WTLJ
Encyclopedia
WTLJ is a television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 broadcasting in the Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

 metropolitan area on WTLJ channel 54 (digital 24) in Muskegon
Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 38,401. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County...

 and Grand Rapids, and W26BX channel 26 (originally W24BO channel 24) in Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...

. It is an owned and operated affiliate of Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...

.

The station identification shows that it is licensed to Muskegon and Grand Rapids, with the translator licensed to Kalamazoo.

Its offices and transmitter are located in Allendale Charter Township
Allendale Charter Township, Michigan
Allendale Charter Township is a charter township of Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 20,708...

, of Ottawa County, just southwest of Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University is a public liberal arts university located in Allendale, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1960, and its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids...

.

WTLJ broadcasts its own live programs in its studio in Allendale. The programs are called Ask The Pastor and Down Home.

The director of WTLJ as of January 2005 is Victor VanDeVenter.

History

Before the original WMKG-TV 54 went on the air, channel 54 in Michigan was assigned to Lansing. It was occupied by DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...

 affiliate WILS, which later became WTOM-TV (calls now used on channel 4 in Cheboygan
WPBN-TV
WPBN-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Northern Lower and Eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan that is licensed to Traverse City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter east of Kalkaska...

), and was on the air from 1953 until 1956. Channel 54 was then reassigned to Muskegon. http://members.tripod.com/ekimmell2/old.html http://www.michiguide.com/history/tv.html 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
Holland, Michigan
Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River ....

 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 its present-owners, Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...

.

History of its Kalamazoo repeater, W26BX, is unknown, other than the fact that the move from channel 24 to 26 was approved in December 1998, and the move was actually made 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
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 cities of Sheboygan
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
-Airport:Sheboygan is served by the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, which is located several miles from the city.-Roads:Interstate 43 is the primary north-south transportation route into Sheboygan, and forms the west boundary of the city. U.S...

 and Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

 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 WCGV
WCGV-TV
WCGV-TV, digital channel 25 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affiliated with MyNetworkTV Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin, including the cities of Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...

, the station's digital signal is also easily picked up in Wisconsin.

Digital television

Channel Programming
54.1 WTLJ/TCT programming in 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...

 SD
54.2 TCT HD, a 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...

 channel featuring an all-HD programming schedule different from TCT's main grid
54.3 TCT Family, a 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...

 channel mainly featuring public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

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.
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