WBRC
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| WBRC | |
|---|---|
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| Birmingham, Alabama | |
| Branding | Fox 6 |
| Slogan | The Most Powerful Name in Local News |
| Channels | Analog: 6 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations, Inc. (sale pending to Local TV, LLC) |
| First air date | July 1, 1949 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Bell Radio Company (original owner of WBRC radio) |
| Former callsigns | WBRC-TV (1949-1999) |
| Former channel number(s) | 4 (1949-1953) |
| Former affiliations | Primary: NBC (1949-1954) CBS (1954-1961) ABC (1961-1996) Secondary: ABC (1949-1961) DuMont (1949-1953) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 420 m (analog) 373 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 71221 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.myfoxal.com |
WBRC, channel 6, "Fox 6" is the Fox O&O television station in the Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa, Alabama television market. Its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham.
WBRC's audio signal can be heard on 87.7 MHz on the FM dial in Birmingham and surrounding areas. This is because the audio signal of channel 6 is located at 87.75 MHz. This frequency assignment applies to all channel 6 television stations in countries using the NTSC-M standard.
Contents |
[edit] History
WBRC began operation on July 1, 1949 on channel 4 as an NBC affiliate. The station also carried secondary affiliations with ABC (shared with WAPI-TV, now WVTM-TV) and DuMont.[1] It was owned by Eloise D. Hanna along with WBRC-AM 960. The station's call letters stand for Bell Radio Company, after J.C. Bell, WBRC-AM's first owner.
It moved to channel 6 in 1953 to guard against signal interference with WSM-TV (now WSMV) in Nashville, which is due north of Birmingham. The Huntsville, Alabama TV market had not developed yet, and two stations occupying channel 4 100 miles equidistant made both stations unwatchable in extreme North Alabama with a VHF antenna. Later that year, Ms. Hanna sold the station to Storer Broadcasting. WBRC became a dual CBS/ABC affiliate in 1954. In that same year, WBRC-AM-FM-TV 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. Unusual for commercial broadcasters, Storer supported educational television and gave two transmitters in the Birmingham market (channels 7 and 10) to Alabama Public Television, which went on the air in 1955. In 1957, Storer sold WBRC to Taft Broadcasting of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1961, WBRC took the ABC affiliation full time, leaving WAPI 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. 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 ABC president Leonard Goldenson.
Another factor, though supposedly not as important as the Taft-Goldenson relationship, was CBS News' 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 had the full benefit of one of the South's strongest signals and biggest coverage areas. Also in 1972, Taft sold WBRC-AM-FM; the AM station is now WERC while the FM station is now WBPT.
WBRC was one of ABC's strongest affiliates over the 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 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and became known as Citicasters.
In the early spring of 1994, Citicasters agreed to sell two stations to New World Communications. The stations were:
- WDAF, Kansas City's NBC affiliate
- KSAZ, (formerly KTSP) Phoenix's CBS affiliate
But Citicasters would not be able to sell WBRC to New World. 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. As a result, New World decided to place WBRC and WGHP, High Point/Greensboro's ABC affiliate in a trust to WBRC/WGHP Holdings for sale to Fox and keep WVTM.
In May 1994, New World agreed to affiliate all of their 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, it was announced that WBRC and WGHP would be sold to Fox, but put in a trust until Fox could close on those stations. Fox assumed control of WBRC and WGHP in the summer of 1995 through local marketing agreements. Both stations officially became Fox-owned stations on January 17, 1996. Since WBRC's affiliation agreement with ABC did not expire until September 1996, Fox had to maintain ABC affiliation on WBRC for over a year. This also gave ABC time to find another affiliate to serve central Alabama.
WBRC, like WGHP originally did, 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. So 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. Today Fox only offers a Saturday Morning kids lineup; WBRC still refuses clearance. WGHP originally ran Fox Kids, but when Channel 20, in that market offered to pick it up in 1996, it moved off WGHP to that station.
The current weekday line-up includes The Tyra Banks Show, Judge Joe Brown, Divorce Court, COPS, Judge Judy, Judge Alex, Geraldo at Large, Bernie Mac, Malcolm In The Middle, M*A*S*H, King Of The Hill, and others.
Since the affiliation switch, the station has been known as "FOX6". It has gained the reputation of having one of the nation's highest-rated primetime newscasts: "FOX6 News at 9:00". It also airs 43 hours of locally produced news programming per week, the most in the market. It also has been the ratings leader in the market for the past few decades.
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 affiilations with all three of the historical 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 is now featured on virtually all Fox O&O station websites.
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 they had entered into an agreement to sell WBRC and seven other Fox O&O stations[2] to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV LLC, which currently owns nine stations formerly of The New York Times Company.
[edit] Previous owners of Channel 6
- 1949–1953: Birmingham Broadcasting Co.
- 1953–1957: Storer Broadcasting
- 1957–1987: Taft Broadcasting
- 1987–1993: Great American Broadcasting
- 1993–1994: Citicasters
- 1994–1995: WBRC/WGHP Trust(sale to Fox planned)
- 1995–2007: FOX Broadcasting
- 2007–2008: Local TV, LLC (Pending)
[edit] Chronology
[edit] David Neal Lawsuit
In May 2008, former chief meteorologist David Neal filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the station and members of the management team. According to lawsuit filings, Neal was fired in March.[3]
[edit] Notable Personalities
[edit] Current On-Air Talent
[edit] FOX6 Anchors
- Scott Richards - weekdays 5, 5:30, and 10PM
- Steve Crocker - weekdays 6 and 9PM
- Janet Hall - weekdays 5, 5:30, and 6PM
- Devon Walsh - weekdays 9 and 10PM
- Janice Rogers - weekdays "Good Day" and noon
- Rick Journey - weekdays "Good Day"
- Bill Bolen - weekdays "Good Day"
- Sarah Verser - weekdays "Good Day"
- Karen Church - weekend evenings
- Tiffany Bittner - weekend mornings
[edit] FOX6 Reporters
- Christie del Amo - general assignment reporter
- Jonathan Hardison - nightside reporter
- Sherea Harris - general assignment reporter
- Doug Luzader - FOX News Washington D.C. correspondent
- Chris Montana - general assignment reporter
- Ashley Nix - general assignment reporter
- Melanie Posey - general assignment reporter
- Kelvin Reynolds - Tuscaloosa bureau reporter
- Ronda Robinson - "FOX6 on Your Side" investigative reporter
[edit] FOX6 Traffic Anchor
- Brooke Davenport - weekdays "Good Day" traffic anchor/reporter
[edit] Meteorologists/Weather Anchors
- Mickey Ferguson - weekdays "Good Day" and noon
- Fred Hunter - weekend evenings, fill-in, also special assignment reporter (meteorologist)
- Dennis Washington - (meteorologist)
(the station is currently searching for a new lead meteorologist to replace the departed David Neal)
[edit] Sports Anchors/Reporters
- Rick Karle - weekdays 5, 6, 9, and 10PM
- Jeh Jeh Pruitt - weekdays at noon
- Sheldon Haygood - weekend evenings
- Mike Dubberly sports reporter
[edit] Notable past personalities
- Country Boy Eddie Burns: Longest produced programming, local Country Music Talent[4]
- 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)
- David Neal: Meteorologist
- 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; now at WIAT-TV)
- Jonathan Elias (Reporter 1988-1991, now at WBZ-TV in Boston)
- Mike Hogewood: Sports Anchor
- 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
- Art Franklin: News Anchor (currently on 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 in her hometown of Nashville)
[edit] References
- ^ Comcast
- ^ News Corporation
- ^ "Former weatherman David Neal sues Fox 6," Birmingham News, May 12, 2008.
- ^ Country Boy Eddy Burns
[edit] 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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