WTSG-LD
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

WALB (channel 10) is a television station in Albany, Georgia, United States, serving Southwestern Georgia as an affiliate of NBC and
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
. It is owned by
Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
alongside low-power CW+ affiliate
WGCW-LD WGCW-LD (channel 36) is a low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power television station in Albany, Georgia, United States, affiliated with The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside dual NBC/American Broadcasting Company, ABC affilia ...
(channel 36). Both stations share studios on Stuart Avenue in Albany, while WALB's transmitter is located east of Doerun, along the ColquittWorth county line.


History

The station signed on the air on April 7, 1954, and was owned by Gray Communications (now Gray Television) along with WALB radio (1590 AM) and '' The Albany Herald''. It is one of only two full-power stations to have been built and signed on by the company, the other being
WCAV-TV WCAV (channel 19) is a television station in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. It is owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group alongside low-power ABC affiliate WVAW-LD (channel 16). Both stations share studios on ...
in
Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...
(which it no longer owns). When the radio station's studios were built back in 1953, Stuart Avenue was a dirt road running through a pecan grove. For its first three years on-air, WALB-TV transmitted an
analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...
signal on VHF channel 10 from a tower at its studios. As the first television outlet in Albany, it was a primary NBC affiliate with secondary relations with ABC and DuMont.History of WALB
/ref> The latter network was dropped in 1955 when it shut down and ABC remained on WALB until 1980 when WVGA (now WSWG) started up in
Valdosta Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2021 had a ...
. The station moved to a tower near Doerun was built in 1957. The radio station was sold in 1960 to Allen Woodall, Sr. and became known as WALG to distinguish itself from the television station. In March 1976, a fire destroyed WALB's main broadcasting facilities but did not damage its offices. WALB was a major beneficiary of a quirk in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s plan for allocating stations. In the early days of broadcast television, there were twelve VHF channels available and 69
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 ...
channels (later reduced to 55 in 1983). The VHF bands were more desirable because they carried longer distances. Since there were only twelve VHF channels available, there were limitations as to how closely the stations could be spaced. After the FCC's ''Sixth Report and Order'' ended the license freeze and opened the UHF band in 1952, it devised a plan for allocating VHF licenses. Under this plan, almost all of the country would be able to receive two commercial VHF channels plus one noncommercial channel. Most of the rest of the country ("1/2") would be able to receive a third VHF channel. Other areas would be designated as "UHF islands" since they were too close to larger cities for VHF service. The "2" networks became CBS and NBC, "+1" represented
non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was or ...
stations, and "1/2" became ABC (which was the weakest network usually winding up with the UHF allocation where no VHF was available). However, Albany is sandwiched between
Dothan Dothan is a place-name from the Hebrew Bible, identified with Tel Dothan. It may refer to: * Dothan, Alabama, a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties in the U.S. state of Alabama * Dani Dothan, lyricist and vocalist for the Israeli rock and ne ...
(channels 2 and 4) to the west,
Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...
(channels 3, 7, and 9) and Macon (channel 13) to the north, Tallahassee (channels 6 and 11) to the south, and
Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
(channels 3, 9, and 11) and Jacksonville/ Brunswick (channels 4, 7, and 12) to the east. This created a large "doughnut" in southwestern Georgia where there could only be ''one'' VHF license. Although there were no stations on channels 5 or 8 in the immediate area, channel 5 was occupied in Atlanta and Gainesville while channel 8 was allocated to Waycross (which is part of the Jacksonville market); these cities are too close to Albany to reallocate. As a result, WALB remained the only television station in Southwest Georgia until WXGA-TV began broadcasting from Waycross in 1961 (although that station serves the Jacksonville area). Until 1983, WALB was the default NBC affiliate for Tallahassee. Although
WTWC-TV WTWC-TV (channel 40) is a television station in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC and Fox. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Deerlake South in unincorporated Leon County, Florida, northwe ...
has been that area's affiliate since then, WALB still provides city-grade coverage to almost all of the Georgia side of the Tallahassee market and Grade B coverage to the city itself. WALB dropped the -TV suffix to its call sign in 1993, even though channel 10 and its radio sister had gone their separate ways three decades earlier. As a result of
flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...
ing caused by Tropical Storm Alberto, WALB stayed on-the-air with non-stop 24-hour coverage to alert citizens and provide a vital link between the public and government agencies. In 1996, Gray bought WCTV in Tallahassee. The FCC told Gray that it could not keep both WCTV and WALB due to channel 10's aforementioned coverage in Tallahassee; indeed, WCTV had long claimed Albany as part of its secondary coverage area. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with large signal overlaps, and would not even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap. As a result, Gray sold WALB to Cosmos Broadcasting, the broadcasting division of Liberty Corporation, in 1998. Liberty sold off its insurance business in 2000, and Cosmos came directly under the Liberty banner. However, Gray continued to maintain its Albany administrative offices (located in the ''Albany Herald'' building), until 2015. It returned to its hometown in WSWG in Valdosta that serves Albany. WALB's original digital signal on
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 17 started operating from the Doerun tower in 2001. In June 2002, WALB donated over 1,600 cans of newsfilm to The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia. The collection contains raw news footage from Albany and surrounding areas from 1961 to 1978, including coverage of the
Albany Movement The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commit ...
. WALB launched
NBC Weather Plus NBC Weather Plus was an American weather-oriented digital broadcast and cable television network owned as a joint venture between NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC television network. The service, which was broadcast in standard d ...
in 2005 on a new 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 compress ...
. Known as "WALB 24/7 Weather", the service gave continuous
forecasts Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data. Later these can be compared (resolved) against what happens. For example, a company might estimate their revenue in the next year, then compare it against the actual ...
for up to thirty cities around Southwestern Georgia. After NBC Weather Plus shut down in December 2008, WALB-DT2 became part of This TV. Liberty merged with Raycom Media in 2005. Raycom already owned
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WFXL WFXL, virtual channel 31 ( VHF digital channel 12), is a Fox- affiliated television station licensed to Albany, Georgia, United States, and serving Southwestern Georgia. The station is owned by the Hunt Valley, Maryland–based Sinclair Broadca ...
, and could not keep both stations because Albany has only four full-power stations—not enough to legally permit a duopoly. Raycom opted to keep WALB and sell WFXL and eleven other stations to
Barrington Broadcasting Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC, headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois was an American corporation focused on broadcast television, primarily in middle and small size media markets. Barrington owned or operated via duopoly twenty-four televi ...
. On June 1, 2006, a military chopper traveling from
Hunter Army Airfield Hunter Army Airfield , located in Savannah, Georgia, United States, is a military airfield and subordinate installation to Fort Stewart located in Hinesville, Georgia. Hunter features a runway that is 11,375 feet (3,468 m) long and an aircr ...
in Savannah to Fort Rucker in Alabama for a training mission hit a guy wire connected to WFXL's tower resulting in a crash. While the tower remained standing and intact (other than the guy wire), the station was forced to temporarily cease its over-the-air signal although broadcasts on cable were not affected. If its tower collapsed, this could have also caused the tower of WALB to topple as both were only apart. As a result, Raycom (which at that time still operated WFXL while the sale to Barrington awaited FCC approval) acquired auxiliary transmitters and antennas for both WALB and WFXL which were installed at the tower at WALB's studios in Albany. On June 7, WFXL's tower was demolished but in doing so one of the tower's guy wires wrapped around one for WALB's tower as feared. As a result, WALB's tower collapsed in an incident shown on live television. Since both stations were already transmitting signals from the tower at the WALB studios, the two were still on-the-air although at low-power. Thirteen months later, WALB and WFXL's new tower in Doerun was completed and began broadcasting on July 3, 2007 at 11:35 p.m. It was announced on November 19, 2010 that WALB would begin airing ABC on its second digital subchannel scheduled to begin in early 2011. The subchannel officially joined ABC on April 27, 2011; prior to this, WTXL-TV had been carried on most cable systems in Southwestern Georgia since January 1992, when a plane crash forced WVGA to initially cease operations (some cable customers received ABC programming via the network's affiliates in Columbus, Atlanta, and Gainesville). Raycom affiliated 26 stations including WALB for multiple years with
Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans", the channel fe ...
at the network's fall 2011 launch. On June 25, 2018, Gray Television announced its intent to acquire Raycom for $3.65 billion. Gray had already owned WSWG-TV, which had served as a semi-satellite of WCTV in Tallahassee, and as such, Gray was required to sell either WALB-TV or WSWG due to FCC ownership regulations prohibiting common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market (as well as more than two stations in any market). Gray announced that it would keep WALB-TV and sell WSWG to an unrelated third party. On August 16, it was announced that
Marquee Broadcasting Marquee Broadcasting, Inc. is a small broadcasting company which owns several television stations in the United States. History Marquee began in 2013 when its owners, Brian and Patricia Lane, announced its intent to acquire WMDT and its repeater, ...
, who had owned
WSST-TV WSST-TV (channel 55) is a television station licensed to Cordele, Georgia, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Marquee Broadcasting alongside Valdosta-licensed CBS affiliate WSWG (channel 44). WSST-TV's studios (which also ...
, would purchase WSWG for an undisclosed set of price. The sale was approved by the FCC on December 20. The sale was completed on January 2, 2019, returning WALB to the original ownership that brought it on the air.


News operation

As of 2021, WALB presently broadcasts 26 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours each weekday, and an hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). For many years, WALB was the only big three affiliate to produce local news that actually focused on Albany. For most of WSWG's early tenure as a CBS affiliate, it served as a
semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
of WCTV in Tallahassee and simulcasted that station's newscasts with no Southwestern Georgia-specific segments. This changed when Gray sold off WSWG after reacquiring WALB; WSWG has since launched its own news operation. In 2004, WALB gave its news operation a complete makeover renaming itself from ''NewsCenter 10'' to ''WALB News 10''. It also changed its logo as part of a graphics change. However, it kept the "little one, big zero" 10 which has been part of the logo since the late 1970s at the earliest. This is similar to sister station WIS in Columbia, South Carolina. The station also changed its music from "The Team to Watch", composed by VTS Productions to "The Tower", composed by 615 Music, which was used by many other NBC affiliates. Continuing its modernization, WALB built a new set in 2005 replacing the previous one used for at least twelve years. Its weekday morning show, ''Today in Georgia'', was expanded to a full two hours (from 5 to 7 a.m.) beginning September 10, 2007 coinciding with the expansion of '' Today'' to a four-hour program. On August 4, 2012, WALB upgraded local news production to high definition level. The change made it the second station in the market to perform the upgrade (WSWG's simulcast of WCTV's news programs was first back on August 3, 2009). With the addition of ABC to WALB-DT2, there are simulcasts of local newscasts from the main NBC channel. More specifically, this includes the second hour of ''Today in Georgia'', its midday show at noon, as well as weeknight newscasts at 6 and 11. In addition, the area's first prime time broadcast at 7 was added on weeknights that is exclusive to the ABC subchannel. Weekend newscasts are simulcast on both of WALB's NBC and ABC channels although there can be a delay or pre-emption on one due to network obligations. On September 6, 2016, WALB added a half-hour of news at 4 p.m., ''WALB News 10 – First News at 4.''


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:


Analog-to-digital conversion

WALB shut down its analog signal, over
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 10, 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 UHF channel 17 to VHF channel 10 for post-transition operations.


References


External links

*
WALB Newsfilm Collection
from the Digital Library of Georgia {{DEFAULTSORT:Walb Television channels and stations established in 1954
ALB The alb (from the Latin ''albus'', meaning ''white''), one of the liturgical vestments of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed and Congregational churches, is an ample white garment coming down to the ank ...
NBC network affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Gray Television 1954 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)