Channels Digital: 47 (UHF) First air date February 13, 1968 | Affiliations PBS (1970–present) | |
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Slogan Public Media That Matters Owner West Tennessee Public Television Council, Inc. Call letters' meaning Lexington
Jackson
Tennessee | ||
WLJT-DT is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station serving western and northwestern Tennessee on digital channel 47 (virtual channel 11). Its studios are located in Martin on rented space at the University of Tennessee at Martin; its transmitter and tower are located in Lexington, its city of license.
History
WLJT began operations on February 13, 1968. It was originally operated by the Tennessee Department of Education as a service to the schools of western Tennessee. At the time, this region was considered too small and too rural to support a full-fledged traditional educational station. As such, for its first 13 years of broadcasting, it repeated the signal of Memphis station WKNO, via contract, since WKNO was not, unlike WLJT, operated by the state. In 1981, the station inaugurated a separate schedule, including programs of local interest. A few years later, the state education board relinquished the license to a local community board, the West Tennessee Public Television Council. Until 1993, administrative offices were located in Martin, while the technical staff worked in Lexington, some 60 miles (100 km) away; microwave links to the transmitter enabled WLJT to consolidate its entire operation in Martin afterward.
WLJT especially emphasizes programs of community interest, in large part because commercial broadcasters in Memphis and Paducah, Kentucky devote little attention to rural western Tennessee in newscasts and other local programming. The only commercial news operation in the market explicitly devoted to the area is Jackson station WBBJ.
After the digital transition on February 17, 2009, WLJT discontinued transmitting on its analog signal, continuing to operate on digital channel 47. However, digital tuners with PSIP display its virtual channel as "11".