On March 24, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) canceled WAZE's license for failure to construct its full-power digital facility.
As a result, despite its 2.7 million watt ERP, the channel 19 signal provided only grade B ("rimshot") coverage of Evansville itself, and was practically unviewable north and east of the city.
After WEVV-TV, which signed on a month later, became a charter Fox affiliate in 1987, WLCN was the only over-the-air source of non-network programming in the Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area for 11 years.
On May 20, 1986, the station attempted to erect a new transmission tower at a site near Earlington in order to expand signal reach, but it collapsed during construction due to unknown causes.
[4]: 317 South Central Communications, based in Evansville, acquired the station on September 18, 1997, for $5 million to convert it into a commercial general entertainment outlet.
[6] A few weeks later on November 1 of that year, it became affiliated with The WB, and changed its call letters to WWAZ-TV, activating a network of repeaters to better cover the Evansville market.
In mid-2007, Roberts moved the station's master control to company flagship WRBU in St. Louis, leaving only a sales staff in Evansville.
The station's most recent biennial FCC ownership report, in 2010, listed only Roberts Broadcasting as the owner with no mention of the BGT transaction.
The company reached an agreement with 20th Television in the summer of 2010; however, in March 2011, CBS won its lawsuit against Roberts and was awarded a $1 million judgment.
By 2010, Evansville Courier & Press media columnist and Owensboro resident Jacob Newkirk reported that the station's digital signal had deteriorated to the point of unacceptability; the video often froze, skipped and shook.
However, the station never began construction on its full-power digital facility due to a number of issues, including difficulty acquiring land.
Despite the loss of its full-power signal, WAZE remained on several area cable systems, as well as the Evansville DirecTV and Dish Network feeds, for over a year.
However, Newkirk reported that the receiving equipment had been removed from the transmitter site, making it very unlikely that WAZE would return to the air in the foreseeable future.
Roberts had earlier proposed an alternate plan that would have transferred only the WAZE stations to the trust, with WRBU and WZRB being sold to Tri-State Christian Television.
The first is a sub-lease of the fourth digital subchannel of WTVW (channel 7), from station owner Mission Broadcasting and SSA partner Nexstar Media Group.
The second is the carriage of Ion's national feed on Spectrum channels 37 and 270 in Evansville, along with the major satellite providers (Wide Open West does not carry the network at all on its local systems).
[19] During the early 1990s, "WAZ TV 52" broadcast local Evansville high school varsity sports and NCAA games such as basketball, baseball, football, and soccer live and on delay.