Affiliations Jewelry Television Sister station(s) WPTG-CD | Founded July 25, 1990 | |
Channels Digital: 39 (UHF)(PSIP) Owner Fifth Street Enterprises, LLC Call letters' meaning BYD = Bid, a reference to the auction-type programming that used to air on the station | ||
WBYD-CD is a digital Class A low-power television station in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, licensed to broadcast digitally on channel 39. Owned by Fifth Street Enterprises, LLC, it broadcasts from the WQED tower in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh. Until 2015, the station was licensed to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is famous for televising a live auction for two years from 2001 to 2002. The station is not carried on any local cable TV system or DBS provider in the Pittsburgh area.
History and Programming
W35AZ signed on in the early 1990s on analog channel 35. It was a Network One affiliate for the life of the short-lived network. After the demise of Network One, the station became an affiliate of America's Collectibles Network. In 2001, it changed its call letters to WONT-LP, and started broadcasting live programming from its studios, which at the time were located at the Eastland Mall in North Versailles, Pennsylvania.
WANT-TV was a live auction of salvage merchandise that ran from 7 PM until midnight daily. Originally, the show had multiple hosts, but by the first six months of the show, Cheryl McCall became the show's main host. As a low-budget, live six-hour show, the show gained a cult following from college students and over the air viewers in the Pittsburgh area.
In mid-2001, WANT-TV was renamed Live Auction Television, and its hours were reduced to three days a week (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) from 7 PM to 1 am. Also, WONT ended its affiliation with ACN, and became an affiliate of the Shop at Home Network.
In 2002, the show was renamed Auction Live, and started being simulcast on its sister stations at the time, WIIC-LP and WPTG-LP. During this time, the station changed its callsign from WONT-LP to "WBYD-CA", and became a Class A LPTV station.
In August 2002, Auction Live went on hiatus due to declining sales of merchandise on the show. It returned two months later, but the show ceased airing by the end of 2002.
WBYD-CA then began showing limited locally originated programming, including a local talk show created by the Pittsburgh-based band American Metal.
In 2005, the owner of the Eastland Mall, Benderson Development, announced the mall was going to be demolished, and cancelled the leases of all the remaining tenants, including WBYD. The station was moved to a trailer next to the broadcast tower of WQED.
WBYD-CA requested and was granted by the FCC a STA to go silent in early 2013 for financial reasons, since the owner of the station at the time (Abacus Television) was unable to build digital facilities at the same time paying to operate the analog facilities. On May 15, 2015, the station returned to the air, initially rebroadcasting the feed of WOSC-CD, on its new channel, channel 39. In August 2015, it started broadcasting Jewelry TV on its main channel 39.1, and added 39.2 shortly afterwards, which is a subchannel of infomercials.
WBYD-CA was owned by Abacus Television until it was sold, along with four other TV stations, to Fifth Street Enterprises, LLC in April 2015.