina). However, some program duplication occurs with Georgia Public Broadcasting's North Georgia station, WNGH-TV, which operates at a much higher power and is seen in most (if not all) of WTCI's broadcast range, including Chattanooga itself. This has been the case throughout the history of WTCI's existence and is simply the result of adjoining state boundaries, not of any deliberate action on GPB's part to encroach on WTCI's territory.