WBRC

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WBRC
Birmingham, Alabama
Branding	FOX6
Slogan	The Most Powerful Name in Local News.
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 50 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Fox Television Stations Group
Founded	July 4, 1949 on channel 4 (moved to channel 6 in 1953)
Call letters meaning	Bell Radio Company
Former callsigns	none
Former affiliations	NBC (1949-54), CBS (1954-61), ABC (1949-96, secondary until 1961), DuMont (1949-1953, secondary)
Transmitter Power	100 kW (analog) 1 MW (digital)
Website	MyFoxAL.com

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.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscast titles 2.1 Saturday 2.2 Sunday 3 Notable past personalities 4 External links

[edit] 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 the late 1980s, WBRC, along with most other Taft stations, was sold to Great American Broadcasting. In December 1993 Great American Broadcasting was restructured and became known as Citicasters.

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

• WDAF 4 Kansas City's NBC affiliate
• KSAZ 10 (formerly KTSP) Phoenix's CBS affiliate
• WGHP 8 High Point/Greensboro's ABC affiliate.

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. 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. 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.

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.

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] Notable past personalities

• 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 (now at WJOX-FM/WSPZ Radio)
• 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)

[edit] External links

• MyFoxAL.com Site
• Birmingham Rewound: Radio-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBRC

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)