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90-691: WIAT (channel 42) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama , United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group . The station's studios are on Golden Crest Drive atop Red Mountain , where its tower is also located. Channel 42 in Birmingham went on the air as WBMG on October 17, 1965, nearly nine years after its construction was approved. It was the city's third commercial station after channels 6 and 13 (now WBRC and WVTM-TV ), whose very high frequency (VHF) signals carried further than WBMG's ultra high frequency (UHF) signal;

180-631: A barter in some cases. Very high frequency 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 are denoted high frequency (HF), and the next higher frequencies are known as ultra high frequency (UHF). VHF radio waves propagate mainly by line-of-sight , so they are blocked by hills and mountains, although due to refraction they can travel somewhat beyond

270-629: A 15-year veteran of WVTM and sports talk radio host. The station also hired other longtime news presenters in Birmingham, including Ken Lass, Mark Prater, and David Neal. WIAT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 42, on June 12, 2009, the official date on 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, using virtual channel 42. On May 7, 2012, LIN Media announced that it would purchase

360-556: A UHF channel was of note given that UHF television had proved mostly an economic failure due to lack of transmitter power and the inability of many sets to tune UHF stations. WSGN's owners, the Winston-Salem Broadcasting Company, withdrew their application for channel 42 on November 28, 1956. The withdrawal was part of a consolidation with the Balaban application, which was approved. Of the prospects for

450-806: A company focused on media holdings in the Southeast. The company assumed ownership of WBMG in January 1997 and fired 17-year general manager Hoyle Broome in March. His replacement was Eric Land, who arrived from WGRZ in Buffalo, New York . Among Land's first moves was simulcasting WBMG's newscasts on WNAL in Gadsden , which had replaced WJSU as the CBS affiliate in the eastern portion of the state. The station also ended its longtime relationship with UAB athletics; Broome,

540-631: A deal announced in August and completed in October 2006. After the sale, WIAT cemented itself as the number-three station in ratings. It debuted a full-fledged morning newscast in September 2007, and it began attracting noted news personalities under general manager Bill Ballard, who ran the station from 2003 to 2013. Herb Winches, a veteran Birmingham sportscaster for WBRC and WVTM, worked at channel 42 from 2007 to 2008 before being replaced by Jim Dunaway,

630-502: A far cry from the shares of 30 percent or above commanded by each of WBRC and WVTM. The newscasts were losing in the ratings to syndicated reruns on Birmingham's independent station , WTTO , though station management contended and a coincidental telephone survey found that viewership was higher than reflected in ratings diaries. John Herrod left KTXS-TV in Sweetwater, Texas , to become WBMG's news director in 1990. He sought to give

720-521: A major shakeup was fed by a major research project as well as the resignations of several senior managers over the course of 1997. On December 11, 1997, WBMG fired all of its on-air anchors and reporters as well as other news staffers, a total of 21 people, effective December 31. Land declared, "We just cannot continue to offer a traditional newscast. That's already being done in this market." The station's employees had expected Land to make significant changes. While lead weeknight anchorman Chris Schauble told

810-510: A morning newscast, which WBMG had debuted prior to 1997. The station did not begin airing a local morning show until 2000, when it began simulcasting an hour of the morning show hosted by Russ and Dee Fine on WYDE radio. The station added a 6   p.m. evening newscast the next year. Land departed in 2001 when Media General tapped him to run WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida , the company's flagship television property; he reunited with Cate, who had joined

900-415: A much shorter wavelength, and thus requires a shorter antenna, but also higher power. North American stations can go up to 5000 kW ERP for video and 500 kW audio, or 1000 kW digital. Low channels travel further than high ones at the same power, but UHF does not suffer from as much electromagnetic interference and background "noise" as VHF, making it much more desirable for TV. Despite this, in

990-508: A new Birmingham TV station pushed channel 42 into fourth place in news. When Media General acquired the Park group in 1997, it planned a major overhaul of the long-struggling station. General manager Eric Land fired all of WBMG's on-air presenters as well as other news employees in December 1997. For a month, channel 42 aired a countdown clock at 5 and 10   p.m. while the news department

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1080-549: A new station, which would likely have been an ABC affiliate at that point in time, Roger Thames of The Birmingham News wrote, Personally, I don't believe anybody's going to establish a UHF station in Birmingham. I don't believe there are very many sets in use here which will bring in the UHF signal. And UHF operators elsewhere have had little luck in persuading folks to spend money to gear their sets to get UHF. But ... it costs money to keep an application alive, and something must be in

1170-557: A newscast] that 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 in Cincinnati from the 1960s until 1990, for which he had been a reporter: "[The Al Schottelkotte News] was very nontraditional, but jam-packed with information." 42 Daily News represented an immediate ratings improvement over its predecessor;

1260-500: A noted booster, was known for preempting CBS prime time programming for sports. Land's priority was to fix the news department; he had previously overseen major overhauls at WGRZ and at WEYI-TV in Saginaw, Michigan . The station's newscasts had sunk below The Andy Griffith Show on WTTO and Sanford and Son on WABM in the ratings, and they were so poor that not even the anchors' parents watched, Land later recalled. Speculation of

1350-453: A process to move these stations to UHF bands to free up valuable VHF spectrum for its original purpose of FM radio. In addition, by 1985 the federal government decided new TV stations are to be broadcast on the UHF band. Two new VHF channels, 9A and 12, have since been made available and are being used primarily for digital services (e.g. ABC in capital cities) but also for some new analogue services in regional areas. Because channel 9A

1440-669: A proposed transmitter station. VHF is the first band at which wavelengths are small enough that efficient transmitting antennas are short enough to mount on vehicles and handheld devices, a quarter wave whip antenna at VHF frequencies is 25 cm to 2.5 meter (10 inches to 8 feet) long. So the VHF and UHF wavelengths are used for two-way radios in vehicles, aircraft, and handheld transceivers and walkie-talkies . Portable radios usually use whips or rubber ducky antennas , while base stations usually use larger fiberglass whips or collinear arrays of vertical dipoles. For directional antennas,

1530-515: A result, FM radio receivers such as those found in automobiles which are designed to tune into this frequency range could receive the audio for analog-mode programming on the local TV channel 6 while in North America. The practice largely ended with the DTV transition in 2009, although some still exist. The FM broadcast channel at 87.9 MHz is normally off-limits for FM audio broadcasting; it

1620-425: A variety of ways to generate revenue from television commercials . They may be an independent station or part of a broadcasting network , or some other structure. They can produce some or all of their programs or buy some broadcast syndication programming for or all of it from other stations or independent production companies. Many stations have some sort of television studio , which on major-network stations

1710-496: Is non-commercial educational (NCE) and considered public broadcasting . To avoid concentration of media ownership of television stations, government regulations in most countries generally limit the ownership of television stations by television networks or other media operators, but these regulations vary considerably. Some countries have set up nationwide television networks, in which individual television stations act as mere repeaters of nationwide programs . In those countries,

1800-528: Is a radio band which, in most of the world, is used for FM broadcasting . In North America , however, this bandwidth is allocated to VHF television channel 6 (82–88 MHz). The analog audio for TV channel 6 is broadcast at 87.75 MHz (adjustable down to 87.74). Several stations, known as Frankenstations , most notably those joining the Pulse 87 franchise, have operated on this frequency as radio stations, though they use television licenses. As

1890-470: Is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as a TV network and an individual station within the network is referred to as O&O or affiliate , respectively. Because television station signals use the electromagnetic spectrum, which in the past has been a common, scarce resource, governments often claim authority to regulate them. Broadcast television systems standards vary around

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1980-558: Is less of a problem in this and higher frequency bands than at lower frequencies. The VHF band is the first band at which efficient transmitting antennas are small enough that they can be mounted on vehicles and portable devices, so the band is used for two-way land mobile radio systems , such as walkie-talkies , and two way radio communication with aircraft ( Airband ) and ships ( marine radio ). Occasionally, when conditions are right, VHF waves can travel long distances by tropospheric ducting due to refraction by temperature gradients in

2070-469: Is not used for television services in or near Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth, digital radio in those cities are broadcast on DAB frequencies blocks 9A, 9B and 9C. VHF radio is also used for marine Radio as per its long-distance reachability comparing UHF frequencies. Example allocation of VHF–UHF frequencies: Until 2013, the four main free-to-air TV stations in New Zealand used

2160-792: Is often used for newscasts or other local programming . There is usually a news department , where journalists gather information. There is also a section where electronic news-gathering (ENG) operations are based, receiving remote broadcasts via remote pickup unit or satellite TV . Outside broadcasting vans, production trucks , or SUVs with electronic field production (EFP) equipment are sent out with reporters , who may also bring back news stories on video tape rather than sending them back live . To keep pace with technology United States television stations have been replacing operators with broadcast automation systems to increase profits in recent years. Some stations (known as repeaters or translators ) only simulcast another, usually

2250-549: Is reserved for displaced class D stations which have no other frequencies in the normal 88.1–107.9 MHz subband to move to. So far, only two stations have qualified to operate on 87.9 MHz: 10–watt KSFH in Mountain View, California and 34–watt translator K200AA in Sun Valley, Nevada . In some countries, particularly the United States and Canada, limited low-power license-free operation

2340-557: The Birmingham Post-Herald that he had known as early as Thanksgiving that he was going to be fired, many other staffers did not know exactly what would take place until the firings were announced. A day before the final newscast, on December 31, Land announced that it would be replaced with a clock counting down to the debut of a new newscast on February 5, coinciding with the start of the 1998 Winter Olympics , which aired on CBS; he joked, "More people will probably watch

2430-488: The Birmingham Post-Herald . One anchor manned the news desk, while the other read stories from various places on the new set. The 2-Minute Drill sportscast was provided by Paul Finebaum , a Post-Herald columnist and radio show host on WERC ; the sportscast in the 5   p.m. newscast aired live on TV and radio. The other weeknight news presenters, like Cate, came from out of the market: Sherri Jackson

2520-561: The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN); she severed her relationship with WBMG in 1981 when it aired a CBS miniseries based on the 1972 novel The Word , which she believed presented Jesus as a fake. While WBMG debuted a local newscast when it signed on in 1965, its news efforts were generally minimal. One of its first employees was Bill Bolen, who had worked at WSGN radio and later left to spend 41 years at WBRC; he recalled channel 42 as "primitive". By 1977,

2610-742: The HF band there is only some reflection at lower frequencies from the ionosphere ( skywave propagation). They do not follow the contour of the Earth as ground waves and so are blocked by hills and mountains, although because they are weakly refracted (bent) by the atmosphere they can travel somewhat beyond the visual horizon out to about 160 km (100 miles). They can penetrate building walls and be received indoors, although in urban areas reflections from buildings cause multipath propagation , which can interfere with television reception. Atmospheric radio noise and interference ( RFI ) from electrical equipment

2700-619: The Yagi antenna is the most widely used as a high gain or "beam" antenna. For television reception, the Yagi is used, as well as the log-periodic antenna due to its wider bandwidth. Helical and turnstile antennas are used for satellite communication since they employ circular polarization . For even higher gain, multiple Yagis or helicals can be mounted together to make array antennas . Vertical collinear arrays of dipoles can be used to make high gain omnidirectional antennas , in which more of

2790-405: The broadcast range , or geographic area, that the station is limited to, allocates the broadcast frequency of the radio spectrum for that station's transmissions, sets limits on what types of television programs can be programmed for broadcast and requires a station to broadcast a minimum amount of certain programs types, such as public affairs messages . Another form of television station

WIAT - Misplaced Pages Continue

2880-534: The electricity bill and emergency backup generators . In North America , full-power stations on band I (channels 2 to 6) are generally limited to 100 kW analog video ( VSB ) and 10 kW analog audio ( FM ), or 45 kW digital ( 8VSB ) ERP. Stations on band III (channels 7 to 13) can go up by 5 dB to 316 kW video, 31.6 kW audio, or 160 kW digital. Low-VHF stations are often subject to long-distance reception just as with FM. There are no stations on Channel 1 . UHF , by comparison, has

2970-597: The visual horizon out to about 160 km (100 miles). Common uses for radio waves in the VHF band are Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) and FM radio broadcasting, television broadcasting , two-way land mobile radio systems (emergency, business, private use and military), long range data communication up to several tens of kilometers with radio modems , amateur radio , and marine communications . Air traffic control communications and air navigation systems (e.g. VOR and ILS ) work at distances of 100 kilometres (62 miles) or more to aircraft at cruising altitude. In

3060-435: The 10 VHF channels were insufficient to support the growth of television services. This was rectified by the addition of three additional frequencies-channels 0, 5A and 11. Older television sets using rotary dial tuners required adjustment to receive these new channels. Most TVs of that era were not equipped to receive these broadcasts, and so were modified at the owners' expense to be able to tune into these bands; otherwise

3150-592: The 10 p.m. newscast, in particular, had increased from a paltry 3% share in February 1997 to a 7% share in February 1998, partly due to having the Winter Olympics as a lead-in. This was not enough to overtake any competitors, but it was higher than the last newscasts as WBMG. Ratings also increased once Birmingham became a metered market, moving to 3 and 4 shares on most nights early in the fall of 1998, and continued their steady climb in early 1999. Some of

3240-541: The 625-line colour signal), with the exception of BBC2 (which had always broadcast solely on UHF). The last British VHF TV transmitters closed down on January 3, 1985. VHF band III is now used in the UK for digital audio broadcasting , and VHF band II is used for FM radio , as it is in most of the world. Unusually, the UK has an amateur radio allocation at 4 metres , 70–70.5 MHz. Frequency assignments between US and Canadian users are closely coordinated since much of

3330-458: The Americas and many other parts of the world, VHF Band I was used for the transmission of analog television . As part of the worldwide transition to digital terrestrial television most countries require broadcasters to air television in the VHF range using digital, rather than analog encoding. Radio waves in the VHF band propagate mainly by line-of-sight and ground-bounce paths; unlike in

3420-551: The Birmingham Television Corporation, which built channel 42, had been unsuccessful in efforts to allocate a third VHF TV channel to Birmingham. The station initially aired the CBS and NBC programs not aired by channel 13 until the two stations each took full-time network affiliations in 1970. It was hemmed in by its weaker signal, the existence of CBS affiliates in Tuscaloosa and Anniston , and

3510-582: The Birmingham Television Corporation—formed by Harry and Elmer Balaban —was incorporated in Alabama and proceeded to file for Birmingham's unused ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 42. That same month, Birmingham radio station WSGN filed for channel 42 as well. It was the second application for television made by WSGN, which had previously sought channel 48 and was an ABC affiliate in radio. The fact that two applicants were seeking

3600-716: The Birmingham ratings, pushing channel 42 to fourth place. Nielsen Media Research , which measures television ratings, proceeded to announce that it would fold Tuscaloosa and Anniston into the Birmingham Designated Market Area as a result of their local stations being merged with WBMA; in addition, it would introduce meters instead of diaries to the enlarged market. Media General , a broadcaster and publisher based in Richmond, Virginia , announced it would purchase Park Communications in July 1996, creating

3690-557: The Canadian population is within VHF radio range of the US border. Certain discrete frequencies are reserved for radio astronomy . The general services in the VHF band are: Cable television , though not transmitted aerially, uses a spectrum of frequencies overlapping VHF. The U.S. FCC allocated television broadcasting to a channelized roster as early as 1938 with 19 channels. That changed three more times: in 1940 when Channel 19

WIAT - Misplaced Pages Continue

3780-531: The NBC network, which included WVTM. Media General opted to keep WVTM because its signal reached more households; it also was third in the market in revenue compared to WIAT in fourth. The company put four of its stations up for the sale, including WIAT, to finance the purchase and meet ownership limits in the Birmingham market. WIAT and KIMT in Mason City, Iowa , were sold to Atlanta-based New Vision Television in

3870-679: The New Vision Television stations, including WIAT, for $ 330.4 million and the assumption of $ 12 million in New Vision corporate debt. LIN was acquired two years later by Media General, which opted to keep WIAT and divest WVTM, along with WJCL in Savannah, Georgia , to Hearst Television . After purchasing LIN, Media General initially agreed to merge with the Meredith Corporation but faced a shareholder revolt in

3960-584: The U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking another large portion of this band (channels 52 to 69) away, in contrast to the rest of the world, which has been taking VHF instead. This means that some stations left on VHF are harder to receive after the analog shutdown . Since at least 1974, there are no stations on channel 37 in North America for radio astronomy purposes. Most television stations are commercial broadcasting enterprises which are structured in

4050-471: The VHF television bands ( Band I and Band III ) to transmit to New Zealand households. Other stations, including a variety of pay and regional free-to-air stations, were forced to broadcast in the UHF band, since the VHF band had been very overloaded with four stations sharing a very small frequency band, which was so overcrowded that one or more channels would not be available in some smaller towns. However, at

4140-643: The WFLA news staff the year before. Finebaum left in May 2002 after a run of more than four years with channel 42; WIAT began broadcasting a digital signal, including high-definition programming, on November 20 of that year. Ratings growth leveled off after several years of the 42 Daily News format, and viewing figures remained flat between 2000 and 2003. While the reporter-less format cost the station less—the WIAT news department had 25 employees in 2003, compared to 70 at WBRC—it

4230-474: The air. The Birmingham Television Corporation spent years trying to move a third commercial channel in the more established very high frequency (VHF) band to Birmingham. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the FCC considered adding such a channel to Birmingham on multiple occasions. In 1959, it considered moving channel 8 into Birmingham; WBMG favored a proposal to relocate channel 4 from Columbus, Mississippi , which

4320-460: The antenna's power is radiated in horizontal directions. Television and FM broadcasting stations use collinear arrays of specialized dipole antennas such as batwing antennas . Certain subparts of the VHF band have the same use around the world. Some national uses are detailed below. The VHF TV band in Australia was originally allocated channels 1 to 10-with channels 2, 7 and 9 assigned for

4410-427: The atmosphere. VHF transmission range is a function of transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, and distance to the horizon, since VHF signals propagate under normal conditions as a near line-of-sight phenomenon. The distance to the radio horizon is slightly extended over the geometric line of sight to the horizon, as radio waves are weakly bent back toward the Earth by the atmosphere. An approximation to calculate

4500-776: The call letters. Micah Johnson, WIAT news manager On that date, at 5   p.m., viewers saw Land push a plunger to blow up the WBMG logo before an audience of Birmingham community leaders. The station changed its call sign to WIAT, for It's About Time, the slogan of the station's new 42 Daily News newscasts, which aired at 5 and 10   p.m. The Daily News format eschewed on-camera reporters; stories were packaged into topical minute segments such as "Alabama Minute" and "Education Minute". The format earned comparisons to CNN Headline News from Keith Cate , who came from WMAR-TV in Baltimore to serve as lead co-anchor, and an article in

4590-508: The clock than watched the news broadcast anyway." The story attracted attention well beyond Birmingham; Mark Lorando in the New Orleans Times-Picayune compared Land's mass firing to the series finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which nearly every news staffer was fired. During this time, the news department was reconstructed with input from focus groups and market research. The newsroom also kept functioning;

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4680-642: The company's lengthy relationship with the network. As a replacement, ABC persuaded the CBS affiliates in Tuscaloosa and Anniston, WCFT and WJSU, to switch affiliations. They would act as full-power satellites of a low-power station in Birmingham, WBMA-LP , with a new combined news operation in Birmingham. The new station, which debuted in September 1996 under the moniker "ABC 33/40", featured veteran Alabama news personalities including WBRC's James Spann and Brenda Ladun, later poaching anchor Pam Huff from WVTM. The newscasts on WBMA immediately rose to third place in

4770-493: The dominance of the VHF stations in the ratings. Roy H. Park Broadcasting acquired WBMG in 1973, but WBMG never moved above third in the market. In response to low ratings, the station dropped local news in 1982 and restored it in 1987; the newscasts, titled Action News Birmingham , became known for a combative style and emphasis on metro-area news, but they were never highly viewed. By 1997, syndicated reruns of Sanford and Son attracted more viewers than WBMG's evening news, and

4860-456: The early 2000s, the station moved to a more conventional format and brought in veteran Birmingham news personalities, which made channel 42 more competitive in the market. Media General acquired WVTM-TV in 2006 and sold WIAT to New Vision Television to make the purchase. LIN Media acquired New Vision in 2012, and Media General acquired LIN in 2014—this time, keeping WIAT and selling WVTM. Nexstar purchased Media General in 2017. In March 1956,

4950-519: The east to Tuscaloosa in the west. By this time, Tuscaloosa and Anniston each had their own stations: Tuscaloosa's WCFT (channel 33) debuted in October 1965, while Anniston's WHMA-TV (channel 40) started in October 1969. This situation persisted until May 31, 1970, when WAPI-TV became the sole NBC affiliate under a new agreement with NBC and WBMG the sole CBS affiliate. Likewise, WCFT and WHMA-TV became full-time CBS affiliates. In 1971, WBMG moved into larger studios on Red Mountain. Park Broadcasting,

5040-473: The end of 2013 , all television channels stopped broadcasting on the VHF bands, as New Zealand moved to digital television broadcasting, requiring all stations to either broadcast on UHF or satellite (where UHF was unavailable) utilising the Freeview service. Refer to Australasian television frequencies for more information. British television originally used VHF band I and band III . Television on VHF

5130-465: The firings resulted in legal action against channel 42. Seven Black former employees sued the station for racial discrimination in 1999, alleging they had been fired for their race and that White employees had been treated better; Media General prevailed in multiple state and federal cases. Doug Bell , the station's sports director since 1988, and former general manager Broome each sued Media General for breach of contract. The WIAT relaunch did not include

5220-405: The five-county Birmingham metro area, rather than the much larger news coverage areas of WBRC and WVTM; the goal was not to be number one but merely to occupy a niche. News director Frank Morock believed the expanding focuses of the other stations left Birmingham and its environs relatively underserved. News viewership for Action News Birmingham hovered between five and nine percent of the audience,

5310-420: The highest point available in the transmission area, such as on a summit , the top of a high skyscraper , or on a tall radio tower . To get a signal from the master control room to the transmitter, a studio/transmitter link (STL) is used. The link can be either by radio or T1 / E1 . A transmitter/studio link (TSL) may also send telemetry back to the station, but this may be embedded in subcarriers of

5400-458: The hilly Central Alabama terrain. The station produced a number of local programs; these included a public affairs series ( Spectrum ), live studio wrestling, a weekly church service, and annual coverage of Birmingham's Veterans Day parade. In the late 1960s and 1970s, channel 42 offered Sgt. Jack , a children's show hosted by Birmingham disc jockey Neal Miller. Its studios were the home to the first programs produced by Mother Angelica , founder of

5490-565: The initial services in Sydney and Melbourne , and later the same channels were assigned in Brisbane , Adelaide and Perth . Other capital cities and regional areas used a combination of these and other frequencies as available. The initial commercial services in Hobart and Darwin were respectively allocated channels 6 and 8 rather than 7 or 9. By the early 1960s it became apparent that

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5580-408: The line-of-sight horizon distance (on Earth) is: These approximations are only valid for antennas at heights that are small compared to the radius of the Earth. They may not necessarily be accurate in mountainous areas, since the landscape may not be transparent enough for radio waves. In engineered communications systems, more complex calculations are required to assess the probable coverage area of

5670-400: The local television station has no station identification and, from a consumer's point of view, there is no practical distinction between a network and a station, with only small regional changes in programming, such as local television news . To broadcast its programs, a television station requires operators to operate equipment, a transmitter or radio antenna , which is often located at

5760-419: The main broadcast. Stations which retransmit or simulcast another may simply pick-up that station over-the-air , or via STL or satellite. The license usually specifies which other station it is allowed to carry. VHF stations often have very tall antennas due to their long wavelength , but require much less effective radiated power (ERP), and therefore use much less transmitter power output , also saving on

5850-399: The networks' programs, series moved between the stations, sometimes in the middle of the television season. The station broadcast with an effective radiated power of 479,000 watts until 1969, when it activated a new, 894-foot (272 m) tower and increased its power to over a million watts. The new tower was boasted to increase the station's signal in areas from Anniston and Gadsden in

5940-483: The news staff numbered four people, while WBRC and WAPI-TV each had 20 or more employees in their news departments. Few people watched. In 1981, WBMG's 6   p.m. newscast attracted six percent of the audience at that hour to 49 percent for WBRC and 33 percent for the recently renamed WVTM-TV, and the station had no newscast at 10   p.m. General manager Hoyle Broome touted the straightforward format of his newscast as an alternative. The newscast, known as Metro News ,

6030-545: The next several years; Park instead invested in a new, taller tower and higher-power transmitter facility for WBMG, which were activated in 1983 and 1984, respectively. In late 1986, WBMG began readying a return to local news production, prompting Tuscaloosa-based WDBB to cancel its low-rated 9   p.m. local newscast. Park invested $ 1.5 million to start WBMG Action News Birmingham , which debuted on January 12, 1987. The news department, with weeknight 5 and 10   p.m. newscasts as well as weekend editions, focused on news in

6120-574: The owner had to buy a new TV. Several TV stations were allocated to VHF channels 3, 4 and 5, which were within the FM radio bands although not yet used for that purpose. A couple of notable examples were NBN-3 Newcastle , WIN-4 Wollongong and ABC Newcastle on channel 5. While some Channel 5 stations were moved to 5A in the 1970s and 80s, beginning in the 1990s, the Australian Broadcasting Authority began

6210-476: The programmes seen on its owner's flagship station, and have no television studio or production facilities of their own. This is common in developing countries . Low-power stations typically also fall into this category worldwide. Most stations which are not simulcast produce their own station identifications . TV stations may also advertise on or provide weather (or news) services to local radio stations , particularly co-owned sister stations . This may be

6300-409: The radio and television enterprise of Roy H. Park , acquired WBMG in 1973, bringing its station group up to the then-limit of seven outlets. Park continued to make capital investments in channel 42 in spite of its reduced coverage area, including new video tape equipment, electronic news gathering , and a new antenna. However, these changes did not fully help WBMG, whose signal could not fully penetrate

6390-527: The same time, New World agreed to buy Argyle Television, owner of NBC affiliate WVTM-TV; to resolve the conflict, WBRC-TV was sold directly to the Fox network. This deal set off a slow-motion affiliation shuffle in Birmingham as ABC sought a replacement affiliate. ABC negotiated with WBMG and was even reported to be near a deal. Instead, Park Communications signed a long-term renewal with CBS, owing to its upcoming deal to carry Southeastern Conference college sports and

6480-526: The sole owner of the Birmingham Television Corporation when it bought out the Balabans' stake. In November 1964, Winston-Salem Broadcasting filed to sell a two-thirds stake to four investors: William P. Dubois, Enterprise Funds Inc., Northwest Growth Fund Inc., and Exchange Capitol Corporation. The FCC approved this transaction in March 1965. With the new ownership, plans were set in motion to construct WBMG, with Dubois as general manager. Even at this juncture,

6570-498: The station a defined news image by airing longer, more in-depth stories. Channel 42 also became known for aggressive reporting. When WBRC anchor Janet Hall became a spokeswoman for the Birmingham Zoo , WBMG produced a news special openly asking whether WBRC could be considered a reliable source for reporting on the troubled facility. Doors being slammed in WBMG reporters' faces became a common sight on channel 42's newscasts, and

6660-450: The station attempted to improve its position by filing for the lower channel 21. WBMG began broadcasting on October 17, 1965. The quarters it occupied on Red Mountain had belonged to radio station WJLD and were designed to accommodate a television operation. WBMG did not hold a primary network affiliation at launch. WAPI-TV (channel 13) held the primary affiliations with CBS and NBC in central Alabama, and not all of their programming

6750-518: The station did a series of reports on why Birmingham city officials were not talking to WBMG. Even though WBMG's news audience consisted of one to two percent of the market, a study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that WBMG's Action News aired more local news stories and longer stories than its higher-rated competitors in one week in April 1994, concluding, "Channel 42

6840-507: 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 , CNN , and stations in neighboring markets, even though it was not airing a newscast. The reason we did [the call sign change] was because the perception of WBMG was so bad and the news produced was so bad. We had to make a clear break. ... That included changing

6930-413: The wake of an unsolicited offer from Nexstar Broadcasting Group , which agreed to acquire the company in 2016. Several of the veteran personalities hired under Ballard departed in the late 2010s. Prater abruptly left WIAT in April 2018, later pleading guilty to harassing a woman he had dated. Dunaway moved to the news desk in 2015, co-anchoring the evening newscasts with Jackson, before leaving in 2018. He

7020-634: The world. It was on the air from 22 March 1935, until it was shut down in 1944. The station was named after Paul Gottlieb Nipkow , the inventor of the Nipkow disk . Most often the term "television station" refers to a station which broadcasts structured content to an audience or it refers to the organization that operates the station. A terrestrial television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Television stations are differentiated from cable television or other video providers as their content

7110-399: The world. Television stations broadcasting over an analog system were typically limited to one television channel , but digital television enables broadcasting via subchannels as well. Television stations usually require a broadcast license from a government agency which sets the requirements and limitations on the station. In the United States, for example, a television license defines

7200-499: Was also denied. In 1963, it opted to deny the addition of channel 3. The pending proceedings spared the unbuilt station, with the call sign WBMG, from deletion. In 1960, the FCC sent letters to the permittees of 54 unused or unbuilt UHF stations, including WBMG, ordering them to resume or lose the permit. WBMG and a permit in Grand Rapids, Michigan , were spared due to the pending proposals. In 1963, Winston-Salem Broadcasting became

7290-406: Was deleted and several channels changed frequencies, then in 1946 with television going from 18 channels to 13 channels, again with different frequencies, and finally in 1948 with the removal of Channel 1 (analog channels 2–13 remain as they were, even on cable television ). Channels 14–19 later appeared on the UHF band, while channel 1 remains unused. 87.5–87.9 MHz

7380-533: Was guilty of some editorializing but clearly offered more substance than the other two stations." In 1994, Park Communications sold itself to Donald R. Tomlin and Gary B. Knapp in a deal backed by the Retirement Systems of Alabama pension fund. The sale of Park led to the end of Herrod's Action News format and combative approach in favor of a more mainstream news presentation with the same amount of crime news as other local stations. A new news director

7470-599: Was hired from WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia , while Declan Cannon had worked at The Weather Channel . Al Primo , who created the Eyewitness News format at KYW-TV in Philadelphia 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 [of

7560-486: Was hired in late 1995; the station initiated new weekend, morning, and 5   p.m. newscasts in 1996; and the newsroom was expanded from 1,500 square feet (140 m) to 3,900 square feet (360 m). Meanwhile, a major realignment of television station affiliations and ownership was brewing in the market. In May 1994, New World Communications agreed to affiliate 12 stations with Fox , including ABC affiliate WBRC-TV, which it had just agreed to buy from Citicasters . At

7650-399: Was in black and white with 405-line format (although there were experiments with all three colour systems- NTSC , PAL , and SECAM -adapted for the 405-line system in the late 1950s and early 1960s). British colour television was broadcast on UHF (channels 21–69), beginning in the late 1960s. From then on, TV was broadcast on both VHF and UHF (VHF being a monochromatic downconversion from

7740-453: Was not prospering against more traditional news competition and with a lack of recognizable faces. Beginning in 2005, WIAT produced a 9   p.m. newscast for WTTO, at that time the market's affiliate of The WB . The new WIAT production replaced WTTO's News Central hybrid newscast and required the expansion of channel 42's news staff. In 2006, Media General announced it would acquire a package of four smaller-market NBC affiliates owned by

7830-447: Was rebuilt from scratch, a tactic that attracted national attention. On February 5, 1998, the station changed its call letters to WIAT—for its new slogan, "It's About Time"—and relaunched its newscasts as 42 Daily News . The news programs featured short stories, no on-camera reporters, and a high story count; while still in fourth place, they were a marked improvement in quality and ratings over their predecessors. After ratings plateaued in

7920-466: Was replaced by Art Franklin, who had been the first Black man to anchor an evening newscast in Birmingham at WBRC in the 1990s and was previously seen on channel 42's morning newscasts; Franklin departed in 2022. The station's signal is multiplexed : Television station The Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow ( TV Station Paul Nipkow ) in Berlin , Germany , was the first regular television service in

8010-595: Was seen in Birmingham as a result; channel 42 filled this gap by airing the network shows not aired on channel 13. This was illustrated in its first day of programming: the inaugural program was an NBC News special, but later in the evening the station aired The Ed Sullivan Show from CBS. Likewise, WBMG aired the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on weeknights. Carson had gone unseen in Birmingham in several years. Because WAPI-TV had first-call rights on

8100-428: Was then moved to 5   p.m. in hopes of attracting an audience as the first newscast of the evening; WVTM dashed those hopes by debuting a 5   p.m. newscast of its own, prompting station officials to reevaluate. In March 1982, the newscast was replaced with short news updates during daytime and evening programming, and the news staff was reduced from five employees to two. The station did not air local newscasts for

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