WPSJ-CD, (channel 8) is a low-power Class A

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...

serving

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, United States, that is licensed to Hammonton,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. The station is owned by

HC2 Holdings INNOVATE Corp. (formerly known as HC2 Holdings, Inc. and Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc.) is an American public financial services company founded in 1994. History Beginning (1994–1997) Primus commenced operations in 1994 intent on bei ...

, with a

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

located in Waterford Township, New Jersey. Founded as W08CC in 1986 by Paul Engle, the station is one of the oldest low-power TV stations in New Jersey. For 25 years, it provided a mix of local interest and syndicated programs. After being sold in 2012, it has primarily carried Spanish-language programming services, including MundoFox/MundoMax and

Azteca América Azteca América (, sometimes shortened to Azteca) is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by INNOVATE Corp., which acquired the network from the Azteca International Corporation subsidiary of TV Azteca. Headquartered ...

History

Engle ownership

WPSJ signed on the air June 14, 1986, as W08CC (sometimes rendered "WOCC-TV"), the first low-power TV station in New Jersey. W08CC was built by Paul Engle, who owned South Jersey Television, Inc., alongside his wife Sandra. Engle won the station by buying out eight competing applicants; the original format included local talk shows and sports programming. The station continued to offer such local programming through the 1990s, even as local cable systems shut it out of their lineups. However, in 1992, it was added to the primary cable system in Vineland; at that time, it debuted a simulcast of the morning show of local radio station WBSS and a show on Vineland issues. At the station's height in 2005, it took in $400,000 in ad revenue and a percentage of sales on the

Shop At Home Network The Shop at Home Network (more commonly known as just Shop at Home, Shop at Home TV, SATH) was a television network in the United States. Before its acquisition by Jewelry Television in 2006, Shop at Home (SATH NASDAQ) was a public company which ...

, which it aired in overnight time slots. Then, in 2006, income dropped to more than half after the FCC moved WPSJ from channel 8 to a weaker channel 24. This move reduced its potential viewership from 3.5 million to just 150,000. Engle considered shuttering the station, but he opted to persist. The bet paid off in 2007 when the FCC granted WPSJ the right to use

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver' ...

8 and build a digital signal. Engle made an investment of $150,000 to convert to digital transmission, and the station's potential audience grew to almost six million viewers.

Sale to Prime Time Partners, LLC

On December 19, 2012, Engle Broadcasting of

Cedar Brook, New Jersey Winslow Township is a township in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 39,907, an increase of 408 (+1.0%) from the 2010 census count of 39,499, which in turn refl ...

sold WPSJ-CD to WPSJ-CD Station, LLC, a subsidiary of

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-based Prime Time Partners. Earlier that year, an asset purchase agreement had been signed, as had a time brokerage agreement effective August 1. Two weeks later, the station changed programming to the new MundoFox Spanish-language network; Prime Time also owned stations in Boston and Tampa that converted to the service. Meanwhile, in June 2013, WPSJ relocated from channel 51 to channel 38 as part of a 2012 settlement with WPHA-CD, which moved from channel 38 to 24. MundoFox, which had changed its name to MundoMax after Fox withdrew from the venture, closed on December 1, 2016. By then, WPSJ-CD was airing a series of other national digital multicast television networks on its subchannels.

HC2 ownership

Prime Time Partners sold WPSJ-CD for $1.7 million to HC2 Holdings in 2018. The station was an affiliate of HC2-owned

until that service closed on December 31, 2022.

Subchannels

References

{{HC2 Holdings PSJ-CD Television channels and stations established in 1986 PSJ-CD Low-power television stations in the United States Innovate Corp. 1986 establishments in New Jersey