Television station in the United States
WASA-LD
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Channels
| |
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Branding
| Estrella TV WASA 24
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Affiliations
| Estrella TV
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Owner
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|
Founded
| 1970s
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Former call signs
| - W64AA (1970s-1983 and 2001)
- W64CW (2003-2007)
- WASA-LP (2007-2010)
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Former channel number(s)
| - Analog:
- 64 (UHF, 1970-2010)
- Digital:
- 25 (UHF, 2010-2018)
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Licensing authority
| FCC
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Facility ID
| 167320
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ERP
| 15 kW (digital)
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HAAT
| 544.1 m (both)
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|
Public license information
| LMS
|
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Website
| www
.estrellatv
.com
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WASA-LD
,
virtual channel
24 (
VHF
digital
channel 13), is a
low-power
Estrella TV
-
owned-and-operated
television station
licensed
to
Port Jervis, New York
, United States and serving the
New York City
media market
. The station is owned by
Estrella Media
, and its
transmitter
is located at
4 Times Square
in
Manhattan
.
WASA briefly used virtual channel 64 to match its former analog channel number, then later changed its virtual channel to 24. It does not use its actual digital TV channel assignment on the air, because
WNYE-TV
calls itself Channel 25, its long-time analog channel number. WNYE-TV's digital channel is actually 24.
In April 2009, Venture Technologies, owner of WASA-LD, said it would sell the station to
Burbank, California
-based Liberman Broadcasting (which was renamed
Estrella Media
in February 2020, following a corporate reorganization of the company under
private equity
firm
HPS Investment Partners, LLC
) for $6 million, making New York the sixth market served by Liberman.
[2]
The deal closed on March 1, 2010.
History
[
edit
]
As W64AA
[
edit
]
In the 1970s, the station
signed on
using UHF channel 64 as
W64AA
. The original owner was
Metromedia
. It was one of several television
translators
in New York City which operated at the upper end of the UHF television band in order to provide reliable coverage to sections of New York where reception was compromised by construction of the
World Trade Center
. This translator station relayed WNEW-TV (now
WNYW
), which at the time operated over
VHF
channel 5.
Originally, most New York City television stations operated their main transmitters from the
Empire State Building
. However, reliable reception was compromised for some viewers once the majority of the World Trade Center was constructed, thus necessitating the use of the UHF translators. In response, nearly all of the TV stations, including WNEW-TV, relocated to the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1975.
In 1982, UHF channels 70 through 83 were decommissioned for use as television stations, and the frequencies were reassigned for the
Advanced Mobile Phone System
, an analog mobile phone system standard developed by
Bell Labs
which was officially introduced in the Americas in 1983. TV stations operating on these channels were either switched to other broadcast channels, sold, or deleted, depending on the owners' intentions.
While some stations, such as
WPIX
and
WCBS-TV
, continued broadcasting over relay translators by moving to lower channels, WNEW-TV ultimately decide to shut down channel 64. The allocation remained inactive for eighteen years, until channel 11 WPIX temporarily used channel 64 as a translator station in 2001, following the
September 11 attacks
. Within a few weeks, WPIX service over channel 11 was fully restored. The channel 64 allocation was once again deleted by the end of 2001.
Infomercials and Chinese programming
[
edit
]
Two years later,
W64CW
was signed on over UHF channel 64 on January 30, 2003, by Venture Technologies. It originally operated with 30 watts, and its transmitter was located at a site just west of downtown Port Jervis, at the triangle where New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania meet. The
call sign
was changed on January 12, 2007, to
WASA-LP
. The station had planned to carry
Estrella TV
in September 2008, but that network was picked up instead by a subchannel of WPIX.
WASA had a problem: it appeared its signal would go off the air every few minutes and then turn back on, resulting in a tear-down pixelation visual effect. This was corrected when the station dropped the NYC Slideshow video airing on Virtual 64.2 since its DTV inception in favor of two new subchannels promoting a launch of English and Chinese feeds of ICN (Information Culture News) Channel.
[3]
Originally, WASA aired a looping rotation of five half-hour
infomercials
running 24 hours a day on its primary channel. Technically, the five shows each interspersed with the legal station ID were recorded on one DVD and played on a Philips DVD player (whose
screensaver
is seen when the loop ends and is not restarted). The infomercials included Nu-Wave Oven, TriVita Super B-12, Sweet Soul of the '70s, Montel William's Living Well Health Master Blender, and The H
2
O Ultra Steam Mop. This looping rotation was ceased in January 2011. On April 22, 2011, the looping infomercial programming was restored.
Digital television
[
edit
]
Digital channels
[
edit
]
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
As a low-power station, WASA-LP was not required to turn off its analog signal on June 12, 2009, which was the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations.
[4]
WASA-LP has since built its digital transmitter, and flash-cut its operations on digital channel 25 in 2010. The station is broadcasting from the Conde Nast Building in Manhattan, with its call sign changed to WASA-LD.
[5]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Full power
|
- WCBS-TV 2
(.1
CBS
, .2
Start
, .3
Dabl
, .4
Fave
, .5
Comet
)
- WNBC 4
(.1
NBC
, .2
Cozi
, .3
LX
, .4
Oxygen
)
- WNYW 5
(.1
Fox
, .2
Movies!
, .3
Fox WX
, .4
Grio
, .5
Catchy
)
- WABC-TV 7
(.1
ABC
, .2
Localish
, .3
This
, .4
HSN
)
- WWOR-TV 9
(.1
MNTV
, .3
Buzzr
, .4
H&I
)
- WPIX 11
ATSC 3.0
(.1
CW
, .2
ANT
, .3
Grit
, .4
REW
, .5
QVC
)
- WNET 13
(.1
PBS
, .2
Kids
)
- WLIW 21
ATSC 3.0
(.1
PBS
, .2
Create
, .3
World
, .4 All Arts)
- WNYE-TV 25
(.1
Edu.
Ind.
, .2
NYC gov
, .3
CUNY
)
- WPXN-TV 31
(.1
Ion
, .2
Bounce
, .3
Court
, .4
Defy
, .5
Laff
, .6
Scripps
,
.7
JTV
, .8
QVC
)
- WJLP 33
(.1
MeTV
, .2
Grit
, .3
Laff
, .4
Mystery
, .6
Comet
, .7
Story
, .8
MeTV+
)
- WXTV-DT 41
(.1
UNI
, .2
Bounce
)
- WZME 43
(.1
Story
, .2
MeTV+
,
.3
MeTV
, .4 MeTV Toons
[soon]
, .8
Retro
, .9
Heartland
, .12
Ads
)
- WNJU 47
(.1
TMD
, .2
TXO
)
- WRNN-TV 48
(.1
ShopHQ
, .2
LC
, .3
Charge!
, .4
QVC2
)
- WEDW 49
(.1
PBS
/
CPTV
)
- WNJN 50/WNJB 58
(.1
PBS
/
NJ PBS
, .2
NHK
)
- WTBY-TV 54
(.1
TBN
,
.2
Merit
, .3
Smile
, .4
Positiv
)
- WLNY-TV 55
(.1
Ind.
, .2
HSN
, .3
QVC2
, .4
HSN2
, .5 Nosey)
- WMBC-TV 63
(.1
Merit
, .2
Quest
, .3
TBD
, .4
SinoVision
, .5
NTD in Chinese
, .7 Aliento;
Audio:
.8
WDNJ
, .9 KCBN, .11
WWGB
, .12
WBTK
)
- WFTY-DT 67
(.1
Crime
,
.2
UniMas
,
.3
UNI
, .4
Grit
, .5
Mystery
, .6
LC
)
- WFUT-DT 68
(.1
UniMas
,
.2
Crime
, .3
Get
)
|
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Low power
|
- WNYZ-LD 6
(.1
Ind.
/Korean,
87.75 FM
analog
Ind.
-FM/Korean Audio)
- WPXU-LD 12
(.1
Daystar
)
- WNDT-CD 14
/
WMBQ-CD 46
(.1
FNX
)
- WEPT-CD 15
(.1
JTV
)
- WVVH-CD 18
(.1
YTA
/
Outside
, .3
LC
, .4
HSN
, .5
NTD
;
Southampton, NY
)
- W23ER-D 17 (.1
WMHT
/
PBS
, .2
Create
, .3
World
, .4
PBS Kids
)
- WDVB-CD 23
(.1
Inspire
, .2 Smile)
- WASA-LD 24
(.1
Estrella
, .2 Estrella News, .3 Test cards)
- WXNY-LD 32
(.1
Daystar
, .2 DS Espanol)
- WPXO-LD 34
(.1
ATeve
)
- WNWT-LD 37
(.1
Story
)
- WNJJ-LD 40 (.1
Ads
)
- WKOB-LD 42
(.1
Vision Latina
, .2 ULFN, .3
L&C
)
- W33ET-D 60
(.1 Diya)
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ATSC 3.0
| |
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Cable
| |
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Streaming
| |
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Defunct
| |
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LBI Radio
| |
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Television stations
| |
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Television networks
| |
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Other assets
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* Sale to Universal Church pending
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