History
The UHF channel 54 allocation in Michigan was originally assigned to Lansing, Michigan, Lansing. It was occupied by DuMont Television Network, DuMont affiliate WILS, which later became WTOM-TV (call letters now used on WPBN-TV, channel 4 in Cheboygan, Michigan, Cheboygan), and was on the air from 1953 to 1956. The channel 54 allocation was then reassigned to Muskegon. Full-power station WMKG-TV broadcast in the late 1960s from the Occidental Hotel in downtown Muskegon. That station, which operated as an Independent station (North America), independent station and relied heavily on live, local programming, had left the air by the mid-1970s. In the early-1980s, WTLJ was originally assigned the call letters WMKT with the intention of focusing on the Muskegon and Holland, Michigan, Holland areas. That station was never built (Muskegon has its own station, WMKG-CD, which fulfills this purpose). In November 1986, Springfield, Ohio–based Miami Valley Christian Television launched WTLJ, as a Christian-oriented independent station. The station would eventually be sold to its present owners, Tri-State Christian Television. The history of its Kalamazoo repeater, WJGP-LD, is unknown, other than the fact that its application to move its signal from UHF channel 24 to channel 26 was approved in December 1998; the channel switch occurred in January 2002 to facilitate WTLJ's eventual digital channel 24. The station was receivable in analog on the western shore of Lake Michigan in the Wisconsin cities of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Sheboygan and Milwaukee because of channel 54's transmitter being close to the Lake Michigan shore, although TCT does not explicitly market to those cities or have any cable coverage. With the termination on March 4, 2009 of the analog channel 24 signal of Milwaukee's WVTV-DT2, WCGV, the station's digital signal is also easily picked up in Wisconsin. WTLJ is carried on AcenTek systems serving Buckley, Michigan, Buckley, Copemish, Michigan, Copemish, Hoxeyville, Michigan, Hoxeyville, Mesick, Michigan, Mesick, Old Mission, Michigan, Old Mission, South Boardman, Michigan, South Boardman, and Thompsonville, Michigan, Thompsonville (all located in the Traverse City, Michigan, Traverse City market). WTLJ formerly collaborated with the Ottawa County Department of Corrections to allow probationers to operate the station to receive community service credits and complete their sentences.Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is Multiplex (TV), multiplexed:Translator
Analog-to-digital conversion
WTLJ shut down its analog signal, over Ultra high frequency, UHF channel 54, on June 12, 2009, as part of the Digital television transition in the United States, federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.References
External links