WTLJ

WTLJ

Muskegon, Michigan/Grand Rapids, Michigan
City of license	Muskegon
Channels	Digital: 24 (UHF)
Affiliations	TCT Network
Owner	TCT of Michigan, Inc. (TCT of Michigan, Inc.)
First air date	November 1986
Call letters' meaning	Witnessing The Love of Jesus -or- We Trust and Love Jesus
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 54 (1986-2009)
Transmitter power	280 kW (digital)
Height	281 m (digital)
Facility ID	67781
Transmitter coordinates	42°57′25″N 85°54′7″W
Website	www.tct-net.org

WTLJ is an inspirational broadcast television station licensed to Muskegon, Michigan that services the Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Michigan DMA. WTLJ broadcasts on digital virtual channel 54.1, 54.2, 54.3 and 54.4. WTLJ also operates a translator station, W26BX channel 26 located in Kalamazoo. Both are owned and operated by TCT of Michigan, Inc.

WTLJ's main studio is located in Allendale Charter Township, of Ottawa County, just southwest of Grand Valley State University. WTLJ produces a number of local programs, two of which, "Ask The Pastor" and "Down Home," air nationally on the TCT Network.

History

Before the original WMKG-TV 54 went on the air, channel 54 in Michigan was assigned to Lansing. It was occupied by DuMont affiliate WILS, which later became WTOM-TV (calls now used on channel 4 in Cheboygan), and was on the air from 1953 until 1956. Channel 54 was then reassigned to Muskegon. [1] [2] WMKG-TV 54, a full-power station, broadcast in the late 1960s from the Occidental Hotel in downtown Muskegon. That station, which had no network affiliation and relied heavily on live, local programming, had left the air by the mid-1970s.

In the early-1980s, WTLJ originally had the call letters WMKT with the intention of focusing on the Muskegon and Holland areas. That station was never built. (Muskegon has its own station, WMKG-CA, which fulfills this purpose.)

In November 1986, Miami Valley Christian Television of Springfield, Ohio launched WTLJ, as a Christian channel, which remains to this day. The station would eventually be sold to TCT of Michigan, Inc.

The station was receivable in analog on the western shore of Lake Michigan in the Wisconsin cities of 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. With the termination on March 4, 2009 of the analog channel 24 signal of Milwaukee's WCGV, the station's digital signal is also easily picked up in Wisconsin.

Digital television

Channel	Programming
54.1	WTLJ/TCT programming in 480i SD
54.2	TCT HD, a 1080i channel featuring an all-HD programming schedule different from TCT's main grid
54.3	TCT Family, a 480i channel mainly featuring public domain sitcoms and films and Christian children's programming
54.4	La Fuente (Spanish religious programming)

Interesting Information

WTLJ has collaborated with the Ottawa County Department of Corrections. This collaboration has led to the station taking in probationers to give them the opportunity to complete court ordered mandatory community service.^{[citation needed]}

References

• WTLJ-TV Channel 54 Muskegon. Michigan's Radio & TV Broadcast Guide.

External links

• TCT Network
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTLJ
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for W26BX
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WTLJ-TV