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WIAT (channel 42) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
in
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% f ...
, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
. The station's studios are located on Golden Crest Drive atop Red Mountain, next to the American General
candelabra tower A candelabra (plural candelabras) or candelabrum (plural candelabra or candelabrums) is a candle holder with multiple arms. Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to model light fixtures ...
it shares with several central Alabama broadcast outlets (near the southern edge of Birmingham).


History


Early history of UHF channel 42 in Birmingham

The history of the UHF channel 42 allocation in the Birmingham market traces back to 1949, when the Birmingham News Company, owners of ''
The Birmingham News ''The Birmingham News'' is the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The paper is owned by Advance Publications and was a daily newspaper from its founding through September 30, 2012. After that day, the ''News'' and its tw ...
'' and ''
Birmingham Age-Herald The ''Birmingham Post-Herald'' was a daily newspaper in Birmingham, Alabama, with roots dating back to 1850, before the founding of Birmingham. The final edition was published on September 23, 2005. In its last full year, its average daily circu ...
'' newspapers, applied for a
construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
with the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) for a television station
license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
under the call letters WSGN-TV (for the "South's Greatest Newspaper"), which would have served as a sister station to radio station WSGN (610 AM, now
WAGG WAGG (610 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Birmingham, Alabama. It is owned by SummitMedia and broadcasts an urban gospel radio format that targets Birmingham's African-American community. The studios and offices are in the Cahaba ...
; and 93.7 FM, now WDJC), owned by the ''News'' Southern Broadcasting subsidiary. The station partnered with The Voice of Alabama, Inc., owners of WAFM-TV (channel 13, later WABT and WAPI-TV, and now WVTM-TV), to construct a broadcast tower next to its newly completed studio facility on Red Mountain, adjacent to Vulcan Park; plans called for WSGN-TV to operate from the radio stations' Radio Park building. The application, however, faced multiple delays on its approval. The first such moratorium on the license approval resulted from a freeze on broadcast licenses that imposed by the FCC the previous summer; however Bascom Hopson, president and
general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
of WSGN radio, requested an extension to the agency's consideration of the license. At one point, Southern tried to forge a deal with the owners of
WCBI-TV WCBI-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Columbus, Mississippi, United States, serving the Columbus–Tupelo market as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV and The CW Plus. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station maintains studios on ...
in
Columbus, Mississippi Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Water ...
to forfeit its
VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 4 assignment in order to allow the allocation to be reassigned to Birmingham for use by the proposed station (the FCC reassigned the channel 4 frequency to Columbus in 1953, when
WBRC-TV WBRC (channel 6) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate WTBM-CD (channel 24). The two stations studios at ...
moved to channel 6 to alleviate signal interference issues with WSM-TV ow_WSMV-TV.html"_;"title="WSMV-TV.html"_;"title="ow_WSMV-TV">ow_WSMV-TV">WSMV-TV.html"_;"title="ow_WSMV-TV">ow_WSMV-TVin_Nashville,_Tennessee.html" "title="WSMV-TV">ow_WSMV-TV.html" ;"title="WSMV-TV.html" ;"title="ow WSMV-TV">ow WSMV-TV">WSMV-TV.html" ;"title="ow WSMV-TV">ow WSMV-TVin Nashville, Tennessee">Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...
). In 1954, months after the ''News'' decided to purchase WAFM-TV, Johnston Broadcasting – then-owners of radio stations WJLD (1400 AM) and WJLN-FM (104.7, now WZZK) – applied to launch a television station on UHF channel 48; after Southern Broadcasting's effort to acquire the channel 4 frequency failed, it sold the permit to Johnston in order for that group to operate its planned television station on the channel 42 frequency.


As WBMG

In 1956, Southern Broadcasting renewed its efforts to build a third commercial television station in Birmingham, when it formed a partnership with
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
film salesman-turned-investment banker Bill DuBois to file for a new construction permit. Although the new permit application was granted that year, the station's debut was delayed due to a shortage of broadcast transmission equipment following the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
and while the station unsuccessfully applied to have channel 4 moved to Birmingham. The station would not sign on the air until October 17, 1965, as WBMG (standing for Birmingham); the first program to air on channel 42 when it debuted at 5:30 p.m. that evening was
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's broadcast of ''The Capitol: Chronicle of Freedom''. It was owned by Birmingham Television Corporation, a consortium between DuBois and Southern Broadcasting in which DuBois held controlling interest. Many members of channel 42's early staff consisted of on-air personalities and other employees from WSGN radio, including Bill Bolen (who would later move to WBRC-TV), who served as one of WBMG's initial news anchors. As was the case at the time with most UHF television stations in markets served by at least two commercial VHF stations – in Birmingham's case, NBC affiliate WAPI-TV; and then- ABC affiliate WBRC-TV – WBMG experienced considerable competitive disadvantages from the outset that would plague the station for over 30 years. At the time of its sign-on, many households in the market did not have television sets capable of tuning into UHF broadcast signals without the aid of a converter. Television set manufacturers had only begun including UHF tuners built into the sets one year earlier, per a 1962 directive from the FCC. Even with a converter, the picture quality from UHF stations was marginal at best. The station's signal also left much to be desired. The Birmingham market is a fairly large market geographically, stretching across nearly the entire width of the state from near the
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
state line eastward to the
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
state line. Much of the terrain within this area is also hilly to mountainous, particularly in the eastern part of the state, which lies within the foothills of the
Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. The ...
. This was a major reason as to why it took longer for Birmingham to get a third television station in comparison to other cities of its size; on paper, the market's population had been large enough to support three full network affiliates since the 1950s. The FCC had actually allocated four VHF channels to what would become the Birmingham market. However, two of them, channels 7 and 10 were acquired by Alabama Educational Television (now Alabama Public Television) for its two original charter stations, WBIQ in Birmingham and WCIQ in Mount Cheaha. Both had signed on in 1955 and were donated to the Alabama Educational Television Commission by
Storer Broadcasting Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio 1927, and was broken up in 1986. History 1920s–1940s In 1927, George B. Storer ...
– which owned WBRC from 1953 to 1957 – both due to the company's support of
educational broadcasting Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...
and as an attempt to stave off additional commercial competition. At the time, most UHF signals did not travel nearly as far as their VHF counterparts, resulting in inadequate coverage, especially in rugged terrain. As a result, channel 42's coverage area was effectively limited to Birmingham itself and some inner-ring suburbs over Red Mountain. The station originally broadcast for four hours each evening, carrying a mix of
prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
programming from both CBS and NBC, before expanding its broadcast day from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. two weeks later on November 1, 1965. On paper, WBMG took the CBS affiliation from WAPI-TV. However, CBS continued to allow channel 13 to air some of its more popular programs, in part due to the aforementioned signal shortfalls with channel 42. WBMG was thus left with CBS'
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to event ...
programming and numerous lower-rated CBS shows. To help fill out its schedule, it also aired some NBC programs that WAPI-TV didn't carry. Among these programs was, strangely given its popularity elsewhere in the country, ''
The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
'', which WAPI would not clear until 1969 (albeit on a one-hour tape delay); as well as the infamous Heidi Game event between the
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
's
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...
and
New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The ...
in November 1968. One benefit, though, was that WBMG cleared the ''
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'', which began airing in Birmingham for the first time in over two years. After CBS and NBC expanded their evening news programs to 30 minutes in 1963, NBC's '' The Huntley-Brinkley Report'', which was carried by WAPI-TV, was the only national network newscast seen in Birmingham until channel 42 signed on (WBRC did not carry ABC's national newscast, '' John Daly and the News'' and its successors until September 1963). WBMG also carried certain locally produced and syndicated programs that aired on channel 13 (such as the
University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publ ...
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
coaches' program, '' The Bear Bryant Show''), which were rebroadcast on channel 42 in different time slots. Both WBMG and WAPI listed their affiliation as "CBS/NBC". One advantage that WBMG had over its rivals was that it was the first television station to be equipped for
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
broadcasts; at the time the station signed on, it had acquired a color film chain, specialized projection equipment that allowed it to air films and slides in color, although most of the station's cameras consisted of
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochr ...
equipment previously used by WBRC (which channel 42's original chief engineer worked for before being hired by WBMG). By 1970, though, WAPI's owners, the Newhouse family, opted to sign an exclusive affiliation contract with NBC, leaving WBMG to take a full-time CBS affiliation more or less by default; both stations became exclusive affiliates of the respective networks on May 31 of that year. With a poor signal, the lack of television sets with UHF tuning capability and two of the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
's oldest and most respected stations as its competitors, WBMG found the going very difficult. Due in part to WBMG's weak signal, CBS opted to affiliate with two other central Alabama stations, WCFT-TV (channel 33, now
Heroes & Icons Heroes & Icons (H&I) is an American digital broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Usually carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated television station in most markets, the network airs classic television series fr ...
affiliate WSES) in Tuscaloosa and WHMA-TV (channel 40, later WJSU-TV and now Heroes & Icons affiliate
WGWW WGWW (channel 40) is a television station licensed to Anniston, Alabama, United States, serving the eastern portion of the Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Hol ...
) in Anniston. WCFT signed on ten days after WBMG made its debut (WHMA would not sign on until October 1969), and the signals of both the Tuscaloosa and Anniston stations reached some households in Birmingham proper that had UHF rooftop antennas installed (WCFT and WHMA carried an identical selection of prime time programming from CBS and NBC as WBMG did when all three stations were dual affiliates of the two networks). Furthermore, CBS' decision to cancel many of its rural-oriented
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
s and
variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a co ...
s in 1971 – especially the
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
showcase ''
Hee Haw ''Hee Haw'' is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with the fictional rural "Kornfield Kounty" as the backdrop. It aired first-run on CBS from 1969 to 1971, in syndication from 1971 to 1993, and on TNN from 1 ...
'', and shows hosted by Sylacauga native
Jim Nabors James Thurston Nabors (June 12, 1930 – November 30, 2017) was an American actor, singer, and comedian, widely known for his signature character, Gomer Pyle. Nabors was discovered by Andy Griffith while working at a Santa Monica nightclub, an ...
– in order to comply with the Prime Time Access Rule, was a probable cause in hampering WBMG's ability to attract viewers in rural Alabama, where those programs were highly popular among viewers. For example, when ''Hee Haw'' returned as a syndicated program in the fall of 1971, it aired on WAPI because that station's longevity and larger audience made it more attractive to the show's producer, Youngestreet Productions. However, many of WBMG's problems were of its own making. For instance, its newscasts were widely perceived as unprofessional. Still, WBMG gained publicity in Central Alabama for some locally produced shows, such as live studio wrestling, and the children's program ''Sergeant Jack'' (which aired weekdays on the station from November 1965 to September 1976, before being relegated to weekends from that point until June 1982), hosted by former WSGN
disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobil ...
Neal Miller, who donned a sheriff's deputy uniform for the character (which was named by Jack Caddell, founder of Homewood-based
fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredie ...
chain Jack's Hamburgers, which sponsored the show); Miller would be sworn in by then- Jefferson County Sheriff Mel Bailey (with whom Caddell collaborated with in developing the Sergeant Jack character) as an honorary deputy, as a prerequisite to be allowed to wear the official Jefferson County Sheriff's uniform on-air and in promotional appearances. The program revolved around
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (character), Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''De ...
and Mr. Magoo cartoon shorts, and incorporated wraparound segments in which Miller interacted with various
puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move ...
characters; typical for children's programs of its day, it also featured a studio audience made up of
elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
-aged children (by the time the program ended, the audience had been dropped, with Miller simply sitting in front of a curtain and providing introductions to the cartoons). The station also assumed the local rights to the '' Romper Room'' preschool program franchise from WAPI-TV in June 1970; the second host of the Birmingham version, former teacher Carol Aldy, remained with the program after its move to channel 42, before she was replaced that September by Rita Sparling, who hosted the show until it ended in June 1971.
Mother Angelica Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation (born Rita Antoinette Rizzo; April 20, 1923 – March 27, 2016), also known as Mother Angelica, was an American Roman Catholic nun of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. She was best known for the ...
– who, in 1981, would launch a
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
-oriented
cable network Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, o ...
based in Irondale, the
Eternal Word Television Network The Eternal Word Television Network, more commonly known by its initials EWTN, is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic-themed programming. It is not only the largest Catholic television network in ...
(EWTN) – began her career by taping faith-related programs at the WBMG studios for distribution on the station and other broadcast outlets. DuBois and Southern Broadcasting tried vigorously to increase channel 42's signal coverage area and the quality of its local programming production, first by constructing a transmission tower that operated at 1.2 million watts in 1969. Next, they built a larger studio facility for the station on Golden Crest Drive, atop Red Mountain, where the studios of WBRC and WAPI were also located. However, this did not significantly improve the station's situation, likely prompting DuBois and Southern to sell WBMG to
Park Communications Roy Hampton Park (15 September 1910 – 25 October 1993) was an American media executive and entrepreneur. He is known for creating the Duncan Hines brand of packaged food products, and for his television/radio/newspaper conglomerate, Park Commun ...
for $5.5 million in 1973, becoming its tenth station and bringing that company to the FCC's national television station ownership limit at the time. Park significantly boosted the station's signal, erecting yet another new tower in 1974. Even still, WBMG's signal remained rather weak after the signal boost, effectively limiting its coverage area to Birmingham itself, Jefferson County, and close-in suburbs in Chilton and Shelby counties. This came back to haunt the station when cable arrived in Birmingham later in the 1970s. While this should have eliminated the disadvantage of being a UHF station serving such a large market, many cable providers in the western and eastern portions of the market refused to pick up channel 42 because its signal in those areas was weak to the point of unacceptability. With this in mind, CBS retained affiliations with WCFT and WHMA/WJSU, which regularly trounced WBMG in the ratings for their respective regions. This was especially true in Anniston since WBMG's signal did not cover east-central portions of Alabama well at all during that period, because of the higher elevations of the Appalachian foothills. What little market share WBMG had accrued in those areas dwindled even further when
Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...
separated Tuscaloosa and Anniston into separate markets (despite the fact that WCFT, WJSU and WCIQ were the only television stations in either market, which were otherwise served by the three VHF stations out of Birmingham) in 1977. Even when local news programming returned to the station in 1987 after a seven-year hiatus, WBMG had no luck whatsoever competing with WVTM-TV and WBRC in news or sign-on to sign-off viewership, leading many industry insiders to deem Birmingham a ''de facto'' two-station market. Channel 42 was perennially one of CBS' weakest affiliates, in marked contrast to its competitors, which were two of their networks' strongest affiliates. It even trailed WTTO (channel 21, now a CW affiliate), an
independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, marke ...
, and later a Fox affiliate, that had only been on the air since April 1982. By some measures, it was the weakest major-network affiliate in the nation. The station's performance was so weak that, by the early 1990s, WBMG was only ahead of another independent station, WABM (channel 68, now a
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
affiliate), in the Birmingham ratings. In many cases, A. C. Nielsen couldn't even rate CBS' programs in Birmingham, since the sample sizes were too small to generate a rating. To absolve ownership conflicts caused by its near-concurrent purchases of WVTM and WBRC,
New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
decided to establish an outside
trust company A trust company is a corporation that acts as a fiduciary, trustee or agent of trusts and agencies. A professional trust company may be independently owned or owned by, for example, a bank or a law firm, and which specializes in being a trust ...
that it would place WBRC into, with the intent to sell the station to Fox's television station subsidiary,
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Co ...
, on October 12, 1994; Fox, in turn, planned to convert WBRC into an
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
of the network (New World had signed an affiliation agreement with Fox in May 1994, to switch most of the television stations it already owned or was in the process of acquiring from Argyle Communications and Citicasters to the network, but exempted WVTM from the agreement due to its sale of WBRC to Fox); however, ABC's affiliation with that station did not expire until August 31, 1996, forcing Fox to continue to run WBRC as an ABC affiliate, while that network sought another station to become its new affiliate for central Alabama. ABC initially approached WTTO, which was about to lose its Fox affiliation to WBRC. However, WTTO was not willing to build a news department; at the time, its owner,
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...
, did not budget for local news programming on its non- Big Three stations. It was only willing to carry ABC's prime time and
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
programming. Knowing that it was about to be displaced from a station that had dominated the ratings for over 30 years, ABC wanted to affiliate with a station that at least had a functioning news department. With this in mind, ABC approached WBMG for a deal. Despite channel 42's anemic ratings, ABC saw enough promise that it even offered to buy WBMG outright; instead, for undisclosed reasons, Park Communications signed a long-term affiliation deal with CBS. In January 1996, ABC signed an affiliation agreement with Allbritton Communications for its newly acquired stations, WCFT-TV and WJSU-TV (the latter of which Allbritton had agreed to operate under a local marketing agreement with then-owner Osborne Communications Corporation weeks prior), which developed a unique arrangement in which both would combine their operations to act as full-powered
satellites A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...
of low-power station W58CK (channel 58, now WBMA-LD), whose signal did not extend outside of Jefferson and Shelby counties. The arrangement was made because WCFT and WJSU would not be counted in Nielsen ratings reports for Birmingham, since Tuscaloosa and Anniston were separate markets, which would have prevented ABC programming in the market from being counted toward the network's national viewership counts. At that time the switch took place on September 1, 1996, CBS decided to affiliate with another central Alabama station, WNAL-TV (channel 44, now
Ion Television Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented en ...
O&O
WPXH-TV WPXH-TV (channel 44) is a television station licensed to Hoover, Alabama, United States, serving the Birmingham area as an affiliate of Ion Television. The station is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, and maintains offices on Golden Crest Drive ...
) in Gadsden, a former Fox affiliate and one-time repeater of WTTO's Tuscaloosa satellite WDBB (channel 17), which had decent coverage of the eastern portions of the Birmingham area as well as eastern Alabama.


Sale to Media General and callsign change to WIAT

In 1997, Park Communications was sold to
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
-based Media General. However, the new ownership brought no change to the station's flagging ratings. By late 1997, WBMG's market share had dropped to a mere 1%, leaving it significantly behind not only WBRC, WVTM and WBMA-LP, but also WTTO and even behind WABM at times (the latter two stations did not air any news programming at the time). Per an agreement with CBS, which had become increasingly concerned about its lackluster performance in a fast-growing market, Media General invested millions of dollars into turning WBMG's fortunes around. As a first step, Media General boosted WBMG's overall transmitting power to 5 million watts, the highest level allowed by the FCC for a VHF station. This finally gave the station a coverage area comparable to those of WBRC and WVTM. The upgrades made by Media General also allowed channel 42 to become the first television station in the market to broadcast a digital television signal, and effectively, the first to broadcast network programming in high definition, an accomplishment that was important to Media General as it fought the wide perception among viewers and those in the media industry that the station had a weak signal. In order to signify a new start as channel 42 prepared to reboot its news department (see below), Media General also applied to change the station's callsign to WIAT (for "It's About Time", the station's new slogan) on February 1, 1998. One month earlier, Eric Land, whom the group hired as the station's general manager, fired all but one member of its news department staff and replaced channel 42's evening newscasts with a countdown clock to signal the forthcoming relaunch of the station as WIAT on February 5 (the WBMG call letters are now used by a low-power station on UHF channel 38 in Moody). On that date, preceding the debut of its relaunched 5:00 p.m. newscast under the new ''42 Daily News'' format, Land appeared in the parking lot outside the station's studios just before the countdown clock expired speaking to an unseen audience of Birmingham-area community leaders on the meaning behind the station's relaunch, before throwing a switch that blew up an image of the logo WBMG had been using since the fall of 1995 to unveil the new WIAT logo. Further allowing WIAT to be able to gain some footing in other parts of central Alabama, Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) chose not to renew WPXH's contract with CBS and cede the network's rights in central Alabama to WIAT in January 1999, in preparation of turning channel 44 into the Pax TV (now Ion Television) owned-and-operated outlet for all of Central Alabama. In 2003, Bill Ballard, who took over as WIAT's president and general manager, forged a new path for the station which included numerous changes to its newscasts and programming including the acquisition of a stronger slate of syndicated programs (such as ''
Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...
'', ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'' and ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American first-run syndicated news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Paramount Streaming. ET also airs in Aus ...
'') and a much more aggressive approach to its news coverage. The moves which were implemented dramatically altered the landscape of Central Alabama television, and allowed channel 42 to become a factor in the local ratings for the first time in the station's history. At that time, WIAT discontinued all references to its callsign and erstwhile slogan, "It's About Time," within its on-air branding, instead concentrating on establishing the station's association with CBS and restructuring the news department's focus towards more in-depth investigative reporting.


New Vision Television ownership

On April 6, 2006,
NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...
announced that it would sell WVTM-TV and three of its other smaller-market owned-and-operated stations –
WJAR-TV WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-ope ...
in
Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
, WCMH-TV in
Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
, and WNCN in
Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Sout ...
– to Media General for $600 million. As the FCC media ownership regulations for television duopolies prohibit broadcasting companies from owning two of the four highest-rated television stations within the same media market, Media General subsequently announced that it would it seek a buyer for its existing station in the Birmingham–Tuscaloosa–Anniston market, WIAT, and acquire WVTM, which at the time was the higher rated of the two stations in terms of total day viewership. The FCC subsequently granted the company a temporary waiver of its ownership rules that allowed it to keep both WVTM and WIAT for six months after the purchase of the former was completed; Media General's purchase of all four stations was finalized on June 26, 2006. On August 2, Media General announced that it had sold WIAT and fellow CBS affiliate
KIMT KIMT (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Mason City, Iowa, United States, serving North Central Iowa and Southeast Minnesota as an affiliate of CBS and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on ...
in
Mason City, Iowa Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro G ...
to
New Vision Television New Vision Television was a broadcast company based in Santa Monica, California. Throughout its two decade plus history, the company owned or managed over 60 television stations in large and medium-sized markets. History New Vision I Formed by ...
for $35 million; the sale was finalized on October 12, 2006. The extensive changes that helped WIAT become a ratings force in the market in the latter years under Media General ownership continued as a New Vision-owned station. Under New Vision, channel 42 saw some of its largest ratings increases in the station's history. It is now one of the strongest CBS affiliates in the nation, after spending the better part of its history as one of the weakest. WIAT has particularly benefited from the network's broadcasts of
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
games from the
Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...
, which garner higher ratings on channel 42 than on any other station in the country. SEC game telecasts, particularly those involving the Alabama Crimson Tide and
Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associ ...
, are among the highest-rated programs in Birmingham during the
NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...
football season, typically delivering higher ratings in the market than network telecasts of the
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...
; this includes the Iron Bowl rivalry game between Alabama and Auburn, which – through CBS – has aired on WIAT for all but three years since 2000. In the summer of 2009, the station upgraded its
master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as swi ...
facilities to allow the transmission of pre-recorded syndicated programming in high definition, with some station promotions beginning to be broadcast in the format by September 2009.


LIN Media ownership

On May 7, 2012,
LIN Media LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in In ...
announced that it would purchase the New Vision Television stations, including WIAT, for $330.4 million, in a deal under which the company would also assume $12 million in New Vision's corporate debt. The FCC approved the sale on October 2, and the transaction was finalized ten days later on October 12; as a result, WIAT became a sister station to LIN's Mobile duopoly of Fox affiliate
WALA-TV WALA-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Mobile, Alabama, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for southwest Alabama and northwest Florida. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Satchel Paige Drive ...
and CW affiliate WFNA, both of which had been purchased by LIN from
Emmis Communications Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which h ...
in 2006.


Second stint under Media General

On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it had entered into an agreement to merge with LIN Media in a $1.6 billion deal. As a result, due in part to the same FCC duopoly restrictions based on total day viewership that prompted Media General to sell WIAT to New Vision eight years earlier, Media General was once again required to sell either WIAT or WVTM to another station owner in order to comply with FCC ownership rules. In this situation, the sales that Media General and LIN voluntarily chose to conduct in Birmingham and four other markets were also in response to the FCC's plan to restrict sharing agreements involving two or more television stations in the same market. On May 12, 2014, when it unveiled a new proprietary graphics and imaging package, WIAT dropped the "CBS 42" brand after eleven years in favor of a callsign-based branding as "WIAT 42"; the station would later combine the latter moniker with a restored "CBS 42" brand (as "WIAT CBS 42") in May 2015, initially in the form of verbal identification during newscasts and station promotions. On August 20, 2014, Media General announced that it would reacquire WIAT and sell WVTM, along with ABC affiliate WJCL in
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, to
Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications. From 1998 to mid-2009, the company traded its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ...
; the sale made WIAT a sister station to Mobile's CBS affiliate WKRG-TV (an existing Media General station which formed a new duopoly with WFNA after LIN chose to sell WALA-TV to the
Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
due to similar ownership conflicts as those involving WIAT and WVTM). Media General completed its merger with LIN on December 19, making WIAT a Media General property for the second time; Hearst closed on its purchase of WVTM and WJCL three days later on December 22.


Sale to Nexstar

On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the
Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...
-based Meredith Corporation for $2.4 billion with the intention to name the combined group Meredith Media General once the sale was finalized. However, on September 28,
Irving, Texas Irving is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in Dallas County, it is also an inner ring suburb of Dallas. The city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. According to a 2019 estimate from the United States Census Bureau ...
-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group made an unsolicited cash-and-stock merger offer for Media General, originally valued at $14.50 per share. On November 16, following opposition to the merger with Meredith by minority shareholders
Oppenheimer Holdings Oppenheimer Holdings is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company offering investment banking, financial advisory services, capital markets services, asset management, wealth management, and related pro ...
and Starboard Capital (primarily because Meredith's magazine properties were included in the deal, which would have re-entered Media General into publishing after it sold its newspapers to
BH Media Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premi ...
in 2012 to reduce debt) and the rejection of Nexstar's initial offer by company management, Media General agreed to enter into negotiations with Nexstar on a suitable counter deal, while the Meredith merger proposal remained active; the two eventually concluded negotiations on January 6, 2016, reaching a merger agreement for valued at $17.14 per share (an evaluation of $4.6 billion, plus the assumption of $2.3 billion in debt). On January 27, Meredith formally broke off the proposed merger with Media General and accepted the termination fee of $60 million previously negotiated under the original merger proposal; Media General subsequently signed an agreement to be acquired by Nexstar (with the combined company to be known as Nexstar Media Group), in exchange for giving Meredith
right of first refusal Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transactio ...
to acquire any broadcast or digital properties that may be divested. As of the completion of the sale on January 17, 2017, WIAT was under common ownership with two other Alabama stations that are already owned by Nexstar outright, dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate
WZDX WZDX (channel 54) is a television station in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on North Memorial Parkway (US 72/ 231/ 431) in Huntsville, and its transmit ...
in the adjacent
Huntsville Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...
market (which Nexstar sold to
Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...
in March 2019 to acquire CBS affiliate WHNT-TV through the company's purchase of
Tribune Media Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
) and ABC affiliate WDHN in Dothan.


Programming

WIAT carries the entire CBS programming schedule; however, it broadcasts the network's Saturday morning programming out of pattern, airing '' CBS Saturday Morning'' after the network's educational program block, '' CBS Dream Team''; the station also airs the third hour of the Dream Team lineup on Sunday mornings on tape delay following the weekend edition of ''Wake Up Alabama''. Syndicated programming broadcast by WIAT () includes ''Dr. Phil'', '' Madam Secretary'', ''Entertainment Tonight'' and ''Jeopardy!''. Birmingham is one of the few U.S. markets to air ''Jeopardy!'' and its sister game show ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or '' Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art * ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-J ...
'' on separate stations; ''Wheel'' airs on ABC affiliate WBMA-LD.


Sports programming

WIAT serves as the ''de facto''
flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...
of
Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a me ...
athletics, due to CBS's broadcast rights to Southeastern Conference football and basketball games, and a deal between the station and the University of Alabama in which channel 42 serves as the primary broadcast partner for all team-related programming including the Tide coaches' show, ''The
Nick Saban Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. (; born October 31, 1951) is an American football coach who has been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphi ...
Football Show'', the magazine program ''Tide TV This Week'' (most other Tide-related programs produced by the university's Tide TV production unit are broadcast in the market on university-owned
This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally f ...
affiliate WVUA-CD hannel 7and its satellite WVUA hannel 23in Tuscaloosa); the station also produces locally produced Tide-related programs under the
umbrella title An umbrella title is a formal or informal name connecting a number of individual items with a common theme. It is most often used in lieu of listing the separate components or providing a convenient "label" for a collection of disciplines. Uses of ...
''Red Zone'', consisting of a weekly analysis program on Friday and Saturday nights as well as pre-game and post-game shows during the college football season.


News operation

, WIAT presently broadcasts 31 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).


News department history

As WBMG, channel 42's newscasts consistently languished at (an often distant) third place among the Birmingham market's television news operations. In addition to its aforementioned reception problems, the news department had a reputation for being short of professional standards. According to local legends, the station's newscasts often – inadvertently or not – became comedy shows. Examples of this include Tommy Charles (a local radio personality formerly with WSGN and WAQY, who served as a sports anchor for WBMG during the mid-1970s) wadding up scripts and tossing them over his shoulder during the sports segment after he read them, as well as even letting deflating balloons fly around the set for no apparent reason. Under Park Communications ownership, the station made concerted moves to professionalize its newscasts; under general manager Hugh Smith, it hired Thom Gossom as lead anchor, and acquired the first color remote vehicle in Birmingham (which incorporated equipment originally purchased in 1972 for its broadcasts of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church's weekly services). These efforts led to little success in increasing its ratings, leading WBMG to discontinue long-form local news programming in 1980. For the next seven years, it aired syndicated shows at both 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. The only news programming that aired on channel 42 during this time consisted of hourly cut-ins during regular programming. WBMG re-established a full-fledged news department in 1987, but its newscasts barely registered much higher than hashmarks (less than one ratings share point) in the ratings. The station managed to make a name for itself while John Harrod served as its
news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ...
from 1990 to 1995. Harrod built a very aggressive and hard-hitting news department concentrating exclusively on local stories and investigative reporting. It also gradually expanded its news programming, adding two additional newscasts at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekdays by 1995. The station won a number of awards from the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
for its reporting during Harrod's tenure. Indeed, when ABC began putting out feelers for a new affiliate in Birmingham, it seriously considered buying WBMG outright due to the performance of its news department. However, critical acclaim was not rewarded with a ratings win. Despite making a more credible effort than before, WBMG's newscasts barely registered as a blip in the ratings, lagging well behind WBRC and WVTM. It even fell to fourth shortly after the WBMA trimulcast launched its news department after it took over the ABC affiliation from WBRC when that station switched to Fox in September 1996. At one point in 1997, the station's news programming scored less than a 1% ratings share, with its 10:00 p.m. newscast scoring lower ratings than reruns of ''
Sanford and Son ''Sanford and Son'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the British sitcom '' Steptoe and Son'', which initially aired on BBC One in the Unit ...
'' on WABM. A few months after Media General took over the station following its merger with Park Communications, newly appointed general manager Eric Land decided to completely reboot the news department. On December 12, 1997, Land announced to station employees that the bulk of channel 42's news staff, totaling 21 employees (eight anchors and thirteen other on-air and production staff members, including all of the station's on-air reporters and several producers and editors), would be laid off. The late newscast on December 31 would be its last newscast as WBMG. On
January 1 January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the ye ...
, 1998, Land temporarily suspended the news department, cancelling the station's morning and evening newscasts. All of the remaining members of channel 42's news staff were fired, with the exception of weekend sports anchor Sam Smith. Over the next month, channel 42 rebuilt its news department from scratch with input from focus groups and market research. During that time, the station began filling the 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. time slots respectively with religious and syndicated programming; meanwhile, it also showed a much-talked-about slide of a computer-animated digital countdown clock during the 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. half-hours, where newscasts would air once the department was relaunched. During this time, the station sent coverage of the January 29 bombing of the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham's Southside neighborhood by Eric Rudolph to
CBS Newspath CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morning'', ''60 Minutes'', and '' 48 Ho ...
, CNN, and stations in neighboring markets, even though it did not have a formal news department at the time. The new format debuted on February 5, 1998 – coinciding with CBS's broadcast of the opening ceremonies of the
Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
– under the title ''42 Daily News''. Land had overseen less drastic relaunches during earlier stints at
WEYI-TV WEYI-TV (channel 25), branded on-air as NBC 25, is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, which maintains a shared services a ...
in
Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greate ...
and WGRZ-TV in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
. However, in an interview with the ''
American Journalism Review The ''American Journalism Review'' (''AJR'') was an American magazine covering topics in journalism. It was launched in 1977 as the ''Washington Journalism Review'' by journalist Roger Kranz. It ceased publication in 2015. History and profile Th ...
'', Land later said that the decision to overhaul the news department in such a dramatic manner was because, even with its Associated Press award wins earlier in the decade, the station's research "found that our people were so closely identified with a poorly performing product that we had to create a new brand and start over again." Television news analyst Don Fitzpatrick called the drastic changes an "extremely rare ..act of desperation". The timing of the relaunch was chosen for a reason; partly due to the merger of WCFT, WJSU and WBMA-LP into Birmingham's ABC affiliate two years earlier, Nielsen collapsed the previously separate Tuscaloosa and Anniston-Gadsden markets back into the Birmingham market. The move, which took effect in September 1998, resulted in the newly re-enlarged market jumping twelve spots on Nielsen's annual media market rankings at one stroke (from 51st to 39th place). At the same time, Nielsen converted Birmingham to a metered market in the fall of 1998 for ratings purposes. The rebooted newscasts initially did not employ any on-air reporters. Instead, in a style similar to the modern-day multimedia journalist concept, the station used crews of photographers with either reporters or field producers, and one-man bands, to produce and edit stories, in an approach that emphasized content over personalities. All stories were narrated by the anchors, echoing the manner in which most television stations provided reports during their newscasts well into the 1960s. Designed as "news for busy people," the station imposed strict time limits on story packages, with all segments structured in the form of "news minutes" (such as "Top Story in a Minute," "Weather Minute," "Neighborhood Minute" and a "2-Minute Drill" sportscast) in order to be able to incorporate a broad array of local, national and international stories and feature segments within each half-hour newscast. One anchor manned the news desk, while the other read stories from various places on the new set.
Al Primo Albert Thomas Primo (July 3, 1935 – September 29, 2022) was an American television news executive who was credited with creating the ''Eyewitness News'' format. More than a hundred markets have taken the ''Eyewitness News'' name to label their ...
, who created the "
Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness Ne ...
" format at
KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
back in 1965, delivered sharp criticism of what he felt was "a product that was generated solely by research and implemented by people who don't know anything about the news business" and "the most disjointed presentation f a newscastthat I have ever seen in my life". Land responded to Primo's scathing remarks by comparing the format to the '' Al Schottelkotte News'', a longtime staple of
WCPO-TV WCPO-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer ...
in
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...
from the 1960s until 1990, for which he had been a reporter: " he Al Schottelkotte Newswas very nontraditional, but jam-packed with information." The new anchor team was mostly made up of talent who had not previously worked in the Birmingham market. Original co-anchor Keith Cate – who co-anchored the weeknight newscasts with Sherri Jackson, who herself remains with WIAT – had previously been a main anchor at
WMAR-TV WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios and offices are located on York Road ( ...
in Baltimore; his reaction to the fast-paced news style was, according to him, "This looks like '
Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline New ...
' gone local." The only on-air talent with longstanding roots in Birmingham was the two-person sports team of
sports director The title of sports director can refer to the director of a live sports broadcast. It can also refer to an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. Director {{Job-stub ...
Paul Finebaum Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, former columnist, and television-radio personality. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. After many years as a reporter, columnist, and sports-talk radio host in the Birmin ...
and weekend sports anchor Sam Smith. Finebaum's established popularity from his highly opinionated column in the ''Birmingham Post-Herald'' and radio show on WERC (960 AM) sparked some interest from sports fans. However, his sportscasts were often seen as incomplete since he had only two minutes to convey the day's sports headlines and scores. Smith, the only holdover from the old WBMG, left the station after only a few months under the revamped news department. Even with the time constraints, WIAT was seen as making a more credible effort at news than ever before. Ratings for its newscasts increased immediately (the 10:00 p.m. newscast, in particular, had increased from a paltry 1/3 share in February 1997 to a 7 share in February 1998, partly due to having the Winter Olympics as a lead-in) but were still not enough to overtake the competition. Ratings also increased once Birmingham became a metered market, moving to 3 and 4 shares on most nights early in the fall of 1998. At that time, fellow CBS affiliate WNAL-TV in Gadsden – which did not create a news department of its own when it joined the network in September 1996 – entered into an agreement to air simulcasts of WBMG's newscasts, which aired on WNAL until it became an independent station in January 1999. Media General would later expand the ''Daily News'' format to fellow CBS affiliate WHLT in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the popul ...
. That same year, the station notched its first three
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nominations in its history, winning two; Keith Cate won "Best News Anchor", and the news department as a whole won for "Best Live Reporting". However, the station became embroiled in behind-the-scenes disputes with management and former on-air talent that were let go after Media General took over and Land decided to relaunch the news department; this led to a number of
breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...
,
fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...
and
defamation of character Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defi ...
and
racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
lawsuits against the station and/or Media General by former on-air and production employees, including former sports anchor Doug Bell and former longtime general manager Hoyle Broome (Land's direct predecessor, who had been with the then-WBMG since 1977), as well as a group of former African-American employees (calling themselves the Birmingham Seven). Over the next few years, more newscasts would be added to WIAT's schedule: the station debuted a half-hour newscast at 6:00 p.m. on Monday through Saturday evenings in September 2001, followed by the addition of a two-hour weekday morning newscast in September 2004. Bill Ballard, who succeeded Land as general manager in 2003, brought in Larry Ragan, a seasoned news director who quickly hired WVTM veteran Ken Lass and WBMA meteorologist Mark Prater (formerly the understudy of veteran Birmingham meteorologist James Spann). The station subsequently rebranded its newscasts as ''News 42'', began hiring assignment reporters to present and narrate stories, and gradually eased its limits on story lengths. The ratings for WIAT's newscasts continued to steadily improve over the next several years, allowing it to become more competitive than ever before. Since the early 2000s, WIAT has had a spirited three-way battle with WVTM and WBMA for second place behind long-dominant WBRC, and since 2006, its late-evening newscasts has consistently finished in second place in the 10:00 p.m. time slot. On some occasions, it has even surged all the way to first place—among the few times in the last half-century that WBRC has lost any timeslot. In recent years, WIAT has won many regional and national journalism awards for its reporting; in 2007 and 2008, WIAT won more Alabama Broadcasters Association Awards than any other station, as well as numerous Associated Press Awards. WIAT was awarded the "Alabama Television Station of the Year" award by the Alabama Broadcasters Association in 2010 and 2012, and is the only Alabama television station to have won the award twice. In 2012, the station won 19 awards, more than in any other year in its history, including nine regional Edward R. Murrow Awards (including for "Overall Excellence;" "Best Newscast;" and "Best Breaking News Coverage" and "Best Continuing Coverage" for its coverage of the 2011 Super Outbreak), more than any other station in the country. In October 2005, WIAT assumed production responsibilities of WB affiliate WTTO's half-hour 9:00 p.m. newscast, the ''WB 21 News at Nine'', through a news share agreement; the nightly program was produced out of WIAT's main news set and utilized its evening anchors as well as a modified graphics package. Unable to make ratings headway against WBRC's longer-established – and much higher-rated – prime time newscast (which debuted in September 1996 upon its switch to Fox), WTTO terminated the agreement, with the WIAT-produced newscast ending on October 13, 2006, nearly one month after channel 21 became a CW affiliate. On April 9, 2010, WIAT became the third television station in the Birmingham–Tuscaloosa–Anniston market (after WVTM and WBRC) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On April 25, 2015, WIAT debuted a two-hour weekend edition of its morning newscast, ''Wake Up Alabama'', on Saturdays and Sundays from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. This was followed exactly one year later on April 25, 2016, by the addition of a half-hour newscast at noon, which marked the first time that WIAT had produced a midday news program. Currently, the evening news is anchored by Sherri Jackson and Art Franklin. Franklin was an anchor at WBRC in the 1990s and early 2000s. On September 14, 2020, WIAT added a 4:00 p.m. newscast.


Notable former on-air staff

* Doug Bell – weeknight sports anchor (1987–1997; now a freelance sports journalist) * Dale Cardwell – investigative reporter (1984–1987) *
Keith Cate Keith Alvin Cate has been a main anchor for WFLA-TV (Channel 8) in Tampa, Florida since 2000. Cate has won 12 Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences along with four Edward R. Murrow awards and other journalism-rela ...
– weekday evening news anchor (1998–2000; now at
WFLA-TV WFLA-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Tampa Bay area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside St. Petersburg–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WTTA (ch ...
in
Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...
) * Alex Chappell – sports reporter (now with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network) *
Hank Erwin Henry Eugene "Hank" Erwin Jr. (born April 2, 1949) is an American evangelical Christian. Erwin was a broadcaster and a former Republican State Senator from Alabama, representing the 14th District, from 2002 until 2010. He represented portions of ...
– anchor (late 1970s–early 1980s); later became a news reporter on WYDE; former member of the
Alabama State Legislature The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both chambers se ...
*
Paul Finebaum Paul Finebaum is an American sports author, former columnist, and television-radio personality. His primary focus is sports, particularly those in the Southeast. After many years as a reporter, columnist, and sports-talk radio host in the Birmin ...
– sports director (1998–2001; currently a sports commentator for
SEC Network The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds ...
)


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: In 2007, WIAT launched a second
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compres ...
on virtual channel 42.2, carrying a locally produced weather information format. In late March 2009, the subchannel became an affiliate of Untamed Sports TV; the station promotes digital channel 42.2 as a separate channel on-air and on the station's website. In addition to Untamed Sports programming, the 42.2 subchannel also carries live and tape-delayed local
high school sports Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sporting participants, who are paid for the time they spend competing ...
events and a video simulcast of the syndicated radio program ''
Rick and Bubba ''The Rick and Bubba Show'' is an American comedy radio show based in Birmingham, Alabama. Nationally syndicated and produced at WZZK-FM, the show is live every weekday for five hours and is hosted by Rick Burgess and Bill "Bubba" Bussey. ...
''. At that time, the station launched an additional subchannel on virtual channel 42.3, which took over carriage of its 24-hour weather channel. On November 1, 2017, WIAT added a fourth subchannel affiliated with
Laff Laff (legal name: Laff Media, LLC) is an American digital multicast television network headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network specializes in comedy program ...
. Untamed Sports TV was replaced with Escape (now Ion Mystery), which, along with Laff, continued to be carried on WUOA-LD (channel 46) under an existing subchannel leasing agreement until both were dropped by the low-power station in 2019.


Analog-to-digital conversion

WIAT shut down its analog signal, over
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 42, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former UHF analog channel 42. On April 5, 2010, the FCC granted WIAT a construction permit for a digital fill-in translator on its former UHF analog channel 42 to serve the Tuscaloosa area, which would maintain transmitter facilities on the tower previously used by WDBB (channel 17) near Jug Factory Road.


Transmitter

The WIAT-TV Tower is a guyed mast, located at 30°41'17.0" N and 87°47'54.0" W. The WIAT-TV Tower was built in 1974. * http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b17269 *


References


External links

*
Birmingham Rewound – classic TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiat IAT CBS network affiliates Ion Mystery affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Court TV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1965 1965 establishments in Alabama Nexstar Media Group