known as wtic tv from 1957 to 1974 see wfsb . wtic tv hartford new haven connecticut united states branding fox 61 general fox 61 news newscasts slogan expect more channels digital 31 uhf virtual 61 psip affiliations .1 fox .2 antenna tv owner tribune broadcasting tribune broadcasting hartford llc first air date september 17 1984 ; 32 years ago 1984 09 17 call letters meaning w travelers insurance company original owner of wtic radio sister station s wcct tv former channel number s analog 61 uhf 1984 2009 former affiliations independent 1984 1986 transmitter power 380 kw height 506 m facility id 147 transmitter coordinates 41 42 13.1 n 72 49 54 w 41.703639 n 72.83167 w 41.703639 ; 72.83167 website www.fox61.com wtic tv virtual channel 61 uhf digital channel 31 is a fox affiliated television station located in hartford connecticut . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting division of the tribune media company . wtic is part of a duopoly with the cw affiliate wcct tv channel 20 . both stations share facilities with the hartford courant newspaper in downtown hartford and wtic s transmitter is located on rattlesnake mountain in farmington connecticut . contents 1 digital television 1.1 digital channels 1.2 analog to digital conversion 2 history 2.1 early history 2.2 as a fox affiliate 3 news operation 3.1 notable current on air staff 4 references 5 external links digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 61.1 720p 16 9 wtic dt main wtic tv programming fox 61.2 480i 4 3 ant tv antenna tv analog to digital conversion edit wtic tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 61 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 2 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 31 using psip to display wtic tv s virtual channel as 61 on digital television receivers which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition . history edit early history edit a group led by arnold chase and his company arch communications won a construction permit for channel 61 in september 1983 . chase originally planned to call his new station wetg in memory of ella t. grasso the first woman to serve as governor of connecticut who died in 1981 ; 3 these call letters were assigned on february 3 1984 . 4 grasso s son was a minority partner in chase s group . however changes in federal communications commission fcc regulations during this time allowed separately owned stations in the same market to obtain consent to share a call sign . 3 chase then asked his father owner of wtic radio 1080 am and 96.5 fm to allow arch to use the historic wtic tv call letters . after securing consent arch applied for a waiver to use the call sign in june 1984 ; 5 the call change took effect on august 4 4 the wetg call letters were subsequently used by a station in erie pennsylvania now fellow fox affiliate wfxp . the wtic tv call sign had last been used by what is now wfsb channel 3 from 1957 to 1974 . in memory of grasso wtic showed clips during their nightly sign off of grasso at work while church bells played the star spangled banner . a graphic at the end of the sequence mentioned that the station was dedicated in grasso s memory . wtic tv began operation on september 17 1984 with a special live broadcast hosted by tv star eddie albert and longtime wtic radio personality bob steele . originally it was a general entertainment independent station running cartoons sitcoms old movies cbs shows pre empted by wfsb abc shows pre empted by wtnh channel 8 nbc shows pre empted by wvit channel 30 drama series and sports in competition with the established independent station in the market wtxx channel 20 now sister station wcct . during 1985 and 1986 the station invested in stronger programming . as a fox affiliate edit wtic later became a charter fox affiliate when the network launched on october 6 1986 . however by 1987 arch encountered financial problems and wtic nearly filed for bankruptcy . many syndication distributors went unpaid and responded by pulling their programming from channel 61 . extensive litigation followed as the contracts that were standard in the industry at that time stated that if a single payment was missed no more programs would be provided but the station was still required to pay the full amount due under the contract . as the litigation progressed the shows were replaced by low budget barter programming . central to the litigation were allegations of illegal tie in sales by program syndicators that artificially drove up the cost of programming to wtic . the cases soon settled on terms favorable to chase and wtic . chase broadcasting owned by arnold chase s father s organization acquired wtic on october 2 1987 . although the barter programming continued the station began to realize some sustained success in part due to the early success of the fox network and shows like 21 jump street and married ... with children . a milestone was reached in 1992 when wtic began to regularly beat wtxx in the ratings . that year chase agreed to sell its four television stations wtic tv watl in atlanta kdvr in denver and wxin in indianapolis to renaissance broadcasting owner of wtxx . 6 the sale did not include the wtic radio stations 6 which chase retained until 1996 . to comply with prevailing federal communications commission fcc regulations renaissance sold wtxx to a roman catholic non profit group counterpoint communications ; both deals were completed in march 1993 . 7 renaissance tried to negotiate a local marketing agreement lma with counterpoint in which it would buy wtxx s entire broadcast day except for overnights and an hour during the day in which wtxx was to run catholic programming . during negotiations which lasted from the time the sale became final until july 1993 renaissance agreed to have wtxx run the disney afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. and some off network sitcoms from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays free of charge as well as first run syndicated shows on weekends in this slot . however counterpoint wanted only a part time arrangement and negotiations ultimately fell through . eventually wtxx entered into a part time lma with wvit channel 30 . wtic tv used this logo from 2006 to 2008 . after talks with counterpoint fell through renaissance moved most of wtxx s stronger programming to wtic creating a stronger lineup for channel 61 . some programming such as older sitcoms however was returned to their syndication distributors and wound up first on wtws channel 26 now whpx tv and then wtvu channel 59 now wctx . the cartoons that did not move to wtic were sold to wvit which ultimately moved them back to wtxx . this wtic tv logo introduced in 2008 is based on the logos used by stations owned by fox television stations . this version was phased out after the move to the courant facilities in 2009 though a fox ct news version remained in use during newscasts for some time thereafter . renaissance merged with tribune broadcasting in 1996 . 8 two years later wtic tv replaced wvit as the lma partner for wtxx then a upn affiliate later with the wb currently a cw affiliate . in 2001 tribune bought wtxx outright . both stations became sister properties of the hartford courant after times mirror merged with tribune in 2000 . as time went on wtic began dropping cartoons movies and older sitcoms in favor of more talk and reality shows . the weekday cartoons ended at the end of 2001 when fox ended its weekday kids block . since fox began airing sports programming in 1994 wtic has had to deal with issues regarding major league baseball and national football league coverage . connecticut is split between the traditional home territories for boston and new york city teams . the football issue is not typically as stark because the new york giants and new england patriots play in separate conferences each with their own network television deals so there is little overlap . however it is often a source of frustration during baseball season . fox picks both the new york yankees and boston red sox for its baseball broadcast windows from time to time . mlb limits fox to a single game and does not allow any other station to broadcast baseball in that window from 3 30 to 7 p.m. and since 2012 alternately from 7 to 10 30 p.m. this has resulted in numerous complaints among connecticut baseball fans when wtic must broadcast either the yankees or the red sox as the usual cable channels yes and nesn are blacked out for the team not broadcast by fox . wtic generally shows each team as many times as possible . this also had an effect on the springfield holyoke massachusetts television market as well ; wtic tv had long been the default fox affiliate for western massachusetts since that area was one of the few in the eastern time zone without an affiliate of its own . this changed on march 31 2008 when abc affiliate wggb tv added fox programming on its second digital subchannel . beginning with the 2008 season to alleviate coverage issues game broadcasts of the new york mets from sister station wpix have alternated between wtic and wtxx . on july 10 2013 tribune announced plans to spin off its publishing division into a separate company . once the split was finalized in 2014 wtic tv and wcct tv renamed with the tribune company which retained all non publishing assets including the broadcasting digital media and media services units while its newspapers including the hartford courant became part of the similarly named tribune publishing company . 9 10 wtic tv used this logo from 2010 until 2015 while branded as fox ct. on october 19 2015 the station announced that it would drop the fox ct name and return to its previous fox 61 designation which had been phased out in 2010 . 11 the decision came after viewers were asked which title they preferred and to share their feelings in a special social media campaign . 12 responses were overwhelmingly in favor of a return to the original branding with many citing the nostalgia of the broadcast s original analog signal appearing on channel 61 . 13 news operation edit wtic tv presently broadcasts 56 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with 9.5 hours on weekdays and 4.5 hours on the weekends ; in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming it is the highest local newscast output of any television station in the hartford new haven market as well as the state of connecticut . the station broadcasts the comcast sports desk at 10 45 on saturday and sunday nights . wtic also produces a weekly public affairs show the real story which airs sunday mornings at 8 30 with a repeat on wcct at 11 . currently in addition to simulcasting the 8 a.m. hour of wtic s morning newscast wcct rebroadcasts the 11 p.m. newscast at 1 a.m. on weeknights ; on weekends it airs the 10 p.m. newscast at that time . along with obtaining world and national news footage from fox news wtic also receives news footage from cnn newsource and the associated press . in 1989 wtic launched its news department with the debut of a nightly half hour 10 p.m. newscast which was the second in the market after