SYRACUSE -- Although it was granted FCC approval to sign-on in August, an observant CNYTVNews.com reader says a new station, WDSS-LD channel 38, appears to have just recently boosted to its authorized power of 15,000 watts. The station is carrying religious programming from Daystar Television Network.
The -LD suffix means the station is a low-power digital television station.
According to the FCC website, the station was granted its "license to cover," the final layer of approval for a new station license, in August. But according to a reader who identifies himself or herself as "The TV Whiz," over-the-air scans did not detect the channel until just this week.
The station appears to be a satellite of WNYI / Ithaca, though on-screen top-of-hour IDs appear with the city misspelled, as "WNYI Itaca." The station is licensed to Word of God Fellowship, Inc.
Here at CNYTVNews.com, your editor has just recently started tinkering with TV reception via antenna. A rescan of the spectrum here tonight didn't pull in WNYI. (But much to our surprise, WKTV comes in clear as a bell from Utica... go figure!)
WDSS seems to have disappeared last week; has it permanently left the air?
@cyberfrank - Not sure if you've checked back since you posted your comment. Had a chance to look into this for you and posted a new story today.
Haven't confirmed it, but my guess is that WDSS could have been shut down temporarily for the antenna work. The FCC website doesn't currently show any filings indicating any kind of long-term outages.
Thank you for the comment. I found the station on the air this morning; apparently its signal does not reach me reliably.