WSPF-CD (channel 35) is a low-power, Class A television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
History
The station first signed on the air in 1989 as W35AJ, which originally operated as an owned-and-operated station of Channel America (in effect, becoming the first network-owned commercial station in the Tampa Bay market). However, the station was operated only intermittently, and would be off the air for weeks at a time. W35AJ was already dark for a couple of years when the St. Petersburg city government acquired the station in February 1995. Until that point, St. Petersburg's government-access television channel, first established in January 1990, was seen exclusively on cable television on cable channel 15 (since moved to digital channel 615 in December 2007). Prior to then, the city presented some programs on a local origination channel on Paragon Cable (since succeeded by Bright House Networks and Charter Communications).
Under the ownership of the City of St. Petersburg, the station broadcast City Council meetings and other public service programming for area residents, including the required three weekly hours of educational programming mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).