WTCE-TV

WTCE-TV
CityFort Pierce, Florida
Channels
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
May 9, 1990 (34 years ago) (1990-05-09)
Former call signs
WTCE (1990–2005)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 21 (UHF, 1990–2007)
  • Digital: 38 (UHF, 2007–2019)
Call sign meaning
Treasure Coast Educational Television
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID29715
ERP730 kW
HAAT297 m (974 ft)
Transmitter coordinates27°1′32″N 80°10′41.9″W / 27.02556°N 80.178306°W / 27.02556; -80.178306
Links
Public license information

WTCE-TV (channel 21) is a religious television station licensed to Fort Pierce, Florida, United States, serving as the West Palm Beach–area outlet for the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). It is owned and operated by TBN's Community Educational Television subsidiary, which manages stations in Florida and Texas on channels allocated for non-commercial educational broadcasting. WTCE-TV broadcasts from a transmitter in unincorporated southeastern Martin County (southwest of Hobe Sound).

While it has broadcast TBN programming for its entire history since signing on in May 1990, WTCE was not originally intended to be a Christian television station. The construction permit was obtained in 1986 by a group which sought to start a public television station for Fort Pierce. Unable to raise federal grant money to build the station, it sold the permit to an affiliate of Palm Beach Atlantic College (PBAC) at the end of 1987. PBAC intended to build WTCE as the first in a series of new non-commercial stations across South Florida. However, despite coming weeks away from launch and announcing programming, a financial crunch left PBAC without the cash to begin broadcasting. TBN had provided the equipment used to start the station, so PBAC sold the station to TBN despite an earlier agreement with the owner of Miami public TV station WPBT.

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTCE-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.