united states city bridgeport connecticut branding heroes & icons new york channels digital 42 uhf virtual 43 psip affiliations .1 heroes & icons .2 the works .3 comet owner nrj tv llc operated by titan tv broadcast group nrj tv ny license co. llc founded march 1953 first incarnation november 20 1980 current incarnation first air date september 28 1987 ; 29 years ago 1987 09 28 call letters meaning memorable entertainment slogan of metv or me former network affiliation former callsigns wicc tv 1953 1960 wbct tv 1987 1988 whai tv 1988 1998 wipx 1998 wbpt 1998 1999 wsah 1999 2012 former channel number s analog 43 uhf 1987 2008 former affiliations primary independent 1987 1999 2008 2009 2009 2010 shop at home 1999 2007 gems tv 2007 2008 rtv 2009 2011 2012 metv 2012 2015 secondary jewelry television 2006 2007 transmitter power 780 kw height 168.5 m facility id 70493 transmitter coordinates 41 21 43 n 73 6 48 w 41.36194 n 73.11333 w 41.36194 ; 73.11333 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wzmetv.com wzme virtual channel 43 uhf digital channel 42 is a heroes and icons affiliated television station serving new york city new york united states that is licensed to bridgeport connecticut . the station is owned by nrj tv llc and is operated by titan broadcasting group . wzme maintains studios and offices located at 7 wakeley street in seymour connecticut and its transmitter is located on great hill road in seymour connecticut . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit the uhf channel 43 allocation in bridgeport was first assigned to wicc tv standing for industrial center of connecticut referring to bridgeport 1 named after the local radio station . the station signed on in march 1953 as an affiliate of abc and dumont a month after connecticut s first uhf station wknb tv in new britain signed on . considering that uhf was rather new at the time and required an expensive converter the station was not seen by many . in addition abc and dumont network programming was easily seen in much of wicc s viewing area via wabc tv channel 7 and wabd channel 5 now wnyw respectively from new york city . one attempt at locally generated programming on the station was newsvision created by station owner ken cooper in which a station camera was pointed at a teletype machine with music being played on the audio channel . the fcc disallowed this because they ruled the video and audio channels must work in sync rather than be separate sources . citation needed none of wicc s attempts to gain viewers succeeded ; one of these included a stunt where bob crane who would later become the star of the sitcom hogan s heroes offered 100 to the first caller who reached the station . no one called leading the station to announce in january 1960 that wicc was the only station in the u.s. without any viewers . 2 that december wicc tv went off the air . citation needed most of the station s programming inventory was destroyed by fire a few months later . citation needed a group of women under the name of bridgeways communications corporation 3 received a construction permit for a new station on channel 43 on november 20 1980 4 and on september 28 1987 the station signed on as wbct tv airing home shopping programming . 3 initially the station planned to become a locally focused independent station with wbct s management concerned that bridgeport was being served only by new york city stations ; 3 a year later however the station had changed its plans and planned to implement cultural programming aimed at the jewish community in the new york city market as a whole . 5 shortly afterward the station changed its call letters to whai tv in reference to chai the hebrew word for living . however the station was sold in 1994 to valuevision 6 which in turn sold whai to paxson communications in 1996 . 7 by then the station had also added infomercials to the schedule . original plans called for the station to become a charter station of the pax tv network 8 9 as wipx 9 10 when it launched in august 1998 but those plans were scrapped mainly due to duopoly concerns resulting from paxson s acquisition of wpxn tv channel 31 as both stations signals overlap 11 and are considered part of the new york city market ; at that time the fcc did not allow common ownership of such stations and the call letters were again changed this time to wbpt . 12 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 11 13 fell through 14 the station was sold in 1999 to the shop at home network 14 which switched the station to the network and changed its call letters to wsah . 15 azteca am rica nearly bought the station late in 2000 to serve as its new york city affiliate . 16 the deal quickly collapsed 17 with azteca am rica citing concerns over wsah s coverage of the market ; 18 the network ultimately affiliated with wnyn lp . the station continued to run shop at home with a brief interruption in 2006 when the network temporarily closed . citation needed 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 in san francisco california ; wmfp in boston massachusetts ; woac now wrlm in canton ohio ; and wray tv in wilson raleigh north carolina to multicultural television for 170 million . 19 multicultural assumed control of kcns woac and wray on december 20 2006 and flipped their programming 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 . citation needed in may 2007 wsah changed shopping networks switching from shop at home to gems tv a shopping network that specializes in jewelry . in addition infomercials once again became a part of the schedule . citation needed the gems tv affiliation was discontinued in 2009 . citation needed on july 1 2009 wsah affiliated with the retro television network rtv becoming one of only a few affiliates to carry rtv on its main channel . 20 initially rtv programming was seen from 6 p.m. to midnight with infomercials continuing during the remainder of the broadcast day . wsah s logo before joining metv . in september 2009 wsah cut rtv programming back to end at 11 p.m. on weekdays and 10 p.m. on weekends . shortly afterwards the station announced that it would drop rtv completely at the end of the month . 21 the next month wsah added a subchannel airing chinese language programming from sister station kcns . 22 on june 6 2011 the station rejoined rtv running its programming from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. after multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans wsah was placed into a trust ; the station was then placed for sale . 23 on october 6 2011 it was announced that wsah would be auctioned off in bankruptcy court by the end of 2011 . 24 in the auction held on november 15 the station was acquired by nrj tv llc which had earlier acquired kcns and wmfp ; the deal is subject to bankruptcy court approval though the auction has been challenged by arthur liu who owned multicultural and is associated with failed bidder nyvv . 25 the fcc approved the sale on march 20 2012 and it was consummated eight days later . 26 in december 2011 metv announced on its website that it signed wsah as its new york city affiliate . on january 4 2012 wsah switched from retro television network to metv on its primary channel carrying metv s programming from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. to 12 30 a.m. on weekdays and 11 00 a.m. to 12 30 a.m. on weekends . infomercials run in the hours that metv programming is not shown making it the largest metv affiliate not to carry the network s complete schedule particularly unusual given the size of the new york city market and since most metv affiliates that preempt programming are in mid sized and small markets and are alternately affiliated with major broadcast networks . rtv moved to wsah s second subchannel replacing the chinese language programming . on july 29 2012 the station s call letters became wzme to reflect its affiliation with metv . on january 24 2014 metv announced that it would move its new york city affiliation from wzme to kvnv which will change to wjlp channel 3 when that station completes its move from ely nevada to middletown township new jersey in the fall of 2014 . 27 at that time wzme remained the new york connecticut metv affiliate . with the new york area overlap with wjlp wzme made the decision to change its network affiliation . as of october 11 2015 wzme became the affiliate in the new york connecticut area of heroes and icons which also broadcast on wwor dt4 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 28 43.1 720p 16 9 wzme heroes & icons 43.2 480i 4 3 works the works 43.3 comet comet analog to digital conversion edit wzme as wsah signed on its digital signal on channel 42 on december 16 2006 . citation needed the station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 43 on july 4 2008 . the analog signal was taken off the air following a lightning strike at the transmitter . since the cost of repairing the transmitter was considered to be uneconomical due to the pending analog shutdown the station s owners sought permission from the fcc to keep the analog transmitter silent . this did not affect wsah s digital signal or its availability on cable . 29 30 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 42 using psip to display wzme s virtual channel as 43 on digital television receivers . see also edit connecticut portal television in the united states portal list of television stations in connecticut references edit mishkind barry 2005 . call letter origins the list . oldradio.com . retrieved march 21 2008 . wicc tv not one viewer pdf format . americanradiohistory.com . january 18 1960 . retrieved november 14 2011 . a b c cavanaugh jack november 15 1987 . station makes a quiet debut . the new york times . retrieved september 28 2009 . application search details . cdbs public access . federal communications commission . retrieved march 21 2008 . group plans tv station for jewish audience . associated press via the new york times . september 6 1988 . retrieved september 28 2009 . application search details . cdbs public access . federal communications commission . retrieved march 21 2008 . application search details . cdbs public access . federal communications commission . retrieved march 21 2008 . fybush scott november 26 1997 . wild still waiting . north east radiowatch . retrieved march 22 2008 . a b fybush scott august 26 1998 . mergers and spinoffs . north east radiowatch . retrieved march 22 2008 . fybush scott january 15 1998 . ice storm damage continues . north east radiowatch