{{Infobox_Broadcast | call_letters = WBMA-LP / WCFT-TV / WJSU-TV | station_logo = Image:Abc3340.jpg| station_slogan = Alabama's News Leader | station_branding = ''ABC 33/40'' | analog = 58 (WBMA-LP)
33 (WCFT-TV)
40 (WJSU-TV) (UHF)| digital = 11 ''(LD application)'' (WBMA)
5 (WCFT-TV)
9 (WJSU-TV) (VHF) | affiliations = ABC | founded = June_7, 1965 (WCFT)
October_29, 1969 (WJSU)
September_6, 1996 (WBMA)| location = Birmingham / Anniston / Gadsden / Tuscaloosa,_Alabama| callsign_meaning = WBMA: Ala'''B'''a'''MA'''
WCFT: '''C'''hapman '''F'''amily '''T'''elevision
WJSU: '''J'''acksonville '''S'''tate '''U'''niversity| owner = Allbritton_Communications_Company
''(TV Alabama, Inc.)''| former_callsigns = WJSU: WHMA-TV (1969-1984)| former_affiliations = WCFT: Independent (1965-1970), CBS (1970-96)
WJSU: CBS (1969-96), NBC (secondary, 1969-74)| effective_radiated_power = ''(see FCC data in links below)''| homepage = http://www.abc3340.com/| }} '''WBMA-LP''' is the ABC Television affiliate for Birmingham and Central_Alabama. Its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham. WBMA is a low power station whose signal does not make it too far outside of the Birmingham area. The station's brand name, '''ABC 33/40,''' comes from two full-power stations: '''WCFT-TV''', channel 33 in Tuscaloosa and '''WJSU-TV''', channel 40 in Anniston. WBMA is officially Birmingham's ABC affiliate, while WCFT and WJSU are satellite stations. Their combined power carries WBMA's signal to all of central Alabama from the Alabama-Georgia state line westward to Columbus,_Mississippi. WBMA and WCFT is owned by Allbritton_Communications through its subsidiary, ''TV Alabama, Inc.'' WJSU is operated by Flagship Broadcasting, under an LMA with Albritton. ABC 33/40's main studio is in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham. It operates bureaus in Tuscaloosa and Anniston. ==History== === WCFT TV-33=== WCFT signed on the airwaves from Tuscaloosa on June_7, 1965. The call letters stood for '''C'''hapman '''F'''amily '''T'''elevision, the original licensee. The original owner was a consortium of eight Tuscaloosa businessmen who saw the benefits of a television station in both business and community service. WCFT began as an independent station, but because it did not return a profit suitable to the original owners, they sold the station to Hattiesburg, Miss.-based Service Broadcasters in 1967. The new owners rejuvenated the station by pumping money into it. They purchased new equipment and improved the station's image. Like WBMG in Birmingham, WCFT picked up CBS and NBC programming not cleared by WAPI-TV (now WVTM-TV). In 1970, WCFT became an official CBS affiliate. WCFT had better luck with news than WBMG -- by the early 1980s, WCFT was the leading local news station in Tuscaloosa (with newscasts called "Eyewitness News"). It not only trounced WBMG, but beating out all of the Birmingham stations broadcasting into the Tuscaloosa area. In 1977, Arbitron made Tuscaloosa its own television market ranking below number 170. Service Broadcasters sold WCFT to Allbritton in 1995. Its transmitter is located near Windham_Springs,_Alabama. ===WJSU TV-40=== On October_29, 1969 the station now known as WJSU began broadcasting as WHMA-TV, channel 40 in as a primary CBS affiliate with a secondary NBC affiliation. The station was operated by the Anniston Broadcasting Company, which was owned by members of the family of Harry M. Ayers (the station's namesake). The Ayers family also owned the ''Anniston Star'' newspaper and radio stations WHMA-FM 100.5 (now WWWQ-FM in Atlanta) and WHMA-AM 1390. The station's inaugural General Manager, Harry_Mabry, came to Anniston from Birmingham, where he had been news director of WBRC in Birmingham for several years. Mabry already was familiar with Anniston, though, having been an announcer on WHMA-AM over fifteen years earlier. WHMA-TV ultimately served approximately 100,000 households in east central Alabama, and management fought almost constantly to maintain their own Arbitron market between Birmingham and Atlanta. This was a maneuver critical to the station's survival, as it made possible the station's "Number 1" status in the all-important ratings race. Despite being the only station located within the Anniston/East Alabama market, its so-called ratings "victories" garnered it access to national advertisers and their national budgets. In 1970, WHMA-TV dropped NBC programming in favor of full-time CBS coverage after WAPI became the sole NBC affiliate for all of Central_Alabama that year. In 1984, the FCC forced the Ayers family to sell the station, citing cross-ownership regulations that the Commission has since abandoned. Later, in a mid-1980s deal that was more about tax-avoidance than profit, ownership of the station was transferred to the trustees of Jacksonville_State_University and the call letters were changed to WJSU-TV. The station was ultimately sold in the 1990s to current owners Flagship Broadcasting. ===ABC 33/40=== In 1995, Birmingham's longtime ABC affiliate, WBRC, was sold to Fox. However, WBRC's contract with ABC didn't run out until September 1996, giving ABC a year to find a new affiliate in Birmingham. After being turned down by its original choices, WTTO and WBMG, ABC reached a unique deal with Allbritton. WCFT would become an ABC affiliate, and WJSU would become an ABC affiliate as well as part of a Local_marketing_agreement (LMA) with Flagship Broadcasting. The two stations would act as full-powered satellites of WBMA, a low-powered station based in Birmingham. The new station debuted on September_1, 1996. Its first slogan was "We're Building Our Station Around You," which was also used on WKYC-TV in Cleveland for some years. This was quite accurate because the programming consultants of ABC 33/40 surveyed numerous of people across central Alabama about what they wanted in a station. They also literally built a new station in Birmingham from that information they gathered. The station achieved early success with their newscasts, due in part to hiring many well-known Birmingham television personalities, including news anchors '''Brenda Ladun''' and '''Linda Mays''', sports anchor '''Mike Raita''' and meterologists '''James Spann''' and '''Mark Prater''', all of whom had worked at WBRC. Later, Pam Huff, a former news anchor with WVTM, was hired to anchor the station's early morning newscasts. Since then, 33/40 has changed their slogan from "Where News Comes First" back to the original slogan of "We're Building Our Station Around You"; it is now "Alabama's News Leader". ABC 33/40 has had a long-standing tradition in that when any county in their viewing area is under a tornado warning, they will go into live, non-stop coverage. ==Controversy over ''Ellen''== In 1997, ABC 33/40 refused to air the famous "Puppy_Episode" of Ellen_DeGeneres' sitcom, ''Ellen''. The station cited a need to respect the family values of the largely Baptist community. The decision was decried as a blatant example of Censorship; indeed, in response, ABC sent a special satellite feed of the show to a community center in Birmingham and about 1,000 people, mainly local Gays, Lesbians, and their supporters, watched as DeGeneres came Out_of_the_closet. ==Newscast titles== *''Good Morning Alabama'' - '''5:00-7:00AM''' (Anchors: '''Pam Huff''' and '''Tracy Haynes''') *''ABC 33/40 News @ 11:00AM'' - '''11:00-11:30AM''' (Anchors: '''Linda Mays''' and '''Tracy Haynes''') *''ABC 33/40 News @ 5:00'' - '''5:00-5:30PM''' (Anchors: '''Pam Huff''' and '''Linda Mays''') *''ABC 33/40 News @ 6:00'' - '''6:00-6:30PM''' (Anchors: '''Dave Baird''' and '''Brenda Ladun''') *''ABC 33/40 News @ 10:00'' - '''10:00-10:35PM''' (Anchors: '''Dave Baird''' and '''Brenda Ladun''') ===Saturday=== * ''ABC 33/40 News @ 6:00'' - '''6:00-6:30PM''' * ''ABC 33/40 News @ 10:00'' - '''10:00-10:35PM''' ===Sunday=== * ''ABC 33/40 News @ 5:00'' - '''5:00-5:30PM''' * ''ABC 33/40 News @ 10:00'' - '''10:00-10:35PM''' * ''The Zone with Mike Raita'' - '''10:35-11:05PM''' (Sports talk, with Sports Director '''Mike Raita''' and '''Doug Segrest''' and '''Ray Melick''', sports columnists with the Birmingham_News) * ''Auburn Football Review'' - '''11:05-11:35PM''' (during the college football season only) ==Trivia== *In the 1980s through the 1990s, the announcer of WCFT would begin the newscasts by saying "WCFT-TV, Channel 33, CBS in Tuscaloosa". *ABC 33-40 operates a number of Sky Cams throughout the state which send a live shot and weather information from that site. There are skycams in Downtown Birmingham, Inverness, Gadsden, Demopolis, Hamilton, Jasper, Mt. Cheaha, Tuscaloosa, Cullman, and Gulf Shores. == Related items == * TV_Alabama_Tower ==External links== * ABC 33/40 Homepage * {{TVQ|WBMA-LP}} * {{TVQ|WCFT}} * {{TVQ|WJSU}} {{Allbritton}} {{Birmingham TV}} {{ABC Alabama}} Category:Television_stations_in_Alabama Category:Television_stations_in_Birmingham Category:ABC_network_affiliates Category:Birmingham,_Alabama_media Category:Channel_58_low-power_TV_stations_in_the_United_States