| WBRC | |
|---|---|
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| Birmingham, Alabama | |
| Branding | Fox 6 |
| Slogan | The Most Powerful Name in Local News |
| Channels | |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Raycom Media, Inc. (WBRC License Subsidiary, LLC) |
| First air date | July 1, 1949 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Bell Radio Company (original owner of WBRC radio) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 4 (1949-1953) 6 (1953-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1949-1954) CBS (1954-1961) ABC (1961-1996, secondary until 1961) DuMont (secondary, 1949-1953) |
| Transmitter Power | 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 373 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 71221 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 33°29′21.2″N 86°47′56.1″W / 33.489222°N 86.798917°W |
| Website | www.myfoxal.com |
WBRC, broadcasts on digital channel 50, although through the use of PSIP technology the stations channel number appears as 6.1. WBRC is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Birmingham, Alabama designated market area. The station is owned by Raycom Media, and its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham. WBRC is a more news-intensive Fox station with 45 hours a week of locally-produced newscasts, as well as first-run prime time, late night and sports programming from Fox. It also runs off-network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows and court shows.
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History
WBRC-TV began operation on July 1, 1949, on channel 4 as an NBC affiliate. It was Alabama's second television station, signing on a few months after WAFM-TV (channel 13, now WVTM-TV). The station shared ABC programming with WAFM-TV, and also carried programming from the DuMont Television Network.[1] During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2]
At its outset, WBRC-TV was owned by Eloise D. Hanna and her Birmingham Broadcasting Company along with WBRC radio (960 AM). The station's call letters stand for Bell Radio Company, after J.C. Bell, the founder of WBRC radio.[3] In 1953, WBRC-TV was moved to channel 6 as part of an FCC-ordered frequency realignment. This move was made in order for WBRC-TV to avoid interference with WSM-TV (now WSMV) in Nashville, which also operated on channel 4; the two stations' respective signals suffered from interference problems in northern Alabama.
Later on in 1953, Eloise Hanna also sold the WBRC stations to Storer Broadcasting. George B. Storer, the company's founder and chairman, was a member of the CBS board of directors, and most of his stations operated as CBS affiliates. Storer may have used his leverage to secure a primary CBS affiliation for WBRC-TV in 1954. The NBC affiliation moved to WAPI-TV, and both stations retained a secondary affiliation with ABC. Also in 1954, the WBRC stations moved to a new studio built by Storer, where channel 6 remains today. The studio, like many of those built by Storer, resembled an antebellum mansion. Unusually for commercial broadcasters, Storer supported educational television, and the company gave two transmitters and frequencies in the general Birmingham area (channels 7 and 10) to Alabama Educational Television.
In 1957, Storer sold the WBRC stations to Taft Television and Radio Company. Storer had to sell its Birmingham cluster after it purchased WIBG in Philadelphia and WPFH in Wilmington, Delaware in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission ownership limits in effect at the time.
In 1961, WBRC took the ABC affiliation full time, leaving channel 13 (by then known as WAPI-TV) to share CBS and NBC. This was very unusual for a market with only two commercial stations. Usually, one or both stations carried ABC as a secondary affiliation, since ABC would not be on anything resembling an equal footing with CBS and NBC until the 1970s. However, Taft had very good relations with ABC. Most of Taft's TV stations were ABC affiliates, including its flagship station, WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, which was one of ABC's strongest affiliates. Also, Taft's chairman was a personal friend of the ABC president Leonard Goldenson.
Another factor, though supposedly not as important as the Taft-Goldenson relationship, was CBS News's apparent strong support of the Civil Rights Movement, which did not sit well with a large segment of WBRC's audience. ABC had very few full-time affiliates south of Washington, D.C. at the time, but now it had the full benefit of one of the South's strongest signals, best antenna locations, and largest coverage areas.
Like many network affiliates, WBRC-TV would pre-empt ABC programming occasionally or regularly, in some cases. For example, during the 1960s, WBRC pre-empted the daytime soap opera Dark Shadows. And during the late 1970s, the station tape-delayed Charlie's Angels from it's network-scheduled time slot on Wednesday nights to Saturdays. Ironically, both of these programs featured in their casts actress Kate Jackson, a native of Birmingham.
In 1972, Taft sold WBRC-AM-FM. That AM radio station is now WERC while the FM station is now WBPT.
WBRC was one of ABC's strongest affiliates for years. For a time, it lodged the ABC dot logo inside its own "6" logo (just as it had done with the CBS eye in the 1950s).
In late 1987, Taft was restructured into Great American Broadcasting after a hostile takeover. In December 1993, Great American Broadcasting was restructured again after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and became known as Citicasters. Citicasters then decided to put most of its television stations up for sale.
In the winter of 1993-1994, Citicasters agreed to sell two of its stations to New World Communications--WDAF-TV in Kansas City and KSAZ-TV in Phoenix, Arizona. WBRC and WGHP in High Point, North Carolina were originally slated to be included in the deal as well. However, a month before, New World agreed to buy four stations owned by Argyle Communications, including Birmingham's WVTM. Federal Communications Commission rules at the time dictated that one company could not own two stations in the same market. In addition, the acquisitions put New World two television stations over the FCC-mandated 12-station limit in effect at the time.
In May 1994, New World agreed to affiliate all of its stations with Fox except for WVTM and KNSD in San Diego which remained affiliated with NBC; these were subsequently purchased by that network. At that same time, Citicasters sold WBRC and WGHP to Fox, but put in a trust until Fox could close on those stations. Fox assumed control of WBRC and WGHP in September 1995 through local marketing agreements, and closed on the purchase on January 17, 1996. Since WBRC's affiliation agreement with ABC did not expire until September 1996, Fox had to run WBRC as an ABC affiliate for over a year. This also gave ABC time to find another affiliate to serve central Alabama.
WBRC was originally going to run Fox Kids in the 1 to 4 p.m. slot, but once it was determined that soon to be former Fox affiliate WTTO would be left an independent, it opted to let WTTO keep the Fox Kids programming. As a Fox affiliate, WBRC has aired only the prime-time and weekend sports programming of the Fox network. Even in 2000 when WTTO dropped Fox Kids, WBRC still did not pick it up. Fox offered a Saturday Morning kids lineup programmed by 4Kids Entertainment until the programming block (4Kids TV) went off the air on December 27, 2008; WBRC never picked it up. 4Kids TV has since been succeeded by the new Weekend Marketplace infomercial block, but WBRC still declined to pick it up (it currently airs on MyNetworkTV affiliate WABM).
Since the affiliation switch, the station has been known as "FOX6". The station moved its 10 pm newscast to 9 pm after formally joining Fox. For most of the last decade, "FOX6 News at 9:00" has been one of the highest-rated primetime newscasts in the country. It also airs 43 hours of locally produced news programming per week, the most in the market. It has been the ratings leader in the market for most of the last quarter-century, dating to its time with ABC.
Soon thereafter, it ceased production and broadcasting of local segments of the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon; WBRC was the first station to broadcast the telethon starting back in the 1940s. National celebrities would fly in to appear on this telethon and it was from WBRC that it moved to national prominence. Even in its waning moments at WBRC, the UCP Telethon would air locally produced mini-documentaries from WBRC (produced by Randy Mize and Tom Stovall).
WBRC is one of only a few stations in the country to have had primary affiliations with all of the Big Three networks, and the only one in the country to have had primary affiliations with all four current major networks. The station was also one of the first Fox O&O's to launch a website with the MyFox interface, which features video, more detailed news, and a consistent interface that was featured on virtually all Fox O&O station websites until late January and early February 2009 when the Fox O&O station websites (still using their existing MyFox addresses and branding) were redesigned to use a less-flashy design very similar to those of the websites of television stations owned by the LIN TV Corporation (which are also operated by Fox Interactive Media).
When Media General completed its acquisition of WVTM from NBC on June 26, 2006, WBRC became the only network O&O in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston market. However, on December 22, 2007, Fox announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell WBRC and seven other Fox O&O stations[4] to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV, which was built around the former television division of The New York Times Company. The sale of the station to Local TV became official on Monday, July 14, 2008.
On January 6, 2009, Local TV announced that it would be swapping WBRC to Raycom Media in exchange for that company's WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia. [5] Raycom is headquartered in Montgomery, the market just to the south of Birmingham, and also owns that market's NBC affiliate WSFA as well as WAFF, the NBC affiliate in Huntsville, the market just to the north of Birmingham. The transfer closed on March 31, 2009 [6]. Oddly James-Paul Dice still does spots promoting WHNT weather in the Huntsville TV market with the Fox 6 logo in the background. WHNT is #2 in news and WAFF is #1 in news in that market. WAFF is the sister station of WBRC.
In late January 2009, most of the former Fox O&Os now owned by Local TV migrated their websites to the Tribune Interactive platform. This was a result of the broadcast management agreement between Local TV and Tribune Broadcasting which was announced in late 2007 and officially launched in mid-2008. However, WBRC's website remained in the MyFox format with a design nearly identical to the recently redesigned websites of Fox O&Os until late June 2009 when the site (still using its MyFox address) was relaunched through Raycom's interactive partner WorldNow.
News Operation
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WBRC broadcasts a total of 45 hours of local news a week (7½ hours on weekdays, 3½ hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays), more than any other television station in the state of Alabama. After WBRC became a Fox affiliate in 1996, the station has placed more emphasis on its newscasts, maintaining a newscast schedule very similar to a ABC, CBS or NBC affiliate, along with additional 7-9AM and 5:30-6PM newscasts, and the hour-long primetime 9PM newscast. The station is one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (at 10PM Central time, in WBRC's case; and one of the few Fox stations running a 10PM (or 11PM) newscast seven nights a week), in addition to the primetime (9PM) newscast, along with one of the few to continue their Big Three-era 10PM newscast after the affiliation switch.
FOX6 Notable Personalities
Current On-Air Talent
(as of April 26, 2009) Current Anchors
- Tiffany Bittner - weekend mornings
- Bill Bolen - weekday mornings "Good Day" (5-7AM)
- Karen Church - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 and 10PM
- Steve Crocker - weeknights at 6 and 9PM
- Janet Hall - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 6PM
- Rick Journey - weekday mornings "Good Day" (7-9AM)
- Janice Rogers - weekday mornings "Good Day" (5-7AM) and noon
- Scott Richards - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 10PM
- Sarah Verser - weekday mornings "Good Day" (7-9AM)
Reporters
- Jonathan Hardison - nightside reporter
- Sherea Harris - general assignment reporter
- Fred Hunter - "Absolutely Alabama" special assignment reporter & meteorologist
- Doug Luzader - Fox News Washington D.C. correspondent
- Ashley Nix - general assignment reporter
- Melanie Posey - general assignment reporter
- Kelvin Reynolds - Tuscaloosa bureau reporter
- Ronda Robinson - "FOX6 on Your Side" investigative reporter
FOX6 Weather Team
- James Paul Dice - Chief Meteorologist, weekdays at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10PM
- Mickey Ferguson - Weekday mornings "Good Day" and noon
- Fred Hunter - Meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 and 10PM (also fill-in meteorologist and special assignment reporter)
- Sara Sanders - Meteorologist; weekend mornings
- Dennis Washington - fill-in meteorologist
FOX6 Sports
- Rick Karle - Sports Anchor; weekdays at 5, 6, 9, and 10PM
- Sheldon Haygood - Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 and 10PM
- Jeh Jeh Pruitt - Sports Anchor; weekdays at noon
- Mike Dubberly - sports reporter
Notable past personalities
- Country Boy Eddie Burns: Longest produced programming, local Country Music Talent
- Chris Montana - "That's Life" general assignment reporter
- Brooke Allen - weekdays "Good Day" traffic anchor/reporter
- Harry Mabry: News Anchor (deceased)
- Joe Langston: News Anchor
- Bev Montgomery: News Anchor
- Brenda Ladun: News Anchor (currently on Birmingham's WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
- Taylor Henry: Reporter, Tuscaloosa Bureau Chief (now News Director, KNOE-TV, Monroe, LA)
- Linda Mays: News Anchor (currently on WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
- Andrea Lindenburg: News Anchor (currently morning news anchor on Birmingham's WVTM)
- Devon Walsh: News Anchor (Left to move to her hometown of Mobile; now morning anchor at WKRG)
- David Neal: Meteorologist (weekend weather on WIAT starting October 10)
- Larry Langford: News Reporter (mayor of Birmingham)
- Shelia Smoot: News Reporter (currently on the Jefferson County Commission)
- Tom York: Sports Anchor and host of WBRC's long running The Morning Show
- Herb Winches: Sports Anchor (was at WJOX-AM from 1990-2006; at WIAT-TV) for several years before leaving.
- Jonathan Elias (Reporter 1988-1991, now at WBZ-TV in Boston)
- Mike Hogewood: Sports Anchor (currently lead broadcaster for the Atlantic Coast Conference)
- Gil Tyree: Weekend Sports Anchor (currently on WGCL in Atlanta)
- Eli Gold: Sports Anchor (currently the voice of University of Alabama football & hosts the weekly NASCAR Live radio call in show on MRN.
- Mike Raita: Sports Anchor (currently on WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
- Fannie Flagg: Co-host of The Morning Show during the 1960s
- Pat Gray: Weather Reporter
- Mike Royer: Meteorologist (currently news anchor on Birmingham's WVTM)
- James Spann: Meteorologist (currently on WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
- Ted Klimasewski ("Dr. Ted K"): Meteorologist (currently fill-in meteorlogist at WJXS-TV)
- Art Franklin: News Anchor (retired in May 2008 from WAGA-TV in Atlanta, GA)
- Wynette Byrd (Tammy Wynette) was a regular performer on WBRC's Country Boy Eddie Show prior to her move to Nashville
- Bruce Cunningham Sports Anchor (currently on WBFF-TV in Baltimore)
- Donna Hamilton: Co-host "The Morning Show" and "PM Magazine" (currently on WBAL-TV in Baltimore)
- Brandy Malone: Traffic Reporter (left for a traffic job on WZTV-TV in her hometown of Nashville)
David Neal lawsuit
In May 2008, former chief meteorologist and Gadsden native David Neal filed a breach-of-contract and fraud lawsuit against the station and members of the management team. According to lawsuit filings, Neal was fired in March. The station had taken him off the air without explanation the previous month.[7] The station denied wrongdoing, and began defending the lawsuit.[8] In July 2008, the station announced that Neal's permanent replacement would be James-Paul Dice, formerly of WHNT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama.[9] On July 29, 2008, the parties to the lawsuit filed a stipulation of dismissal, stating that the dispute had been resolved in mediation. Terms of the settlement were not immediately disclosed.[10]
News/Station presentation
Newscast titles
- Total News (1976-1982)
- Channel 6 News (1982-1984)
- BRC 6 News (1984-1986)
- Channel 6 News (1986-1996)
- Fox 6 News (1996-present)
Station slogans
- You're On Top Of It All (1979-1980)
- Movin' Ahead (1980-1983)
- Your 24-Hour News Source (late 1980s-early 1990s)
- Your 24-Hour News Team (early 1990s-1996)
- Alabama's 24-Hour News Team (1996-1998)
- Coverage You Can Count On (1998-2007)
- The Most Powerful Name in Local News (2007-present)
References
- ^ http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bham.rewound/radio-tv.htm
- ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1
- ^ Nelson, Bob (2008-10-18). "Call Letter Origins". The Broadcast Archive. http://nelson.oldradio.com/origins.call-list.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-31.
- ^ News Corporation
- ^ Raycom, Local TV to Swap Stations - 1/6/2009 6:28:00 PM - Broadcasting & Cable
- ^ Local TV Closes on WTVR
- ^ "Still No Sign of David Neal on Fox 6," The Birmingham News, March 26, 2008, p. 3C
- ^ "Meteorologist Sues Fox 6 Over Firing," The Birmingham News, May 13, 2008, p. 1B
- ^ "Fox 6 Hires Dice as Chief Meterologist," The Birmingham News, July 19, 2008, p. 2C
- ^ Fox 6, David Neal Settle Lawsuit, The Birmingham News, July 30, 2008
External links
- MyFoxAL.com Site
- Birmingham Rewound: Radio-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WBRC
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WBRC-TV
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