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).
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.
However, despite coming weeks away from launch and announcing programming, a financial crunch left PBAC without the cash to begin broadcasting.
Other officials connected with WXEL-TV in Boynton Beach and WPBT in Miami, both PBS members, also expressed skepticism over the need for additional public stations and Palmetto's ability to finance their high startup costs.
[11] The station was intended to start on December 1, but this was pushed back to January 7, 1990; it planned to broadcast from facilities in Port St. Lucie, and proposed programs included educational shows and local features on business and agriculture.
While freeze damage to the transmitter was cited officially as the reason for the delay, newspaper reporting pointed to financial causes, and the acting station manager noted that the layoff announcement did not sound temporary.
[14] That month, the Community Television Foundation filed for a federal grant to fund the purchase of WTCE, telling the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that it had concluded an agreement to acquire channel 21.
For WXEL-TV, the combination of WPBT and WTCE would have placed the eight-year-old public station between two signals from its largest competitor for viewers and members.