WEBR-CD (2009–2018)
On September 16, 2009, the call sign was changed to WEBR-CD. The religious format stayed mostly the same except the station ID was classified as "WEBR 17 New York", while WEBR-CD 17 was only used on 17.2, re-branding as KTV.
As a condition for its continued operation on Channel 17, WEBR-CD cannot cause harmful interference to operations on Channel 16, as frequencies on that channel are used for public safety communications systems within New York City. The station has an agreement with the New York Metropolitan Advisory Committee (NYMAC) that requires any operation on Channel 17 to be reduced or ceased should any interference occur to the public safety operations. Any proposed modifications to the respective operations by either the NYMAC or Channel 17 must be made known to the other party, and responses from the other party must be included within such public filings.
WEBR-CD operates at significantly less wattage than its analog predecessor. It also operates with a stringent mask filter, which reduces emissions so the channel 17 signal will not exceed -123 DBM within the NYMAC assigned spectrum.
On March 20, 2012, K Licensee Inc., agreed to sell WEBR-CD to OTA Broadcasting, a company controlled by Michael Dell's MSD Capital, for $6.6 million. On April 30, 2012, the license was officially transferred.[1] The deal closed on June 15, 2012.[2] Prior to the transfer of ownership of OTA Broadcasting, the GCN format stayed the same for a couple of months before being taken off the air in 2013. With GCN moving to sub channel 17.3, another format was added and it is currently airing infomercials. Later in 2013, it switched to the Universal Affiliates Network, which airs movies, local programming, religious programming, and mostly infomercials during the day. In 2015, WEBR moved to digital channel 49 for the first time in 32 years.
In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s incentive auction, WEBR-CD sold its spectrum for $72,817,599 and indicated that it would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[3] On October 30, 2017, the station entered into a channel sharing agreement with WNET (channel 13);[4] concurrently, OTA Broadcasting agreed to donate the WEBR license to WNET.[5] The donation was completed on December 22, 2017;[6] the next day, WEBR-CD was taken off the air while WNET prepared to move the shared transmitter to the World Trade Center.[7]
