WBRC

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WBRC, channel 6, FOX6 is the Fox O&O Station in the Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa, Alabama television market. Its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham.

History

WBRC began operation on July 4, 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 and later that year, Ms. Hanna sold the station to Storer Broadcasting. WBRC became a dual CBS/ABC affiliate in 1954. In the 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. In 1957, Storer sold WBRC to Taft Broadcasting of Cincinnati.

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 not as important as the Taft-Goldenson relationship, was CBS News' apparent strong support of the Civil Rights Movement, which didn't 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. Nonetheless, WBRC would not clear the network's news programming until 1972, and pre-empted a large amount of other network shows over the years as well. 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.

File:WBRCTV-Taft logo.jpg
WBRC logo from 1970's to 1989 when it was owned by Taft Broadcasting

In the early spring of 1994, Citicasters agreed to sell four stations to New World Communications. Besides WBRC, the stations were:

A month before though, 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 opt to place WBRC and WGHP in a trust for sale to another company 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 determined 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 in January 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 was originally going to run Fox Kids in the 1 to 4 pm 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.

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 traditional leader in the market for the past few decades, with WVTM a close second.

Soonthereafter, it ceased production and broadcasting of local segments of the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon, which has it roots with the station. WBRC was the first station to broadcast the telethon starting back in the 1940s. National Celebrities would fly in to be on this telethon and it was from there that it moved to national prominence. Even in it waning moments at WBRC, the UCP Telethon would air locally produced mini documentary from WBRC (Producers Randy Mize / Tom Stovall). In addition, Other locally produced programming with non news oriented themes were removed to make way for more news programming (i.e. Birmihgham Zoo Crew, Country Boy Eddie, Bill Bolen's Religious Programming).

WBRC is one of only a few stations in the country to have had primary affiilations with all three of the historical networks, and one of only two in the country (the other being KEVN-TV in Rapid City, South Dakota) to have had primary affiliations with all four current major networks. The station is 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 will launch across all Fox O&O station websites in the next few months.

When Media General completed its acquisition of WVTM on June 26 2006, WBRC became the only network O&O in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston market.

Newscast titles

  • Good Day Alabama - 5:00-9:00 a.m. (Bill Bolen, Janice Rogers, Rick Journey and Sarah Verser)
  • FOX6 News at Noon - 12:00-12:30 p.m. (Janice Rogers)
  • FOX6 News at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30 p.m. (Scott Richards and Janet Hall)
  • FOX6 News at 5:30 - 5:30-6:00 p.m. (Scott Richards and Janet Hall)
  • FOX6 News at 6:00 - 6:00-6:30 p.m. (Steve Crocker and Janet Hall)
  • FOX6 News at 9:00 - 9:00-10:00 p.m. (Steve Crocker and Devon Walsh)
  • FOX6 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:35 p.m. (Scott Richards and Devon Walsh)

Saturday

  • FOX6 News Saturday Morning - 7:00-8:30 a.m. (Tiffany Bittner)
  • FOX6 News at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30 p.m. (Karen Church
  • FOX6 News at 9:00 - 9:00-10:00 p.m. (Karen Church)
  • FOX6 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:30 p.m. (Karen Church)

Sunday

  • FOX6 News Sunday Morning - 7:00-9:00 a.m. (Tiffany Bittner)
  • FOX6 News at 5:00 - 5:00-5:30 p.m. (Karen Church)
  • FOX6 News at 9:00 - 9:00-9:30 p.m. (Karen Church)
  • FOX6 Sports Sunday - 9:30-10:00 p.m. (Rick Karle)
  • FOX6 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:35 p.m. (Karen Church)

Notable past personalities

  • Country Boy Eddie Burns: Longest produced programming, local Country Music Talent[2]
  • Harry Mabry: News Anchor
  • Joe Langston: News Anchor
  • Bev Montgomery: News Anchor
  • Brenda Ladun: News Anchor (currently on Birmingham's WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
  • Linda Mays: News Anchor (currently on WBMA/WCFT/WJSU)
  • Andrea Lindenburg: News Anchor
  • Larry Langford: News Reporter (currently serving on the Jefferson County, Alabama Commission)
  • Shelia Smoot: News Reporter (also 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; will be joining WERC-AM and WIAT-TV in February, 2007)
  • Jonathan Elias (Reporter 1988-1991, now at KNXV Phoenix)
  • Mike Hogewood: Sports Anchor
  • Gil Tyree: Weekend Sports Anchor (currently on WGCL in Atlanta)
  • Eli Gold: Sports Anchor
  • 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)
  • Sherea Harris: News Reporter (was at WHNT in Huntsville, AL)

External links

  1. ^ http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bham.rewound/radio-tv.htm
  2. ^ http://www.alamhof.org/burnsed.htm
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