WNYZ
Encyclopedia
WNYZ was a low-power
television station
licensed to New York City
, owned by the Island Broadcasting Company. WNYZ's television signal broadcasts in analog
on VHF channel 6 and later, digital
channel 6 with a virtual channel
of 1.1.
During most of its life, the station has been operated more as a radio station than a television station; though WNYZ-LP broadcasts video, it is usually silent movies that are repeated throughout the day, and only to fulfill the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) requirement that some sort of video be broadcast on the frequency. Since the digital transition, WNYZ broadcasted color bars, a legal ID, and a message telling viewers to listen to 87.7 MHz, the audio of the digital channel. Along with WMBQ-CA
it is one of two remaining analog television stations in New York City.
WNYZ was originally Russian Top 40
(Radio Vsyo - Russian for "Radio Everything"), but late in 2007, it was announced that it would be changing to a Dance-intensive Rhythmic Top 40 format as "Pulse 87". After several delays, the station flipped to the new format on Monday February 11, 2008 at midnight EST.
format Pulse 87
.
Joel Salkowitz, the station's program director and a former employee of WQHT during their early days told the online website All Access about Pulse 87's musical direction: "The station is a Top 40/Rhythmic, leaning away from Rock and Rap and more towards Club and Dance sounds in their place. Familiar, rhythmic hits mixed with the very best new music. This is a current/recurrent-based radio station." The station's format, which features more cutting-edge dance music, is unique in New York City as WKTU
currently plays a more classic Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
dance format. The format is also rarely seen in the US as only a handful of stations carry this format in America."
Its transmitter is on top of the Citicorp Building
in Long Island City, Queens
, and Pulse 87.7 IDs alluded to it as "that big blue building in Queens" http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,92386.0.html.
The station's audio signal reached the five boroughs, Nassau and Western Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Northeastern New Jersey. Before June 12, 2009, the signal of ABC
's WPVI-TV
Channel 6 in Philadelphia made WNYZ-LP unavailable in most of central and parts of Northern New Jersey; WRGB
Channel 6 in Albany
also had similar effects in parts of the Hudson Valley
in New York. After the transition to digital TV on June 12, 2009, reception of WNYZ improved in Central New Jersey and the Hudson Valley. However, it continues to impact reception of WPVI and WRGB's digital signals in these areas because they stayed on the channel 6 frequency.
On March 10, 2008 the station made a deal with Arbitron
that will allow the station to be rated in its PPMs, but because it is a television station, WNYZ could not be rated in the official Arbitron radio books for the New York Metropolitan market. On March 31, 2009 it was announced that, according to a Mega Media press release, "due to the recent policy change at Arbitron, effective April 1, 2009 Pulse 87 will now be included and measured under the standard PPM Radio Ratings report effective April 2009 survey period." Pulse 87 has also been added to the Rhythmic and Dance panels at Mediabase
, while Billboard
/Nielsen BDS
has the station monitored as a reporter on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay panel.
Pulse 87 has been relaunched as an Internet station at http://www.pulse87ny.com/ ; the station is operated by Salkowitz, who purchased the Pulse 87 automation equipment and the intellectual property in a bankruptcy auction.
On October 30, 2009 the current lease between the Mega Media Group and Island Broadcasting ended because Island Broadcasting did not receive the $500,000 it was owed according to the Stipulation and Order regarding the Time Brokerage Agreement. Island Broadcasting was under no obligation to continue allowing Pulse 87 use their signal without payment for the lease. However, there was a tentative deal in place for a new company to buy out Mega Media and pay off the debt owed to Island Broadcasting. The new company planned to continue the dance format but nothing ever came to fruition. The WNYZ-LP license was offered for sale by Island Broadcasting for $15 million. Pulse 87 went off the air on October 30, 2009 at 5 pm.
On January 28, 2010 87.7 WNYZ began broadcasting a locally produced feed called The Indie Darkroom featuring music from local New York City bands.
On March 21, 2010 the station began playing advisories that The Indie Darkroom would soon be relegated to the overnight hours not weekend of 8pm-5am. On Weekends, the station becomes CaribStar 87.7FM (Sat/Sun 6am-midnight). Although a number of stations offer brokered programming for New York's estimated 1.5 million English/French Caribbean nationals,(including a number of illegally operated stations in Bronx and Brooklyn, CaribStar on WNYZ-LP, represents the most significant effort to develop programing for this consumer market.
On March 31, 2010 Russian format is back for the second time ("Radio Pozitiv", a successor of "Radio Vsyo") and it is on weekdays 5am-8pm all day long and Fridays until 3am. Russian radio station offers a variety of talk shows and music.
On May 2, 2010 87.7 has Hindi-language programming on Sunday mornings.
On July 25, 2010 has Korean programing from WWRU
AM 1660 Jersey City, New Jersey
.
, the cancellation was eventually undone due to the cancellation being a mistake on the FCC's part; the FCC meant to only deny the digital CP extension, not revoke the analog one as they had mistakenly done.
Low-power broadcasting
Low-power broadcasting is electronic broadcasting at very low power and low cost, to a small community area.The terms "low-power broadcasting" and "micropower broadcasting" should not be used interchangeably, because the markets are not the same...
television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
licensed to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, owned by the Island Broadcasting Company. WNYZ's television signal broadcasts in analog
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
on VHF channel 6 and later, digital
Digital broadcasting
Digital broadcasting is the practice of using digital data rather than analogue waveforms to carry broadcasts over television channels or assigned radio frequency bands...
channel 6 with a virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
of 1.1.
During most of its life, the station has been operated more as a radio station than a television station; though WNYZ-LP broadcasts video, it is usually silent movies that are repeated throughout the day, and only to fulfill the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) requirement that some sort of video be broadcast on the frequency. Since the digital transition, WNYZ broadcasted color bars, a legal ID, and a message telling viewers to listen to 87.7 MHz, the audio of the digital channel. Along with WMBQ-CA
WMBQ-CA
WMBQ-CA is a Class A low-power television station located in New York City. It is owned by Renard Communications Corp., and broadcasts on UHF channel 46...
it is one of two remaining analog television stations in New York City.
History
WNYZ signed on in 1998 as W33BS (on channel 33), but moved to channel 6 in 2003. It has, since moving to channel 6, effectively operated as an FM radio station ever since; the New York FM radio dial is significantly crowded, and had not added a station to the FM band since 1985, effectively necessitating the rather crude extension of the FM band.WNYZ was originally Russian Top 40
Russian pop
Russian pop music is Russian-language pop music produced either in Russia or other countries. This is the successor to popular "variety" Soviet music with its pop idols such as Alla Pugachova or Valery Leontiev....
(Radio Vsyo - Russian for "Radio Everything"), but late in 2007, it was announced that it would be changing to a Dance-intensive Rhythmic Top 40 format as "Pulse 87". After several delays, the station flipped to the new format on Monday February 11, 2008 at midnight EST.
Pulse 87
From 2008 to October 30, 2009, WNYZ operated as the dance musicDance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
format Pulse 87
Pulse 87
Pulse 87 is an American television franchise that operated as a radio branding. The brand was formerly owned and operated by Mega Media. As of February 2010, the format was resurrected as an online internet station under new management following the bankruptcy and liquidation of its former...
.
Joel Salkowitz, the station's program director and a former employee of WQHT during their early days told the online website All Access about Pulse 87's musical direction: "The station is a Top 40/Rhythmic, leaning away from Rock and Rap and more towards Club and Dance sounds in their place. Familiar, rhythmic hits mixed with the very best new music. This is a current/recurrent-based radio station." The station's format, which features more cutting-edge dance music, is unique in New York City as WKTU
WKTU
WKTU is a radio station based in New York City that plays an upbeat, gold-based CHR format. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building and its city of license is Lake Success, New York, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New...
currently plays a more classic Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
Rhythmic adult contemporary is a format used on stations in the United States and Canada. It usually gears toward an older audience, ages 25 to 54. Stations using this format play disco from the 1970s and early 1980s, dance/pop music, adult-friendly hip hop/old school tracks, R&B, dance/freestyle...
dance format. The format is also rarely seen in the US as only a handful of stations carry this format in America."
Its transmitter is on top of the Citicorp Building
Citicorp Building
One Court Square, also known as the Citigroup Building, is a 50-story office tower in Long Island City, Queens just outside of Manhattan in New York City. It was completed in 1990 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP for Citigroup. The tower is tallest in New York City outside Manhattan, and the...
in Long Island City, Queens
Long Island City, Queens
Long Island City is the westernmost neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. L.I.C. is notable for its rapid and ongoing gentrification, its waterfront parks, and its thriving arts community. L.I.C. has among the highest concentration of art galleries, art institutions, and studio...
, and Pulse 87.7 IDs alluded to it as "that big blue building in Queens" http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,92386.0.html.
The station's audio signal reached the five boroughs, Nassau and Western Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Northeastern New Jersey. Before June 12, 2009, the signal of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...
Channel 6 in Philadelphia made WNYZ-LP unavailable in most of central and parts of Northern New Jersey; WRGB
WRGB
WRGB, channel 6, is a television station located in Schenectady, New York, USA. WRGB is owned by Freedom Communications, and is the CBS affiliate for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy television market...
Channel 6 in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
also had similar effects in parts of the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
in New York. After the transition to digital TV on June 12, 2009, reception of WNYZ improved in Central New Jersey and the Hudson Valley. However, it continues to impact reception of WPVI and WRGB's digital signals in these areas because they stayed on the channel 6 frequency.
On March 10, 2008 the station made a deal with Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
that will allow the station to be rated in its PPMs, but because it is a television station, WNYZ could not be rated in the official Arbitron radio books for the New York Metropolitan market. On March 31, 2009 it was announced that, according to a Mega Media press release, "due to the recent policy change at Arbitron, effective April 1, 2009 Pulse 87 will now be included and measured under the standard PPM Radio Ratings report effective April 2009 survey period." Pulse 87 has also been added to the Rhythmic and Dance panels at Mediabase
Mediabase
Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytical tools for radio and record industry professionals...
, while Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
/Nielsen BDS
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections...
has the station monitored as a reporter on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay panel.
Pulse 87 has been relaunched as an Internet station at http://www.pulse87ny.com/ ; the station is operated by Salkowitz, who purchased the Pulse 87 automation equipment and the intellectual property in a bankruptcy auction.
Financial troubles and eventual closure
Mega Media had been in serious financial trouble long before it launched Pulse 87. This came to a head on August 12, 2009 when Mega Media filed for bankruptcy, reporting $3.5 million in liabilities against assets of just $180,000. Mega says it hopes to continue operating Pulse while it restructures under Chapter 11.On October 30, 2009 the current lease between the Mega Media Group and Island Broadcasting ended because Island Broadcasting did not receive the $500,000 it was owed according to the Stipulation and Order regarding the Time Brokerage Agreement. Island Broadcasting was under no obligation to continue allowing Pulse 87 use their signal without payment for the lease. However, there was a tentative deal in place for a new company to buy out Mega Media and pay off the debt owed to Island Broadcasting. The new company planned to continue the dance format but nothing ever came to fruition. The WNYZ-LP license was offered for sale by Island Broadcasting for $15 million. Pulse 87 went off the air on October 30, 2009 at 5 pm.
Former Pulse 87 on-air staff
- Glenn FrisciaFriscia & LamboyFriscia & Lamboy are an electronic music duo. In 2003, they did a remix for Cher's single "Love One Another", in 2004 they remixed Britney Spears's single "Outrageous" and in 2007 remixed Ashley Tisdale's single "He Said She Said"...
(2008–2009) - Jonathan PetersJonathan PetersJonathan Peters is an American DJ, remixer and producer.-Albums:*Live With Jonathan Peters *Last Dance: Soundfactory Classics *Jonathan Peters Presents: Pacha New York -References:...
(2008–2009) - DJ YonnyDJ YonnyDJ Yonny is an American DJ, producer and remixer on New York City's radio station WXRK.Ávila was born in Queens, New York but raised in Wilmington, Delaware...
(2008–2009)
Party 105 takeover
A new format for WNYZ was announced on November 2, 2009, at 6 am. JVC Broadcasting's WPTY "Party 105" took over the 87.7 frequency in New York City. The same programming Party 105 in Suffolk County was heard on 87.7 but the music was not the same that the Pulse 87 audience had grown accustomed to. It was a hip-hop based format, with some dance music, but mostly nostalgic 1980s and 1990s rhythmic hits and current R&B and hip-hop. The studios and programming remained on Long Island as WNYZ served as a simulcast to WPTY. Pulse 87's audience, which had grown to over 1 million listeners per week before they went off the air, eventually stopped tuning in to this new format, and the inability of many potential listeners in the New York area to tune into the 87.7 signal made the simulcast unprofitable for JVC Broadcasting. On January 21, 2010, WPTY stopped simulcasting on WNYZ. Island Broadcasting let the signal go silent for one day and then began playing dance music for two hours the next morning. Due to a non-compete agreement, Island Broadcasting was not allowed to broadcast the dance music. Later in the day, a filler format of Jazz and Blues standards with station identification aired until January 27, 2010.Indie Darkroom and Radio Pozitiv
The station later implemented an independent music format on its audio channel known as the "Indie Darkroom".On January 28, 2010 87.7 WNYZ began broadcasting a locally produced feed called The Indie Darkroom featuring music from local New York City bands.
On March 21, 2010 the station began playing advisories that The Indie Darkroom would soon be relegated to the overnight hours not weekend of 8pm-5am. On Weekends, the station becomes CaribStar 87.7FM (Sat/Sun 6am-midnight). Although a number of stations offer brokered programming for New York's estimated 1.5 million English/French Caribbean nationals,(including a number of illegally operated stations in Bronx and Brooklyn, CaribStar on WNYZ-LP, represents the most significant effort to develop programing for this consumer market.
On March 31, 2010 Russian format is back for the second time ("Radio Pozitiv", a successor of "Radio Vsyo") and it is on weekdays 5am-8pm all day long and Fridays until 3am. Russian radio station offers a variety of talk shows and music.
On May 2, 2010 87.7 has Hindi-language programming on Sunday mornings.
On July 25, 2010 has Korean programing from WWRU
WWRU
WWRU is a Korean language AM radio station licensed to Jersey City, New Jersey, broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area on 1660 kHz AM. The station's studios are located in Manhattan....
AM 1660 Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
.
Accidental license cancellation
On June 29, 2011, the FCC cancelled the license of WNYZ-LP and deleted its call sign; the station had filed an extension for its Construction Permit (CP) for its digital facilities, after the original CP had expired. According to FCC regulations, a CP extension could only be filed only if the current CP is still valid. According to Scott FybushScott Fybush
Scott Fybush is an American radio industry observer, writer and consultant. He is based in Rochester, New York.Fybush is the editor of NorthEast Radio Watch, a long-running and widely read weekly summary of news about the radio and television industries in the Northeastern United States and...
, the cancellation was eventually undone due to the cancellation being a mistake on the FCC's part; the FCC meant to only deny the digital CP extension, not revoke the analog one as they had mistakenly done.