Branding Estrella TV WASA 24 Founded 1970s as W64AA | Affiliations Estrella TV | |
 | ||
Channels Digital: 25 (UHF)
Virtual: 24 (PSIP) Owner Liberman Broadcasting
(KRCA License LLC) Former callsigns W64AA (1970-1983 and 2001)
W64CW (2003-2007)
WASA-LP (2007-2010) | ||
WASA-LD is a low-power television station officially licensed to Port Jervis, New York, but actually serving the New York City market, broadcasting from a transmitter on the Conde Nast Building in Manhattan. It is owned by Liberman Broadcasting and airs on UHF Digital channel 25.
Contents
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 Liberman Broadcasting of Burbank, California, for $6 Million, making New York the sixth market served by Liberman. The deal closed on March 1, 2010.
W64AA
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 (AMPS), 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
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 all 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 where 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. It was corrected when the station dropped the NYC Slideshow video airing on Virtual 64.2 since its DTV inception in favor of two new sub-channels promoting a launch of English and Chinese feeds of ICN (Information Culture News) Channel.
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 H2O Ultra Steam Mop. This looping rotation was ceased in January 2011. On April 22, 2011, the looping infomercial programming was restored.
Switch to Digital Television
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.
WASA-LP has since built its digital transmitter and is broadcasting on digital channel 25 from the Condé Nast Building in Manhattan, with its call sign changed to WASA-LD.
The ICN (Information Culture News) Channel, a Chinese-American channel, was expected to begin broadcasting on 64.2 in English and 64.3 in Chinese in October 2010. That programming actually launched on February 23, 2011.
IAVC also launched on 24-3. Between launch and 2/25/2011, a technical problem existed in which only the audio for this service aired on 24-3 with an EBU Test Pattern. This has since been corrected. WASA-LD began identifying itself as WASA 24-1 and 24-4, ICN 24-2 and IAVC 24-3 through PSIP.
On April 22, 2011, the looping infomercial programming was restored to WASA 24-1 and 24-4. 24-2 was renamed ICNCH. 24-3 was renamed ICN TV. A fourth sub channel was added relaying Estrella TV as WASA SD.
In 2015 two new subchannels were added, 24-4 Sinovision and 24-3 Sinovision English Channel. WASA SD moved to a fifth sub channel relaying Estrella TV. Eventually, infomercial programming on 24-1 was switched to a high-definition broadcast of Estrella TV, with the standard definition broadcast continuing on 24-5.