WZME

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WZME (channel 43) is a

The UHF channel 43 allocation in Bridgeport was initially assigned to WICC-TV, which stands for "Industrial Center of Connecticut", a reference to Bridgeport. The station was named after the local radio station and signed on in March 1953 as an affiliate of both ABC and DuMont. This was one month after the first UHF station in Connecticut, WKNB-TV (now WVIT) in New Britain, began broadcasting.

At the time, UHF was relatively new and required an expensive converter, which meant that WICC-TV was not seen by many viewers. Moreover, ABC and DuMont network programming was readily available 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

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".^[3] 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]}

As a home shopping station (1987–2009)

A group of women, under the name of Bridgeways Communications Corporation,

Original plans called for the station to become a charter station of the Pax TV network^[9][10] (as WIPX^[10][11]) 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^[12] 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.^[13] 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^[12][14]) fell through,^[15] the station was sold in 1999 to the Shop at Home Network^[15] which switched the station to the network and changed its call letters to WSAH.^[16]

Azteca América nearly bought the station late in 2000 to serve as its New York City affiliate.^[17] The deal quickly collapsed,^[18] with Azteca América citing concerns over WSAH's coverage of the market;^[19] 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

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]}

Switch to entertainment programming (2009–2016)

On July 1, 2009, WSAH affiliated with the

After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, WSAH was placed into a trust; the station was then placed for sale.[24] On October 6, 2011, it was announced that WSAH would be auctioned off in bankruptcy court by the end of 2011.^[25] 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.^[26] The FCC approved the sale on March 20, 2012, and it was consummated eight days later.^[27]

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 ran in the hours that MeTV programming was 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 relaunched as

On January 1, 2020, WZME switched affiliations to Shop LC (formerly the Liquidation Channel), a home shopping network for the first time in 11 years. Sonlife was shifted to the station's second digital subchannel. In November, the station switched affiliations again to ShopHQ.

Sale to Weigel Broadcasting; switch to MeTV Plus (2021–present)

On September 1, 2021, WZME was sold to Weigel Broadcasting.

On April 1, 2022, MeTV Plus on DT1 was replaced with Story Television. MeTV Plus programming moved to a new DT2 subchannel.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

Analog-to-digital conversion

WZME (as WSAH) signed on its digital signal on channel 42 on December 16, 2006.^[