WCCT-TV (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Waterbury, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as the local CW outlet. It is owned by the Tegna subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (channel 61); Nexstar owns ABC affiliate WTNH (channel 8) and WCTX (channel 59), an independent station with MyNetworkTV. WCCT-TV and WTIC-TV share studios on Broad Street in downtown Hartford; WCCT-TV's transmitter is located on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut. This station was established in 1953 as WATR-TV, an NBC affiliate originally serving Waterbury, New Haven, and southern Connecticut. Following a transmitter upgrade by Hartford NBC affiliate WVIT in 1982, WATR relaunched as WTXX, a regional independent station and the first station owned by Odyssey Partners, which became Renaissance Communications. WTXX became Connecticut's UPN affiliate in 1995 and switched to The WB in 2001, and became a charter CW affiliate in 2006. Adopting the current WCCT-TV call sign in 2010, it has been managed by WTIC-TV since 1998 and owned by Tegna since 2019. When Nexstar and Tegna merged in 2026, the combined company was allowed to keep three licenses in Connecticut.
History
WATR (1953–1966) The station commenced operations on September 10, 1953, as WATR-TV on channel 53, the second UHF station in Connecticut. It was owned by the Thomas and Gilmore families, along with WATR radio (1320 AM). The station's studios and transmitter were located on West Peak in Meriden. At the time, the station's signal only covered Waterbury, New Haven and the southern portion of the state. WATR-TV was originally a dual secondary affiliate of both DuMont and ABC, sharing them with New Haven-based WNHC-TV (channel 8, now WTNH). DuMont ceased operations in 1955, but WATR-TV continued to carry the network's final regularly scheduled program, Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena, until it was canceled in August 1958; WATR-TV was one of only five remaining DuMont affiliates at the end. In 1962, the station relocated to UHF channel 20 and moved to a new studio and transmitter site in Prospect, south of Waterbury. Channel 53 was later occupied by WEDN, Connecticut Public Television's outlet in Norwich.
NBC affiliate (1966–1982) In August 1966, WATR-TV joined NBC. At the time, the network's primary affiliate in Connecticut, WHNB-TV (channel 30) in New Britain, was hampered by a weak signal in New Haven and the southwestern portions of the state. In the 1970s, the station offered limited local news and instead aired older syndicated programs and religious shows such as The PTL Club when NBC programs were not offered. A notable local production was Journeys to the Mind, a half-hour talk show with host Joel Dobbin, which approached topics of the occult with a serious and sober tone. Journeys ran from 1976 to 1981. The original Viacom bought WHNB-TV in 1978 and changed its call letters to WVIT. Two years later, after WVIT more than doubled its transmission power to cover New Haven, it became clear that WATR-TV's NBC affiliation was regarded by the network as duplicative. In 1981, the Thomas/Gilmore interests opted to sell channel 20 to a joint venture of Odyssey Television Partners (later to become Renaissance Communications) and Oppenheimer and Company. The sale was announced in May 1981 and gained FCC approval that December.
WTXX: independent (1982–1995) With NBC likely departing the station after its last affiliation contract expired to become exclusive to WVIT, the new owners of channel 20 ultimately opted to go independent. NBC programming aired on channel 20 for the last time on April 10, 1982. On the next day (Easter Sunday), the station stayed off the air, preparing to relaunch as an independent. On April 12—two days after the NBC affiliation ended—channel 20 returned to the air as WTXX (for "Television XX", with "XX" referring to 20 in Roman numerals), and subsequently became Connecticut's first full-service independent station since Hartford's WHCT-TV (channel 18, now Univision affiliate WUVN) served as an independent from 1957 to 1975. Soon after taking over, Odyssey replaced channel 20's tiny 250-foot (76 m) tower with a more powerful transmitter that more than doubled its signal and gave it a coverage area comparable with the major network stations in the state. It was a typical general-entertainment independent, carrying off-network series, movies, and cartoons presented by the local children's show Kidstime with T.X. Critter, a puppet created by and puppeteered by Paul Fusco who later created ALF. WTXX also carried some sports, most notably New York Mets telecasts from WOR-TV in New York City and Boston Celtics telecasts from WLVI-TV in Boston. WTXX prospered in its new status, and continued to do so even after WTIC-TV signed on in 1984. WTXX bid for the Fox affiliation two years later, but lost out to WTIC-TV. Channel 20's transmitter was located further south than the other major Connecticut stations, resulting in a significant overlap with Fox flagship WNYW. It could be seen at city-grade strength in Fairfield County, which is part of the New York City market, and provided at least secondary coverage to most of Long Island. Fox opted to affiliate with WTIC-TV, which did not have as large an overlap. In October 1992, Renaissance Broadcasting sold WTXX to Counterpoint Communications, a non-profit media firm with close ties to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. Renaissance had recently acquired several stations, including WTIC-TV, from Chase Broadcasting, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations of the time did not allow common ownership of two stations in the same market. However, Renaissance retained the rights to all the programming it bought for WTXX. WTIC-TV wanted to establish a full-time local marketing agreement (LMA) with WTXX, which basically amounted to channel 20 being programmed by its main competitor. Counterpoint balked, wanting only a part-time agreement. Renaissance then moved some of WTXX's stronger shows to WTIC-TV, leaving the station with a considerably weakened schedule.
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