WABM

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WABM
Birmingham, Alabama
Branding	My 68
Channels	68 (UHF) analog, 36 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	My Network TV
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Founded	1986
Call letters meaning	We've Got Alabama's Best Movies (or, Alabama BirMingham or AlaBaMa
Former affiliations	UPN (1995-2006)
Website	www.wabm68.com

WABM, channel 68, is the My Network TV affiliate of the Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa television market. WABM is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which also owns WTTO and WDBB.

[edit] History

It started in 1986 as an independent television station known with the call letters WCAJ, first carrying religious programming, some of which were Catholic shows from the nearby Eternal Word Television Network, as well as programming from the Southern Baptist Convention's ACTS Network. The original studios were located on the campus of Samford University. Due to poor ratings, it began airing home shopping programming and infomericals with religious shows part of the day.

In 1990 the station was sold to Krypton Broadcasting, who changed the call letters to WABM and switched the station to a general entertainment format with old movies, dramas, and westerns. In 1991, WDBB and WNAL ended their own programming schedule, and began simulcasting WTTO, combining assets at the same time. This resulted in WTTO owning more shows than it could air, so it sold to WABM some classic sitcoms and cartoons that WTTO would have no room to keep. At that point WABM had become a traditional independent station.

Despite a strong format, WABM trailed WTTO in the ratings. WABM had a disadvantage when it came to signal coverage: WTTO covered Birmingham as well as Gadsden and Tuscaloosa with Grade A signals, largely through its satellite stations, while WABM covered only Birmingham with a good signal, Tuscaloosa and Gadsden received a grade B signal, and WTTO had the Fox affiliation.

WABM also suffered because its owners Krypton were going through financial problems. Krypton sold WABM's sister stations in West Palm Beach (WTVX, channel 34) and Jacksonville (WNFT, channel 47, now WTEV-TV), then in 1993 WABM itself was sold to a small ownership group which would begin a local marketing agreement with WTTO, which was then owned by Abry. Under this local marketing agreement, WTTO and WABM pooled shows, the stations ran separate schedules, and WTTO sold ad time on WABM.

In early 1995, WABM became one of the charter affiliates of the UPN television network. By that time, the Sinclair Broadcast Group had bought out Abry, and they continued the LMA. They remained a UPN affiliate even through the Big Switch of '96, which saw longtime ABC affiliate WBRC switch over to Fox. In March 1998, Sinclair and UPN had a fallout, and as a result, WABM dropped UPN for nearly 6 months, airing syndicated movies instead. Sinclair and UPN would eventually come to an agreement, and WABM once again became a UPN affiliate. Sinclair would buy WABM outright in 2001.

Over the years, the station moved away from classic sitcoms, movies, and syndicated cartoons and aired more recent sitcoms as well as talk shows, reality shows, and court shows. They still continued to air cartoons on weekday mornings until the fall of 2003 when UPN ended its cartoon block nationally.

On March 1, 2006, Sinclair and Fox announced that WABM would become an affiliate of Fox's second network, My Network TV, in the fall of 2006, when UPN and the WB merged to form the CW Television Network, which is seen on WTTO. WABM is also considering taking Fox's 4Kids TV Saturday Morning kids block. WTTO had aired Fox Kids after losing the main Fox affiliation from 1996 until 2000, after that, it did not even air on WBRC, a situation that continues as 4Kids TV. This took effect on September 5, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Station's Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WABM

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 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 (MNTV)

UPN Network Affiliates in the state of Alabama Note: Networks in parenthesis indicate affiliations starting September 2006. Also, stations in bold are digital-only stations.
WHDF 15 (Florence, The CW) - WTVY-DT 36.2 (Dothan, The CW & MNTV) - WLGA 66 (Opelika, The CW) - WRJM 67 (Troy, MNTV) - WABM 68 (Birmingham, MNTV)
See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, WB and Other stations in Alabama