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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesWSTA Talk Radio Off the Air Over Holiday Weekend

WSTA Talk Radio Off the Air Over Holiday Weekend

WSTA radio, home to several popular V.I. news and talk shows, is temporarily off the air, due to an ill-timed transmitter failure, and is likely to stay off the air until Monday or Tuesday, while awaiting parts, station officials say. The station is trying to diagnose and fix a second transmitter in hopes of returning to the air sooner.

Athniel “Addie” Ottley, president of station owner Ottley Communication Corporation, said Thursday that the parts have been ordered and should be in the Virgin Islands within days. In the meantime, the WSTA signal continues to be broadcast over the Internet at WSTA.com where the full normal broadcast can be heard, he said.

The station has two transmitters, but one, made by Harris Broadcast, was already out with a difficult-to-diagnose problem when the backup, made by Armstrong Transmitters, failed on Thursday, Ottley said.

Engineers are working to try to diagnose the problem with Harris to see if it can be made functional, but there is no guarantee it will work, he said.

"It’s been really frustrating. I can’t tell you the amount of calls we have had coming in asking what happened," he said. "We are trying everything we can, but at the very latest we will be back on early next week."

Go to www.wsta.com or vifocus.com to stream the radio station content online.

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