WSES (channel 33) 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 earth ...
licensed to
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...
, United States, serving the western portion of the
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network
Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by
Howard Stirk Holdings,
a partner company of the
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, t ...
. WSES' advertising sales office is located on Golden Crest Drive in Birmingham, and its transmitter is located near County Road 38/Blue Creek Road, east of
State Route 69
Route 69, or Highway 69, may refer to:
International
* European route E69
Australia
* Appin Road
Canada
* Alberta Highway 69
* Ontario Highway 69
China
* G69 Expressway
Finland
* Finnish national road 69
India
* National Highway 69 (Ind ...
near
Windham Springs.
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 ...
(channel 40) in
Anniston operates as a full-time
satellite
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 radioisotope ...
of WSES.
History
As an independent station
The station first signed on the air on October 27, 1965 as WCFT-TV. Originally operating as 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, market ...
, it was the first television station to sign on in western Alabama. It was originally owned by Chapman Family Television, a consortium of eight Tuscaloosa businessmen who saw the benefits of operating a television station to serve west-central Alabama, in terms of both business and community service purposes.
However, the station did not return a profit suitable enough for its owners throughout its first two years of operation, an issue that led Chapman Family Television to sell the station to South Mississippi Broadcasting, Inc. (later Service Broadcasters) in 1967, becoming the company's second television station, after
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
WDAM-TV in the company's home market of
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The city popu ...
. The new owners rejuvenated WCFT by heavily investing in the station, purchasing new broadcasting and transmission equipment, and improving the station's image. In addition to carrying syndicated programming, WCFT-TV also aired network programs from
CBS and
NBC that were not cleared for broadcast in the Birmingham market by WAPI-TV (channel 13, now
WVTM-TV), which WBMG (channel 42, now
WIAT) did during that same timeframe.
As an exclusive CBS affiliate
On May 31, 1970, when WAPI-TV formally removed CBS programming and became the exclusive NBC affiliate for the Birmingham market, WCFT-TV became an exclusive CBS affiliate; WBMG in Birmingham (which had been affiliated with the network since it signed in October 1965, in a similar split arrangement with NBC) and WHMA-TV (channel 40) in
Anniston (which had been an exclusive CBS affiliate since it debuted in October 1969) also became exclusive CBS affiliates, with each serving different portions of
central Alabama.
Even though Tuscaloosa is southwest of Birmingham, CBS opted to retain its affiliation with WCFT because, at the time, WBMG suffered from a severely weak broadcast signal that did not provide adequate coverage throughout most of the eastern fringes of central Alabama. Despite Birmingham's relatively close proximity to the city, the WBMG signal barely covered Tuscaloosa, even after the station increased its transmitter power to 1.2 million watts in 1969, providing a marginal to non-existent signal in much of west-central Alabama. As such, many
cable providers in the western part of the market opted to carry WCFT as the provider of CBS programming for that area of the state instead. WCFT regularly trounced WBMG in that portion of the market (even in western areas of the
Birmingham metropolitan area
The Birmingham Metropolitan Area is an urban agglomeration located in the West Midlands region of England with a population of around 4.3 million people, making it the second largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom. It comprises the thre ...
that could receive WCFT's signal), and unlike WBMG, was often competitive with
WBRC-TV
WBRC (channel 6) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power, Class A television ...
(channel 6) and WAPI/WVTM, especially with its local newscasts that focused almost exclusively on western Alabama.
Although the area was only served at the time by WCFT and
Alabama Public Television satellite station WIIQ (channel 41) in
Demopolis,
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 mergin ...
decided to annex Tuscaloosa into its own separate television market from Birmingham in 1977, placing it at a ranking below #170. On January 1, 1978, Service Broadcasters sold WDAM and WCFT to Beam Communications (which changed its name to Beacon Communications in June 1989). On August 20, 1990, Beacon sold WCFT and WDAM to Federal Broadcasting.
As a satellite of WBMA-LP/-LD
On May 5, 1994, Great American Communications (which would be renamed Citicasters following the completion of its debt restructuring later that year) agreed to sell WBRC and three of its sister stations – fellow ABC affiliate
WGHP
WGHP (channel 8) is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and main ...
in
High Point, North Carolina
High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, ...
, NBC affiliate
WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal Hi ...
in
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
and CBS affiliate
KSAZ-TV in
Phoenix – to
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 ...
for $350 million in cash and $10 million in
share warrants. As part of a broader deal between New World and the
Fox Broadcasting Company
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...
signed on May 23 of that year, New World agreed to affiliate five of its eight existing television stations and the four it had acquired from Great American with Fox, in a
series of affiliation transactions that would take two years to complete due to the varying conclusion dates of their ongoing contracts with either ABC, NBC or CBS.
Three weeks later, New World agreed to buy WVTM-TV and three other stations—CBS affiliates
KDFW
KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNet ...
in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
–
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
and
KTBC in
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, and ABC affiliate
KTVI in
St. Louis—from Argyle Television Holdings, in a purchase option-structured deal worth $717 million.
Due to conflicts with FCC ownership rules of the time period, New World subsequently decided to establish and transfer the
licenses of WBRC and WGHP into a
trust company, with the intent to sell them to the Fox network's broadcasting subsidiary,
Fox Television Stations (in the case of Birmingham, New World could not keep WBRC and WVTM since the FCC then forbade a single company from owning two television stations in the same market; the concurrent Argyle and Citicasters acquisitions also put New World three stations over the FCC's twelve-station ownership limit).
Although the sales of WBRC and WGHP were finalized on July 24, 1995, Fox Television Stations could not switch WBRC's network affiliation in the short term, as the station's contract with ABC would not expire until August 31, 1996. While this forced Fox to operate WBRC as an ABC affiliate for thirteen months after the sale's closure, it gave the latter network enough time to find a new central Alabama affiliate. ABC first approached
WTTO (channel 21, now a
CW affiliate)—which, along with
semi-satellites WDBB (channel 17) in Tuscaloosa and WNAL-TV (channel 44, now
Ion Television 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 ...
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, was set to lose its Fox affiliation to channel 6—for a deal to replace WBRC as its Birmingham outlet. However, the owner of WTTO,
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, t ...
, only expressed interest in carrying ABC's
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 ...
and news programming. It also refused to launch a news department for WTTO, as the group did not factor local news production into its corporate budget at the time (this was despite the fact that sister station WDBB had maintained a standalone news operation at the time ABC started negotiations with WTTO, which was eventually shut down when the former switched to a full-time WTTO simulcast in December 1995).
In November 1995,
Allbritton Communications
The Allbritton Communications Company was an American media company. Based in Arlington, Virginia, Allbritton was the leading subsidiary of Perpetual Corporation, a private holding company owned by the family of company founder and former Riggs B ...
purchased WCFT from Federal Broadcasting for $20 million; it concurrently signed a deal with Fant Broadcasting to assume operational responsibilities for WNAL-TV under a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
(LMA). Then in January 1996, after it terminated the WNAL deal, Allbritton acquired the non-license assets of CBS affiliate WJSU-TV (channel 40) in Anniston from Osborne Communications Corporation for $12 million (through an LMA arrangement which included an option to eventually purchase the station outright). Allbritton wanted to relocate WJSU's transmitter facilities closer to Birmingham to provide a stronger signal within that metropolitan area and nearby Tuscaloosa; however, the relocation was prohibited under FCC regulations that required a station's transmitter site be located no more than from its
city of license
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broa ...
(Anniston is north-of-due-east of Birmingham), which would have required an application to change the city of license closer to Birmingham in order to legally allow the move.
Shortly after the WJSU purchase took place, ABC reached a unique deal with Allbritton, in which WCFT and WJSU would become the new ABC affiliates for Central Alabama, with WCFT acting as the main station. ABC had a very strong relationship with Allbritton, particularly as Allbritton's flagship station,
WJLA-TV in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, had long been one of ABC's highest-rated affiliates. In April 1996, a few months after the Birmingham deal was struck, Allbritton's ties to ABC were sealed wholesale when Allbritton reached a ten-year affiliation agreement with ABC that renewed contracts with the group's four existing ABC affiliates (WJLA-TV,
KATV in
Little Rock, Arkansas
(The Little Rock, The "Little Rock")
, government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager
, leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_ ...
,
KTUL in
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
and
WHTM in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...
, the latter of which was in the process of being acquired by Allbritton at the time) and resulted in two of its other stations switching to the network (NBC affiliate WCIV
Heroes & Icons affiliate
ow Heroes & Icons affiliate
">WGWG">ow Heroes & Icons affiliate
in Charleston, South Carolina">WGWG">WGWG">ow
Heroes & Icons affiliate
in Charleston, South Carolina) and The WB">WB affiliate WBSG-TV [now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXC-TV">WGWGin Charleston, South Carolina) and The WB">WB affiliate WBSG-TV [now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXC-TV] in Brunswick, Georgia), the latter of which would become a satellite of WJXX in nearby Jacksonville, Florida when Allbritton signed that station on in February 1997).
However, under Nielsen Media Research, Nielsen rules, neither WCFT nor WJSU would have likely been counted in the Birmingham ratings books as it had designated Tuscaloosa and Anniston as separate markets at the time. Allbritton's solution to this issue was to purchase W58CK, a low-power independent station in Birmingham that began operations on November 18, 1994, which would serve as the primary station for the purpose of being counted in local ratings diaries (the three stations would later be collectively rated as "WBMA+"). While the purchase of channel 58 was not a condition of the deal between ABC and Allbritton, it did pave the way for Anniston and Tuscaloosa to be consolidated back into the Birmingham television market in September 1998 (at the start of the 1998–99 television season). That move benefited all of the major Birmingham stations, as it not only increased their viewership in Tuscaloosa and Anniston, but also resulted in Birmingham's placement in Nielsen's national market rankings jumping twelve spots from 51st to 39th place.
On September 1, 1996, when W58CK became an ABC affiliate, WCFT and WJSU concurrently ended separate operations as well and became full-powered satellite stations of W58CK, with Allbritton assuming control of WJSU's operations under the originally proposed LMA, which was transferred to Flagship Broadcasting upon that company's purchase of that station (Allbritton would eventually purchase WJSU-TV outright in 2008). WCFT's studio facilities near Skyland Boulevard in Tuscaloosa were converted into the Tuscaloosa news bureau for W58CK's news department; 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 switc ...
operations were migrated into W58CK's new studios on Concourse Parkway in
Hoover.
WCFT and WJSU also ceded the CBS programming rights in central Alabama to WBMG, which had recently upgraded its transmitter to provide a much stronger full-power signal throughout much of the Birmingham market, and WNAL-TV, which took over as CBS's northeastern Alabama affiliate on the day of the WBRC/WBMA+/WTTO switch.
Even though WBMA was the official ABC affiliate for the Birmingham market, Allbritton chose instead to name the triumvirate operation "ABC 33/40", using the over-the-air channel numbers of WCFT and WJSU instead as the collective branding for the stations, making it appear as if WCFT was the primary station and WJSU was acting as its satellite. In the case of WCFT, its signal footprint covered the western portions of the Birmingham metropolitan area and outlying rural areas of western
Jefferson County, stretching westward to
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 Waterwa ...
(which had been served by
WLOV-TV
WLOV-TV (channel 27) is a television station licensed to West Point, Mississippi, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Columbus–Tupelo market. It is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, which maintains a local market ...
until it became a Fox affiliate in October 1995, leaving that city without an ABC affiliate until
WKDH
WKDH (channel 45) is a defunct television station licensed to Houston, Mississippi, United States, which served as the ABC affiliate for the Columbus–Tupelo market. WKDH was owned by Southern Broadcasting, which was headed by Walter D. Spain who ...
signed on in June 2001); the station's broadcast signal provided a contour of at least
Grade B coverage within Birmingham's western inner ring. Cable (and eventually,
satellite
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 radioisotope ...
) providers within west-central Alabama received WBMA's programming through WCFT.
Acquisition by Sinclair
For over a decade and a half, WBMA+ maintained a strong relationship with Allbritton, with no major problems arising between the two entities and, likewise, no major changes occurring to the station's operations. On July 29, 2013, Allbritton announced that it would sell its seven television stations, including WBMA+, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group (which would purchase the stations for $985 million), in an attempt by the company to shift its focus toward co-owned political news website,
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
.
As part of the deal, Sinclair had intended to sell the license assets of its existing Birmingham stations, CW affiliate WTTO and
MyNetworkTV affiliate
WABM (channel 68) to
Deerfield Media
Deerfield Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company and a shell corporation owned and operated by Stephen P. Mumblow. It was established on December 1, 2012 by the acquisition of several television stations connected to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. ...
, and retain operational responsibilities for those stations through shared services and joint sales agreements.
At the time, no affiliation changes were expected.
On December 6, 2013, the FCC informed Sinclair that applications related to the deal need to be "amended or withdrawn," as Sinclair would retain an existing time brokerage agreement between WTTO and its satellite station, WDBB (channel 17); this would, in effect, create a new LMA between WBMA+ and WDBB, even though the commission had ruled in 1999 that such agreements made after November 5, 1996 covering the programming of more than 15% of a station's broadcast day would count toward the ownership limits for the brokering station's owner. A sale of WBMA and its satellites to a separate buyer was also not an option for Sinclair, as Allbritton wanted its stations to be sold together to limit the tax rate that the company would have had to pay from the accrued proceeds, which it estimated would have been substantially higher if the group was sold piecemeal.
On March 20, 2014, as part of a restructuring of the Sinclair-Allbritton deal in order to address these ownership conflicts as well as to expedite the Allbritton acquisition because of them due to the FCC's increased scrutiny of outsourcing agreements used to circumvent in-market ownership caps, Sinclair announced that it would retain ownership of WTTO (choosing to retain the LMA between that station and WDBB, and continue operating it as a satellite station of WTTO), and form a new duopoly between it and WBMA+; WABM was to be sold to a third-party buyer with which Sinclair would not enter into an operational outsourcing arrangement or maintain any contingent interest, other than a possible transitional shared facilities agreement until WTTO was able to move its operations from its longtime home on Beacon Parkway West to WBMA's facility in Hoover.
On May 29, 2014, however, Sinclair informed the FCC that it had not found a buyer for WABM (even among the market's three existing major station owners, WBRC owner
Raycom Media, then-WVTM owner
Media General and then-WIAT owner
LIN Media, neither of which operated an existing duopoly station in the Birmingham market, although the latter two groups were in the process of merging at the time) and proposed surrendering the licenses of WCFT and WJSU to the agency. Under the restructured plan, WBMA's programming would be added to WABM's main channel, which would result in the latter's syndicated and MyNetworkTV programming moving to its second digital channel on 68.2 (WBMA-LD itself, as a low-power station, would not be affected as FCC rules allow the ownership of low-power and full-power stations regardless of market ownership caps for duopolies).
Sinclair opted to retain WABM on the basis that its transmission facilities were superior to those of WCFT and WJSU; indeed, moving ABC programming to WABM would give ABC a full-power affiliate in Birmingham itself for the first time since 1996.
After nearly a year of delays, Sinclair's deal to acquire Allbritton was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014,
and was completed on August 1, 2014.
Sale to Howard Stirk Holdings
On September 18, 2014, in preparation for the planned shutdown of WCFT and WJSU eleven days later on September 29, WDBB and WABM both added simulcast feeds of WBMA-LD on their respective second digital subchannels (17.2 and 68.2).
Six days later on September 24, Sinclair filed an application with the FCC to sell the license assets of WCFT to Sinclair's partner company
Howard Stirk Holdings (a group owned by conservative political commentator
Armstrong Williams
Armstrong Williams (born February 5, 1962) is an American political commentator, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host. Williams writes a nationally syndicated conservative newspaper column, has hosted a daily radio show, and hosts a nationa ...
) for $50,000. As part of the deal, Sinclair agreed to forego any agreements with HSH to operate the station. Sinclair had reached a similar deal to sell (the original) WCIV in Charleston – another station that was set to be shut down as a result of a similar arrangement involving its MyNetworkTV affiliate in that market,
WMMP, due to a grandfathered LMA that station maintained (and subsequently decided to terminate) with Fox affiliate
WTAT – to Howard Stirk Holdings.
As a result of the deal, WCFT remained on the air past its scheduled September 29 sign-off date. In addition, as the near-concurrent sale of WJSU-TV to HSH in effect superseded the proposed surrender of its license, Sinclair requested that the FCC hold off on canceling the licenses until at least ten business days after acting on the proposed transaction. In order for Sinclair to continue operating WJSU and WCFT and maintain their existing licenses until the FCC ruled on the petition and the sale to HSH, the two stations began providing interim programming as affiliates of
Heartland
Heartland or Heartlands may refer to:
Businesses and organisations
* Heartland Bank, a New Zealand-based financial institution
* Heartland Inn, a chain of hotels based in Iowa, United States
* Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty organization i ...
(which both stations had been carrying on their third digital subchannels as WBMA satellites since the network launched as
The Nashville Network on November 1, 2012) on October 20, 2014; at that time, WJSU was essentially converted into a satellite of WCFT. The FCC approved the transfer of license of WCFT-TV and WJSU-TV to Howard Stirk Holdings on December 4, 2014.
On March 11, 2015, Howard Stirk Holdings was granted its application to change the call letters of WCFT to WSES;
concurrently, WJSU became WGWW.
On October 1, 2015, the station switched its primary affiliation from Heartland to Heroes & Icons.
Newscasts
When the station became an exclusive CBS affiliate in 1970, WSES – as WCFT-TV – established a small news department, with the debut of ''TV-33 News'', featuring story content focusing on Tuscaloosa and west-central Alabama that initially consisted of half-hour newscasts at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. each weeknight. Its newscasts were rebranded ''
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 New ...
'' in 1977, a title which continued to be used for the remainder of its tenure as an independently operated station. By the mid-1980s, newscasts were added on weekend evenings; weekday morning and 5:00 p.m. newscasts debuted on the station during the early 1990s. In sharp contrast to WBMG, WCFT-TV's newscasts were able to gain traction against two of the three established television news competitors from the nearby Birmingham market that existed prior to 1996 whose signals transmitted into the Tuscaloosa market; its newscasts were typically strong performers in the ratings in west-central Alabama for most of the 26-year run of its in-house news department, ranking ahead of WVTM and the Birmingham market's perennial first-place finisher WBRC.
As a result of Allbritton Communications' purchase of the station and subsequent announcement that the group would convert it into a full-power satellite of W58CK upon its assumption of the ABC affiliation, Allbritton announced in the spring of 1996 that it would shut down WCFT's Tuscaloosa-based news department, and convert its Skyland Boulevard studios into a news bureau for W58CK's news department, retaining a limited staff of reporters and photographers to produce story content focused on west-central Alabama that would be included within the latter's newscasts. Channel 33's news department ceased operations and aired its final in-house newscasts on August 31, 1996. W58CK launched its in-house news department the following day on September 1, when WCFT and WJSU were merged into the "ABC 33/40" trimulcast; at that time, WCFT's locally based newscasts were replaced by simulcasts of W58CK/WBMA's morning, midday and evening newscasts. Allbritton transferred certain members of WJSU's news staff to the W58CK/WBMA news department; most notably, main anchor Dave Baird – who remained with the successor news department as lead anchor until retiring in 2017 – was among the WCFT staffers that joined the new joint operation.
As a result of the station's sale to Howard Stirk Holdings and Sinclair's decision to move WBMA-LD's programming to a subchannel of WDBB, WCFT-TV discontinued all simulcasts of WBMA's newscasts on September 29, 2014.
Notable former on-air staff
*
Daniel Corbett
Daniel Corbett is an English broadcast meteorologist, who worked for the Met Office and the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC for many years until May 2011. He joined the Met Office and BBC Weather Centre in 1997, after beginning his career ...
– meteorologist (1995–1996; later at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
)
*
Rece Davis – general assignment reporter (1987–1990; now at
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
)
*
James Spann – part-time meteorologist (1978–1979; now chief meteorologist at
WBMA-LD)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the
multiplexed digital signal of WDBB:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WCFT-TV 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 33 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 relocated from its pre-transition
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 5 to UHF channel 33 for post-transition operations.
Upon the transition, WCFT relocated its transmitter facilities to a tower near
Windham Springs (located east of
Alabama State Route 69, near County Road 38/Blue Creek Road); the station's original transmitter tower (located off of
Interstates 20 and
59, near the Skyland Boulevard exit) continued in use as the homebase of WBMA+'s Tuscaloosa "TowerLink" camera until the tower was dismantled in early 2013.
ATSC 3.0
References
External links
{{HSH
SES
ATSC 3.0 television stations
Television channels and stations established in 1965
1965 establishments in Alabama
Heroes & Icons affiliates
Decades (TV network) affiliates
Start TV affiliates