WIAT

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WIAT is the CBS affiliate in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston, Alabama television market. It is a UHF television station licensed to Birmingham, on analog channel 42. Its transmitter is located on Red Mountain, just by the city's southern edge.

History

As WBMG

The station signed on December 6, 1965 as WBMG (standing for BirMinGham). It was owned by Bill DuBois, a local investment banker. A minority owner was Southern Broadcasting, owners of radio station WSGN.

As was the case at the time with most UHF stations in markets served by at least two commercial VHF stations (NBC affiliate WAPI-TV, now WVTM-TV; and ABC affiliate WBRC-TV), WBMG experienced considerable competitive disadvantages from the outset. Many households didn't have TV sets capable of viewing UHF signals without a converter, since the FCC hadn't required TV manufacturers to include UHF tuning until the previous year. The station's signal also left much to be desired. As a result, although on paper WBMG took the CBS affiliation from WAPI, CBS continued to allow WAPI to air some of its more popular programming. WBMG was left with several lower-rated CBS shows, and filled the schedule with some NBC shows that WAPI turned down. One of them was, strangely, The Tonight Show. Both stations listed their affiliation as "CBS/NBC."

With a poor signal, the lack of sets with UHF capability and two of the South's oldest and most respected stations as competition, WBMG found the going rather difficult. But many of WBMG's problems were of its own making. Its newscasts often became comedy shows, likely due to the staff's perception of their futility against the longer-established WBRC and WAPI. For instance, sportscaster Tommy Charles wadded up scripts and tossed them over his shoulder after reading them. He also let balloons fly around the set for no apparent reason.

WBMG quickly gained notoriety in Central Alabama for its local shows, such as live studio wrestling, and the children's show "Sergeant Jack", which featured former WSGN radio disc jockey Neal Miller, who donned the uniform of a sheriff's deputy (and actually was sworn in as an honorary deputy by the Jefferson County sheriff himself) and engaged in fanciful banter with puppets.

WBMG became a full CBS affiliate when Park Communications bought the station in 1970. Even then, this was due to WAPI's decision for NBC, not WBMG's for CBS. Park tried to professionalize the newscasts in the 1970s with little success. WBMG had no local newscasts at all from 1980 until 1987 aside from hourly cut-ins. During this time, the station broadcast syndicated shows at both 5 and 10 pm. Even when local news returned in 1987, WBMG had no luck whatsoever competing with WVTM and WBRC. It was perenially one of CBS' weakest affiliates, in marked contrast to its competitors, who were two of their networks' strongest affiliates. It even trailed WTTO, an independent station (and later a Fox affiliate) that had only been on the air since 1982.

WBMG's ratings were so low that for several years, Birmingham-area viewers opted to watch CBS programming on two other stations in Central Alabama (WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa and WJSU-TV in Anniston) both of which reached Birmingham homes with UHF rooftop antennas. WCFT and WJSU regularly trounced WBMG in their respective cities, especially in Anniston since WBMG's signal didn't cover Anniston very well at the time. By the early 1990's, WBMG was only ahead of WABM in the Birmingham ratings.

In 1995, Fox purchased WBRC. ABC's deal with WBRC did not expire until September of 1996, so Fox continued to run WBRC as an ABC affiliate while ABC looked for a new station in Birmingham. It first approached WTTO, but broke off talks after WTTO would only offer a secondary affiliation with prime time and sports. ABC's second choice, WBMG, at least had a news department. Despite WBMG's weak ratings, ABC even offered to buy the station. Instead, WBMG signed a long-term deal with CBS. ABC then opted for a unique arrangement with WCFT and WJSU. The two stations would act as full-powered satellites of WBMA-LP, a low-powered station that didn't make it outside of Birmingham.

The switch took place in September. However, WBMG reaped almost no windfall from this switch and was still a distant 4th in the ratings. As a result, CBS affiliated with another Central Alabama station, WNAL-TV (now WPXH) in Gadsden, which put a fairly decent signal into the Birmingham area as well as Anniston. A major part of WBMG's problem was that Park didn't invest very much in the station from the late 1980s onward. Its on-air look was closer to that of a small-town independent station than a medium-market network affiliate. For example, its graphics would have been well suited to a station in the 1970s.

As WIAT

In 1997, Park Communications merged with Media General. However, WBMG stayed in the ratings basement with a mere 1% market share, trailing not only WVTM and WBRC but also WTTO and at times even WABM. Legend has it that even old repeats of Sanford and Son and The Andy Griffith Show beat WBMG's evening newscast. After only a few months, new general manager Eric Land had seen enough. On New Year's Day 1998, he cancelled the newscast and shut down the news department. Over the next month, channel 42 rebuilt its news department from scratch. During that time, the station showed a picture of a clock at 5, 6, and 10 p.m. -- the slots where the news used to air. The station's call letters were changed to WIAT, which stood for It's About Time, the station's new slogan. The new format debuted on February 5, 1998 -- the same day as the start of the Winter Olympics--with a new name, "CBS42 Daily News". The station does not have any on-air reporters, which is somewhat unusual for most modern TV stations.

Ratings improved somewhat, but many problems behind the scenes occurred involving on-air talent and management that led to lawsuits. However, that year the station received its first two Emmy Awards in station history. The station recently updated its graphics, set and newscast title to "News42, It's About Time".

WIAT has steadily improved its ratings in the last decade, and has been far more competitive than ever before. In fact, it has actually finished first in some timeslots.

Beginning in October of 2005 WIAT teamed with WB affiliate WTTO to begin producing a 9 p.m. newscast. Using the same set and anchors as WIAT and a modified graphics package, the WB21 News at 9 airs 7 days per week.

In April 2006, Media General bought four NBC owned and operated stations, including WVTM. Since the FCC does not allow one company to own two of the four largest stations in a single market, Media General opted to keep the higher-rated WVTM and sell WIAT to another owner. Among the rumored buyers are CBS and Belo, while other local parties have said to be interested. Another rumored buyer is Raycom Media, which has reportedly wanted a Birmingham station for years. [link]

As of May 2006, WIAT and the other three Media General stations put up for sale have been placed in a trust for sale to another company.

WIAT does not air a morning newscast, but reportedly will begin a morning show in May of 2007.

Previous Logos

image:WIAT1998.gif|WIAT's first logo as WIAT, used from 1998 until adopting the Media General-standard logo in 2004.

Newscast titles

Monday-Saturday

• News42 at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30PM
• News42 at 10:00 - 10:00-10:35PM

Sundays

• News42 at 5:30 - 5:30-6:00PM
• News42 at 10:00 - 10:00-10:35PM

Before adopting the "News42" title, they started out with "42 Daily News" on all their evening newscasts. Today, they use their evening news anchors and Meteorologists for the News 42 Morning cut-ins with CBS's "The Early Show".

Transmitter

The WIAT-TV Tower is a 363.9 metre high guyed mast, located at 30°41'17.0" N and 87°47'54.0" W. The WIAT-TV Tower was built in 1974.

• http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b17269
• http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=619869

External links

• [WIAT Homepage]
• [Birmingham Rewound -- classic TV]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WIAT]

Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Central Alabama (Birmingham / Anniston / Tuscaloosa) market  [(Nielsen DMA #40)]

WBXA-CA 2 (MTV2) - WBRC 6 (Fox) - WVUA-CA 7 (i/A1/ShopNBC) - WCIQ 7 / WBIQ 10 (PBS/APT) - WVTM 13 (NBC) - WOTM-LP 19 (Ind) - WTTO 21 / WDBB 17 (The WB/''The CW) - WUOA 23 (i/A1) - WJXS 24 (FamNet) - WBUN-CA 28 (Daystar) - WCFT 33 (ABC) - W34BI 34 (HSC) - WJSU 40 (ABC) - WIAT 42 (CBS) - WPXH 44 (i) - W49AY 47 (Ind/Rel.) - WOIL-LP 47 (Daystar)- WBMA 58 (ABC) - WTJP 60 (TBN) - WABM 68 (UPN/My Network TV)

'''CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Alabama
WTVY 4 () - WKRG 5 () - WAKA 8 () - WHNT 19 () - WIAT 42 ()
See also: , , , , , and stations in Alabama

 

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