WZRA-CD (channel 48) is a low-power,

Class A television station The class A television service is a system for regulating some low-power television (LPTV) stations in the United States. Class A stations are denoted by the broadcast callsign suffix "-CA" (analog) or "-CD" (digital), although very many analog - ...

licensed to

Oldsmar, Florida Oldsmar is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 14,898. The Oldsmar name dates to April 12, 1916, when automobile pioneer Ransom E. Olds purchased of land north of Tampa Bay to e ...

, United States, serving ethnic groups in the

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater i ...

area. The station carries a variety of mostly news-oriented programming from broadcasters outside the United States, in several languages. In

Pinellas County Pinellas County (, ) is located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 959,107, making it the seventh-most populous county in the state. It is also the most d ...

, WZRA-CD is available on WOW!

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

channel 122 and on

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

digital channel 948. WZRA is also on channel 24 on Verizon FiOS throughout the market, as far south as

Sarasota County Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, F ...

. The station also offers a live feed of its programming on the Internet.

History

When the station signed on in the late-1990s, channel 48 went by the translator-style

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

W48AY, and used the moniker 'Bay TV'. When the station became a Class A station in the early 2000s, the call sign changed to WZRA-CA, as allocated by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC). WZRA originally had its transmitter in Oldsmar, broadcasting at 41.7 kW. They since relocated to facilities near the corner of

US 19 U.S. Route 19 or U.S. Highway 19 (US 19) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the Eastern United States. Despite encroaching Interstate Highways, the route has remained a long-haul road, connecting the Gulf of Mex ...

and Palmetto Road in Port Richey, broadcasting from a 150 kW transmitter covering west Pasco and southwestern Hernando counties, but with reduced coverage in Hillsborough County and central Pinellas County. They have since filed a construction permit to

flash cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive di ...

channel 48 to a digital signal, still broadcasting from Port Richey, but at 15 kW. On July 8, 2015, this construction permit was granted. , WZRA-CD only broadcast programming on channel 48.3.

Programming

Most of WZRA's programming is in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, aimed at the Greek audience in

Tarpon Springs Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. Downtown Tarpon Springs has long been a focal point and underwent beautification in 2010. It is part of the Tampa Bay area. The population was 25,117 at the 2020 census. As of ...

, but the channel also offers programming in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and English. WZRA also presents daily newscasts from

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

(from ERT), which (reflecting the station's Greek ownership) makes up the majority of the station's evening, overnight and Sunday programming. The station carries programs from the national broadcasters in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

( RT) and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

(

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

) as well as local news from

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televisio ...

, aimed at Canadian "

snowbirds Snowbird may refer to: Places * Snowbird, Utah, an unincorporated area and associated ski resort in the United States * Snowbird Lake, a lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada * Snowbird Glacier, a hanging alpine glacier in the Talkeetna Moun ...

". WZRA carried newscasts from the

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned List of Canadian ...

in the early 21st century; they also carried

Dini Petty Dini Petty (born January 15, 1945) is a Canadians, Canadian television and radio host. At 22, wearing a trademark pink jumpsuit and working for Toronto radio station CHKT (AM), CKEY, she became the first female traffic reporter to pilot her own h ...

's CTV talk show, via NTV, until CTV canceled the series' repeats in the early 2000s. The station carries general entertainment programs from

YTA TV YTA TV (an initialism for its former full name, Youtoo America; commonly referred to as just YTA) is an American television network which originally launched in February 1985 as a cable channel. Unusual for a network of its type, it has had mult ...

during the morning hours between Monday and Saturday.

Bright House dispute in Tarpon Springs

Until mid-February 2006, WZRA was seen on Bright House channel 15 in the Tarpon Springs area. WZRA was then replaced with Tarpon Springs' local government channel, which, at its debut, was mainly a promo loop for an upcoming municipal election, plus live City Commission meetings. Prior to December 2007 (when all local public service channels moved to the digital tier), Bright House allocated channel 15 for local

government-access television In the United States, government-access television (GATV) is a type of specialty television channel created by government entities (generally local governments) and broadcast over cable TV systems or, in some cases, over-the-air broadcast t ...

in Pinellas County, and had given that slot to WZRA on an interim basis, until Tarpon Springs started their own channel. With WZRA being a low-power station, Bright House was not obligated to carry the channel. Since being dropped, WZRA received thousands of calls in support of the station, especially from the Greek community. WZRA's station manager, Angelos Angelatos, urged viewers to call Bright House, as well as its vice president, Mike Robertson, direct. Angelatos and his brother, talk show host Sam Angelatos, said that Bright House's discontinuation of WZRA was a form of discrimination, favoring the Hispanic community with four

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

channels, while ignoring and mistreating other ethnic groups. In July 2006, Bright House gave WZRA a permanent home, on digital channel 948 in northern Pinellas County. WZRA was slated to be dropped from Bright House by the end of April 2011. , however, the station is still part of the Bright House line-up. Despite the transmitter relocation to Port Richey, in Pasco County, WZRA is still only carried on Spectrum cable in northern Pinellas County.Pe
Zap2it
ZIP codes 34652 (

New Port Richey New Port Richey is a city in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburban city included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was counted at 16,728 in the 2020 census. History ...

) and 33756 ( Clearwater).

References

External links

* {{Other Florida Stations 1990s establishments in Florida CTV Television Network stations Foreign-language television stations in the United States German-American culture in Florida German-language television stations Greek-American culture in Florida Greek-language television stations Italian-American culture in Florida Italian-language television stations ZRA Non-English-language television stations in Florida ZRA-CD

History

Programming

Bright House dispute in Tarpon Springs

See also

References

External links