The station signed on the air in August 1981 as independent station WDDD-TV. In 1984, its call letters were changed to WTCT. The station carried business news programming from the Financial News Network after the late movie each weeknight before sign-off until 1985. It became a TBN station in 1986 along with a few independent stations that switched to the religious network during that year. In 2007, the TCT network permanently dropped all TBN programming.
WTCT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 27, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17,[3] using virtual channel 27.
Former translators
WTCT previously broadcast on low-powertranslatorsW54AE (channel 54) in Paducah, Kentucky, KCGI-CA (channel 45) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and K54CA (channel 54) in Sikeston, Missouri; these translators ceased operation around 2010.
Notes
^The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says August 16, while the Television and Cable Factbook says August 24.
