WTIC-TV
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Hartford/New Haven, Connecticut United States |
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| Branding | Fox 61 (general) Fox 61 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Expect More |
| Channels |
Digital: 31 (UHF) Virtual: 61 () |
| Affiliations |
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| Owner |
Tribune Broadcasting (Tribune Broadcasting Hartford, LLC) |
| First air date | September 17, 1984 |
| Call letters' meaning |
W Travelers Insurance Company (original owner of WTIC radio) |
| Sister station(s) | WCCT-TV |
| Former channel number(s) |
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| Former affiliations | Independent (1984–1986) |
| Transmitter power | 380 kW |
| Height | 506 m |
| Facility ID | 147 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°42′13.1″N 72°49′54″W / 41.703639°N 72.83167°WCoordinates: 41°42′13.1″N 72°49′54″W / 41.703639°N 72.83167°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www.fox61.com |
WTIC-TV, virtual channel 61 (UHF digital channel 31), is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Hartford, Connecticut. The station is owned by the Tribune Broadcasting division of the Tribune Media Company. WTIC is part of a duopoly with the CW-affiliate WCCT-TV (channel 20). Both stations share facilities with the Hartford Courant newspaper in downtown Hartford and WTIC's transmitter is located on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut.
A group led by Arnold Chase and his company, Arch Communications, won a construction permit for channel 61 in September 1983. Chase originally planned to call his new station WETG, in memory of Ella T. Grasso, the first woman to serve as governor of Connecticut, who died in 1981; these call letters were assigned on February 3, 1984. Grasso's son was a minority partner in Chase's group.
However, changes in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations during this time allowed separately-owned stations in the same market to obtain consent to share a call sign. Chase then asked his father, owner of WTIC radio (1080 AM and 96.5 FM) to allow Arch to use the historic WTIC-TV call letters. After securing consent, Arch applied for a waiver to use the call sign in June 1984; the call change took effect on August 4 (the WETG call letters were subsequently used by a station in Erie, Pennsylvania, now fellow Fox affiliate WFXP). The WTIC-TV call sign had last been used by what is now WFSB (channel 3) from 1957 to 1974. In memory of Grasso, WTIC showed clips during their nightly sign-off of Grasso at work while church bells played "The Star-Spangled Banner". A graphic at the end of the sequence mentioned that the station was dedicated in Grasso's memory.
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Wikipedia