WVTM-TV

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WVTM-TV is the NBC affiliate station in the Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa, Alabama television market. The station is owned by Media General. Its transmitter is located on Red Mountain in Birmingham. NBC13's current news graphics package was created by Emmy Award winner Randy Pyburn of Pyburn Films, who originally created the package in 2003 for WNBC-TV in New York for their NewsChannel4 newscasts.

History

The station signed on the air on May 2, 1949 as WAFM-TV, owned by The Voice of Alabama, Inc. along with WAPI-AM 1070 and WAFM-FM 94.5 (now WYSF). It is Alabama's oldest television station. In the beginning, it carried programming from CBS and ABC.

In 1953, the Birmingham News bought Voice of Alabama and changed WAFM-TV's calls to WABT (for Alabama's Best Television). A year later, WABT switched its primary affiliation to NBC. In 1956, the Newhouse newspaper chain bought the News.

The station changed call signs again in 1958 when it became WAPI-TV to match its sister radio station WAPI-AM. When WBRC took the ABC affiliation full time in 1961, WAPI was forced to shoehorn both CBS and NBC into its schedule. This was rather unusual, since in most two-station markets both stations shared ABC programming. While WAPI tried to carry the most popular NBC and CBS shows (slightly favoring NBC), a lot of very popular shows weren't seen in Birmingham. One of the more popular shows that WAPI didn't clear was The Ed Sullivan Show, meaning that Birmingham viewers missed The Beatles' American debut unless they were lucky enough to pick up stations in Atlanta, Huntsville or Montgomery. WAPI strongly favored NBC for news, so when CBS and NBC expanded their news programs to 30 minutes, Walter Cronkite wasn't seen in Birmingham for a few years.

When WBMG-TV (now WIAT), signed on in 1965, it was nominally a CBS station, but CBS allowed WAPI to continue airing its higher-rated programming. In return, WBMG aired some leftover NBC programming (such as The Tonight Show); both stations listed "CBS/NBC" as their affiliation. In May 1970, the station became an exclusive NBC affiliate.

The Newhouses' company, Advance Publications, got out of broadcasting in the early 1980s. WAPI-TV was sold to Times-Mirror Broadcasting in 1980, and as a result the station became WVTM (for Vulcan Times-Mirror), and remains so to this day.

In the early 1990s, the station was purchased by Argyle Broadcasting. In 1994, New World Communications, which had recently cut an affiliation deal with Fox Broadcasting Company, agreed to purchase WVTM along with sister stations KTVI in St. Louis, KDFW in Dallas, and KTBC in Austin, Texas. However, New World also decided to purchase Great American Broadcasting, which owned WBRC. Great American agreed to exclude WBRC from its deal with New World, and to sell WBRC directly to Fox instead. As such, WVTM retained its NBC affiliation, while KTVI(former St. Louis ABC affiliate), KDFW (former Dallas/ Fort Worth CBS affiliate) and KTBC (former Austin CBS affiliate) became Fox affiliates. Fox operated WBRC as an ABC affiliate until 1996.

New World sold off all its stations in late 1996. Its Fox affiliates were sold to Fox outright, while its two NBC stations (WVTM and KNSD 39 San Diego) were sold to NBC.

The station also went through numerous name changes from NewsCenter13, to NewsWatch13 and its AM newscast 13 Alive to 13 Action News and then 13 and You, an ode to NBC and You to Alabama's 13, People Who Care to today's NBC13, We've Got You Covered. WVTM, currently known on air as NBC13, runs more than 35 hours of local news a week along with NBC network news.

Also in 2004, WVTM became the first television station in Alabama to obtain a 1-million watt doppler radar system dubbed "Skywatch Doppler One Million", located on Bald Rock Mountain in St. Clair County, Alabama. However, the station rarely uses the radar unless a serious weather situation threatens Central Alabama.

WVTM was one of four NBC O&Os in smaller markets that were put up for sale on January 9, 2006, along with WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio, and WNCN in Raleigh, North Carolina. On April 6 2006, NBC Universal and Media General announced that Media General would purchase WVTM-TV as part of a $600 million four station deal between the two companies[link]. Media General has announced that it will sell its existing station in Birmingham, WIAT, since the FCC doesn't allow one person to own two of the four largest stations in a single market. Media General closed on all four stations on June 26 2006, after the FCC granted the company a temporary waiver allowing it to keep both WVTM and WIAT for six months or until WIAT has found a buyer (whichever comes sooner). [link]

Newscast Titles

• NBC13 Today in Alabama - 5:00-7:00AM(Gina Redmond and Jim Dunaway)
• NBC13 Midday - 11:00AM-12:00PM (Gina Redmond and Jim Dunaway)
• NBC13 4:30 - 4:30-5:00PM (Fran Curry)
• NBC13 News at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30PM (Mike Royer and Elizabeth Artz)
• NBC13 News at 6:00 - 6:00-6:30PM (Mike Royer and Fran Curry)
• NBC13 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:35PM (Mike Royer and Fran Curry

Saturday

• NBC13 Saturday Today in Alabama - 8:00 - 9:00AM
• NBC13 News at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30PM
• NBC13 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:30PM

Sunday

• NBC13 Sunday Today in Alabama - 8:00 - 9:00AM
• NBC13 News at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30PM
• NBC13 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:35PM
• The Mike Shula Show (University of Alabama football coach's show) - 10:35-11:05PM (only during the college football season)
• NBC13 Sports Extra Sunday - 10:35-11:05PM (11:05-11:35PM during the college football season)

Notable past personalities

• Bob Jones: News Anchor
• Wendell Harris: News Anchor
• Ken Snow: News Anchor
• Pam Huff: News Anchor (currently on Birmingham's WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
• Phil Rozen: News Anchor
• Steve Sanders: News Reporter (currently on WGN-TV, Chicago)
• David Mattingly: News Reporter (currently on CNN)
• Gene Lively: News Anchor
• Mike Moore: News Anchor (currently on WGCL-TV, Atlanta)
• Buddy Rutledge: Sports Anchor
• Gary Sanders: Sports Anchor
• Scott Palmer: Sports Anchor
• Herb Winches: Sports Anchor
• Ken Lass: Sports Anchor, later Morning News Anchor
• Rosemary Lucas: Weather Reporter
• James Spann: Meterologist (currently on WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
• Larry Nobles: Meterologist

Past logos

Image:wafm_logo.jpg|One of the first WAFM slides from the late 1940's. Image:wabt_logo.jpg|WABT logo from the mid 1950's Image:WAPI Logo.jpg|This logo from when WVTM was WAPI in 1978; using the standard NBC font (Helvetica) at the time, as well as the infamous "N" logo. The 13 is almost the same font used for the current WVTM logo. Image:Wvtmnbc13.gif|WVTM logo from 1998 to 2005.

External links

• [WVTM Homepage]
• [Birmingham Rewound -- classic TV]
• [Birmingham TV News: Station Histories]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WVTM]

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)

'''NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Alabama
WSFA 12 () - WVTM 13 () - WPMI 15 () - WAFF 48 ()
See also: , , , , , and stations in Alabama

 

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