WSAH
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| WSAH | |
|---|---|
| Bridgeport, Connecticut/New York, New York | |
| Channels | Analog: 43 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Gems TV |
| Owner | Multicultural Television Broadcasting, LLC (MTB Bridgeport-NY Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | September 28, 1987 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Shop At Home (the station's former affiliation) |
| Former callsigns | WBCT-TV (1987-1990) WHAI-TV (1990-1998) WIPX (1998) WBPT (1998-1999) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1987-1999) Shop at Home (1999-2007) |
| Transmitter Power | 2290 kW (analog) 780 kW (digital) |
| Height | 155.3 m (analog) 168.5 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 70493 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
WSAH is a television station licensed to Bridgeport, Connecticut in the New York City television market, operating on UHF channel 43, with a digital signal on UHF channel 42. It is owned by Multicultural Television Broadcasting, LLC (a division of Multicultural Broadcasting), and is affiliated with Gems TV.
[edit] History
Channel 43 first appeared in March 1953, when WICC-TV (meaning "Industrial Center of Connecticut", referring to Bridgeport[1]) signed on with programming from ABC and DuMont, a month after WKNB-TV signed on. The station was named after its sister AM station. Considering that UHF was rather new at the time and required an expensive converter, the station was not seen by many.
None of their attempts to gain viewers succeeded -- one of these included a stunt where Bob Crane (who later became the star of Hogan's Heroes) offered $100 to the first caller who calls the station. Amazingly, no one called -- a likely sign that no one was watching WICC.
WICC-TV went off the air in December 1960. Most of the station's programming inventory was destroyed by fire a few months later.
A group of women received a construction permit for a new channel 43 on November 20, 1980[2], and on September 28, 1987, the station signed on as WBCT-TV, airing some community programming, along with infomercials and home shopping. In 1990, the station changed its call letters to WHAI-TV. The station was sold in 1994 to ValueVision[3], which in turn sold WHAI to Paxson Communications in 1996[4]. During this timeframe, the community programming was dropped.
Original plans called for the station to pick up the Pax TV network[5][6] (as WIPX[7][6]) when it launched in 1998, but those plans were scrapped (mainly due to duopoly concerns resulting from Paxson's acquisition of WPXN-TV, as both stations' signals overlap[8] and are considered part of the New York City DMA; at that time the FCC did not allow common ownership of such stations) and the call letters were again changed, this time to WBPT[9]. After an attempt to sell the station to Cuchifritos Communications (which planned to make the station the flagship of a Spanish language home shopping service[8][10]) fell through[11], the station was sold in 1999 to the Shop at Home Network[11], which installed their programming and the WSAH call letters.[12]
Azteca América nearly bought the station late in 2000 to serve as their New York City affiliate.[13] The deal quickly collapsed[14] (the network later affiliated with WNYN-LP), and the station continued to run Shop at Home, with a brief interruption in 2006 when the network temporarily closed.
On September 26, 2006, The E. W. Scripps Company (the then-owner of the former Shop at Home owned-and-operated stations) announced that it was selling WSAH along with four other stations (KCNS San Francisco, California, WMFP Boston, Massachusetts, WOAC Canton, Ohio and WRAY-TV Wilson-Raleigh, North Carolina) to Multicultural Television for $170 million.[15] Multicultural assumed control of KCNS, WOAC and WRAY on December 20, 2006 and flipped their format to an all-infomercial format; it did not take control of WSAH and WMFP immediately due the stations' pending license renewal. The licenses were renewed in early April 2007, and on April 24, 2007, Multicultural took control of these stations.
WSAH signed on its digital signal on channel 42 on December 16, 2006; it is currently a simulcast of its analog offering.
In May 2007, WSAH changed shopping networks, from Shop at Home to Gems TV, a shopping network that specialises in jewelry. In addition, infomercials once again became a part of the schedule.
[edit] References
- ^ Mishkind, Barry (2005). Call Letter Origins: The List. Oldradio.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Application Search Details. CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Application Search Details. CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Application Search Details. CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "WILD -- Still Waiting", North East RadioWatch, 1997-11-26. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ a b Fybush, Scott. "Mergers and Spinoffs", North East RadioWatch, 1998-08-26. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "Ice Storm Damage Continues", North East RadioWatch, 1998-01-15. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ a b Dempsy, John. "Paxson seeks to sell station", Variety, 1998-12-09. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "One Shoe Drops in Maine...", North East RadioWatch, 1998-09-04. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "Big Apple's Big Changes, and, We Visit The Midwest", North East RadioWatch, 1998-12-11. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ a b Fybush, Scott. "We Will Never Make Fun of Boston Weather Again...", North East RadioWatch, 1999-03-05. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "CBL: The Final Countdown", North East RadioWatch, 1998-06-18. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "Spinning the Dial in Connecticut", North East RadioWatch, 2000-10-02. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "Adios, WHUB!", North East RadioWatch, 2000-12-11. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ The E. W. Scripps Company (2007-09-26). "Scripps sells Shop At Home TV stations". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- RadioDXer.com. WICC-TV, Channel 43, Bridgeport, CT. Retrieved on October 18, 2005.
[edit] External links
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