For quite some time now, Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) has owned two stations in the Twin Cities market: KTCA and KTCI. Back in the analog days, KTCA was on Ch. 2 and KTCI ran at a relatively low power on Ch. 17. KTCI broadcast aviation weather in the daytime and some auxiliary PBS programming in the evening.
Enter the pre-transition digital era. KTCA-DT (2.1-2)had two subchannels, while KTCI (17.1-5) was stuffed with five. Eventually, they decided to put two subs on KTCA at 2.1-2 (2.1 TPT 2, 2.2 TPT Life) and two on KTCI 2.3-4 (2.3 TPT MN, 2.4 TPT Wx).
KTCA has been on Ch. 34 at 662 kW for quite some time now, which allows for full coverage.
KTCI was still on Ch. 16 at a mere 50kW, which leaves most rural viewers out in the cold. To remedy this situation, they are moving to Rf 23 at 375 kW, which will (hopefully) give it about the same coverage as KTCA.
They were supposed to go live tomorrow (Thursday 1/28/10) but reports have surfaced that RF 23 is now operational, so rescan your TVs!
