WLXI


WLXI, virtual channel 43, is a TCT Network owned-and-operated television station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, United States and serving the Piedmont Triad region. The station is owned by Marion, Illinois-based Tri-State Christian Television. WLXI's transmitter is located on Terrells Mountain near Chapel Hill. The station maintained studios on Patterson Street in Greensboro until TCT ended local operations in June 2018.

History

The station first signed on the air on March 5, 1984, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 61. It operated as a general entertainment independent station running cartoons, movies, drama series, westerns, music videos and classic sitcoms. Gradually, it increased the amount of music videos on its schedule and by the fall of 1985, the station broadcast music videos for the entire broadcast day.
In early 1986, WLXI was sold to the Trinity Broadcasting Network and converted into an owned-and-operated station of the network, replacing secular entertainment programs with religious programming from TBN. TBN often purchased over-the-air stations in order to achieve must-carry status on cable providers, even though TBN stations air very limited local programming. In 1991, the station was sold to Tri-State Christian Television. In April 2007, TCT pulled TBN programming from its stations in favor of programming supplied by the company.
From 1993 to 2009, WLXI's signal was relayed on low-power translator station W18BG in Danville, Virginia. In June 2009, that station was sold to the Star News Corporation and stopped rebroadcasting WLXI's programming.
At the end of June 2018, TCT closed WLXI's local studio and ended its local programming with the FCC's repeal of the Main Studio Rule, and the station from then on would be programmed through TCT's default national schedule.

Digital television

Digital channel

Analog-to-digital conversion

WLXI shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009, as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital television for full-power stations. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 61, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its former UHF analog channel 43. Shortly after converting to digital, WLXI opted to use of its physical digital channel 43 as its virtual channel, instead of using its former UHF analog channel 61.

Out-of-market cable carriage

In recent years, WLXI has been carried on cable providers in areas within the Raleigh television market.