WAST-LP

WAST-LP (channel 25) was a low-power television station in Ashland, Wisconsin, United States. The station was a semi-satellite of the UPN-affiliated second digital subchannel of KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minnesota, then-called Northland UPN and Northland 9, but was owned by a separate entity, Martinsen Investments. WAST-LP sold local advertising specifically for the Ashland area, preempting KBJR-DT2's advertising breaks.

WAST-LP

Ashland, Wisconsin United States
Channels	Analog: 25 (UHF)
Branding	True North TV-25
Programming
Affiliations	America One (1997–2005) UPN (2005–2006)
Ownership
Owner	Martinsen Investments (True North T.V. 25 LLC)
History
Founded	January 12, 1995
First air date	May 14, 1997 (1997-05-14)
Last air date	August 1, 2006 (2006-08-01) (9 years, 79 days) (license canceled on January 3, 2014)
Former call signs	W25CA (1995–2000)
Call sign meaning	Wisconsin Ashland Television
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	8612
Class	TX
ERP	52 kW
HAAT	163 m (535 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	46°41′16.98″N 90°54′23.05″W
Links
Public license information	LMS

Since 1997, WAST-LP had been owned by Superior Water Logged Lumber. It struggled financially. A 2001 attempt to sell the station to ESI Broadcasting Corporation of Montana failed; ESI hoped to combine the station with KDUL-LP, then Duluth's UPN affiliate.^[2] The station then went off the air.^[3]

In December 2005, Hank Martinsen and Julie Nuutinen put WAST-LP back on the air. The station featured two daily newscasts focusing on Wisconsin-area news. It had news sharing agreements with KBJR-TV and KUWS radio in Superior.^[3] The effort was short-lived. On May 2, news director Julie Moravchik was fired; she claimed she was dismissed for not making ownership-ordered staffing cuts. Newsroom employees refused to work for anyone else; 10 of them were fired the following day. To fill the void, newscast replays from KDLH-TV, commonly operated with KBJR, were added to the station's programming.^[4] Moravchik was then hired to set up the newsroom at KQDS-TV in Duluth.^[5]

On August 1, 2006, the station ended operations and went off the air, a month short of KBJR-DT2's conversion to MyNetworkTV. Despite being off the air for eight years, long after most stations licenses are canceled for not broadcasting, WAST-LP's license remained active until January 3, 2014, when its previous license to broadcast was fully exhausted.^[6]