WTCI

Chattanooga, Tennessee United States
Channels	Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 45
Branding	WTCI PBS
Programming
Affiliations	45.1: PBS (1970–present) 45.2: Create 45.3: PBS Kids
Ownership
Owner	The Greater Chattanooga Public Television Corporation
History
First air date	March 4, 1970 (54 years ago) (1970-03-04)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 45 (UHF, 1970–2009) Digital: 29 (UHF, 2003–2019)
Former affiliations	NET (March–October 1970)
Call sign meaning	Tennessee Chattanooga Instructional Television
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	65667
ERP	200 kW
HAAT	353 m (1,158 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	35°12′26″N 85°16′52″W / 35.20722°N 85.28111°W / 35.20722; -85.28111
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wtcitv.org

WTCI (channel 45) is a PBS member television station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Owned by the Greater Chattanooga Public Television Corporation, the station maintains studios on Bonnyshire Drive in Chattanooga, and its transmitter is located on Sawyer Cemetery Road in unincorporated Mile Straight.^[2]

History

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, featuring informational, cultural, and entertainment shows from both local and PBS sources 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 of WTCI's broadcast range, including Chattanooga itself.^{[needs update]}

Shows created by WTCI include The A List, Tennessee Insider, First Things First, Southern Accents, and Chattanooga History Makers. It is also a member of The Tennessee Channel Network. It also carries the digital subchannel Create. WTCI Create and Tennessee Channel, airing on weekends, is on channel 45.2 and Comcast channel 208.

In 2003, WTCI relocated from its old studios located on the Chattanooga State Community College campus to its current location on Bonnyshire Drive, since the cost of renovating the 37-year-old building at CSCC was deemed prohibitive.^[3]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WTCI shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 45, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 29.^[5] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 45.