WTTO
Encyclopedia
WTTO is a CW
affiliate for the Birmingham
/Anniston
/Tuscaloosa, Alabama
market. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF
channel 28, however through the use of PSIP
technology, digital television receivers display WTTO's virtual channel
as 21. It is licensed
to Homewood
, a Birmingham suburb. Its transmitter is located on Red Mountain
.
The station operates a full-time satellite for the western part of the market, WDBB. It is licensed to Bessemer
, another Birmingham suburb, but primarily serves the Tuscaloosa area. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 18; WDBB's virtual channel displays as 17. Its transmitter is located near Windham Springs
. WDBB is only mentioned in WTTO's legal IDs.
Both stations are owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
, which also owns sister station WABM
, the local MyNetworkTV
affiliate.
The station is also seen on Bright House Networks
channel 9 and HD channel 621.
WTTO began originally on April 21, 1982 as Alabama's second independent station (and the Birmingham market's first), signing on a few months after WPMI-TV
in Mobile
. It was a typical UHF independent that aired numerous cartoons, movies, and sitcoms. The first program it broadcast was a rerun of the 1970s action series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
. It quickly became the strongest independent station in Alabama, and one of the strongest in the nation. The station's original owner, Chapman Broadcasting, sold it to Arlington Broadcasting in 1983. It was sold to HR Broadcasting in 1987. Despite being one of the strongest independent stations in the country, WTTO turned down the Fox
affiliation when that network started up. Even without Fox, the station continued to prosper. HR Broadcasting sold WTTO to Abry in 1989.
Meanwhile, WDBB had its start in October 1984 as an independent station licensed to Tuscaloosa, also serving Birmingham. The station was owned by Dubose Broadcasting (hence its call letters) and operated from studios on Jug Factory road on the southern edge of Tuscaloosa. In the fall of 1985, WDBB gained the broadcasting rights to the Alabama Crimson Tide's football and basketball coaches shows. The shows had aired on WBRC
and then WAPI, later WVTM
, and this was a major coup for the upstart station.
In 1986, the station moved its city of license to Bessemer and built a new tower there in an attempt to improve its coverage in the Birmingham area. It signed on WNAL-TV (channel 44) in Gadsden
as a satellite to serve the northern part of the market. The Fox network launched soon afterward, and WDBB/WNAL became the Birmingham area's Fox affiliate. However, neither station decently covered Birmingham and couldn't get on several large Birmingham-area cable systems.
In January 1991, Fox moved its affiliation to WTTO after all efforts to get better cable coverage for WDBB/WNAL failed. Soon after, WDBB and WNAL began simulcasting WTTO for all but two hours of the broadcast day. By 1993, WNAL and WDBB simulcasted WTTO which nonetheless only called itself "Fox21". WDBB then moved back to its original transmitter near Tuscaloosa, but remained licensed in Bessemer. Within a few years, WTTO was one of the strongest Fox affiliates in the country.
While WDBB broadcast much of the same programming as WTTO, the Tuscaloosa station operated its own local news department twice during its history. First as NewsCenter 17 and then as WDBB 17 News. WDBB 17 News directly competed with then-CBS
affiliate WCFT-TV (which, incidentally, had been Chapman's flagship station) for West Alabama viewers. The newsroom and studio were housed at WDBB's studio. Talent such as Dan Cates and Don Hartley, who were already known from previous stints on other TV and radio stations, were part of the news department. Later on, they were joined by Gene Lively, longtime anchor at WVTM.
Abry merged with Sinclair in 1994. A few months later, Sinclair began a Local marketing agreement
with WABM, which joined UPN in 1995. Meanwhile, that same year, New World bought WBRC from Citicasters. At the same time, it bought WVTM from Argyle. This posed a serious problem for New World. It not only owned two stations in the same market, but now owned more stations than the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) allowed. A few months later, however, New World and Fox reached a deal in which New World would switch most of its stations to Fox affiliates. This gave New World a chance to solve its Birmingham ownership problem by selling WBRC directly to Fox.
WBRC had been an ABC
affiliate for decades, and ABC didn't want to lose too much share in what had been one of its strongest markets. It originally wanted to affiliate with WTTO, which by this time had become the third-highest rated station in Birmingham. However, at the time Sinclair didn't budget for local newscasts on its stations (it would not own any Big Three stations for another year). Also, Sinclair was only interested in ABC's prime time shows, sports, and ABC News
, not a full affiliation. ABC turned down this offer out of hand in late 1995 Soon afterward, WDBB's separate newscast was shut down. The newsroom and studio were vacant until late 1997, when upstart WJRD moved into WDBB's former facilities to re-launch local news for West Alabama. Some of WJRD's talent were former WDBB staffers who had been let go two years earlier. WJRD is now WVUA-CA
.
WTTO and WDBB continued as Fox stations until WBRC's affiliation deal with ABC ran out in September 1996. The two stations then became independents, though WTTO held onto Fox Kids
after WBRC didn't pick it up. In the meantime, WNAL was sold to Fant Broadcasting and became the CBS
affiliate for Gadsden and northeast Alabama. That station is now WPXH-TV, the Ion Television station for central Alabama.
In February 1997, WTTO and WDBB affiliated with the WB network. Before then, Birmingham had been one of the largest markets without a WB affiliate.
In the late 1990s, WTTO gradually moved away from movies, classic sitcoms, and cartoons to more talk/reality shows, court shows, as well as recent sitcoms (which they ran all along). WTTO dropped Fox Kids programming in the Fall of 2000 and WBRC did not pick it up. That year Fox stopped requiring its own stations from carrying it whether or not another station could be found. The main reason for this change was because the stations were having a tougher time making a profit running such programming. This was due to new FCC regulations in terms of the amount of ads allowed during children's programming as well as the content of such advertising. This made advertisers for children rely more on cable and caused syndicators to move their programming to cable.
Still WTTO continued cartoons in the afternoons as they ran Kids' WB
programming until that ended nationwide in January 2006. The CW4Kids
still runs on Saturday mornings. In September 2003, WTTO finally began to produce its own local newscast, titled "WB21 News at 9:00". However, in October 2005, the market's CBS-affiliate, WIAT
, began producing the newscasts for WTTO. The newscast was cancelled October 13, 2006.
The WB merged with UPN in September 2006 to form The CW
, a network featuring programming from both networks. Sinclair announced on May 2, 2006 that WTTO would become the CW affiliate. As a CW affiliate, the station was branded as "CW21". On February 17, 2009 at 11:59 PM, WTTO and WDBB ceased to transmit their signals in analog format on channels 21 and 17. The stations are now exclusively available in ATSC digital format.
, in the U.S.
at 33°28′51"N 87°24′03"W.
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
affiliate for the Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
/Anniston
Anniston, Alabama
Anniston is a city in Calhoun County in the state of Alabama, United States.As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 24,276. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 23,741...
/Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
market. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
channel 28, however through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
technology, digital television receivers display WTTO's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 21. It is licensed
City of license
A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
to Homewood
Homewood, Alabama
Homewood is a city in southeastern Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is a suburb of Birmingham, located on the other side of Red Mountain due south of the city center. It has one of the highest population densities in Alabama. As of 2009 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the...
, a Birmingham suburb. Its transmitter is located on Red Mountain
Red Mountain, Birmingham, Alabama
Red Mountain is a long ridge running southwest-northeast and dividing Jones Valley from Shades Valley south of Birmingham, Alabama. It is part of the Ridge-and-Valley region of the Appalachian mountains...
.
The station operates a full-time satellite for the western part of the market, WDBB. It is licensed to Bessemer
Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a city outside of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States eight miles west of Hoover. The population was 29,672 at the 2000 Census, but by the 2009 U.S...
, another Birmingham suburb, but primarily serves the Tuscaloosa area. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 18; WDBB's virtual channel displays as 17. Its transmitter is located near Windham Springs
Windham Springs, Alabama
Windham Springs is a small unincorporated community in northeastern Tuscaloosa County, Alabama west of the Jefferson - Walker county line. Near Windham Springs, there is the WTTO Tower, a guyed TV mast, which is one of the tallest constructions on earth....
. WDBB is only mentioned in WTTO's legal IDs.
Both stations are owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
, which also owns sister station WABM
WABM
WABM, channel 68, is the My Network TV affiliate for the Birmingham/Anniston/Gadsden/Tuscaloosa, Alabama television market. WABM is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which also owns the market's CW affiliate, WTTO. WABM broadcast in ATSC digital format on channel 36...
, the local MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate.
The station is also seen on Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks is a cable television company, the seventh largest cable operator and the sixth largest traditional multiple system operator in the United States owned by Advance/Newhouse, headquartered in Syracuse, New York...
channel 9 and HD channel 621.
History
In Central Alabama, channel 21 was originally allocated to Gadsden as WTVS. It was one of the earliest UHF television stations, but could not gain any foothold and soon went dark because UHF tuning was optional at the time.WTTO began originally on April 21, 1982 as Alabama's second independent station (and the Birmingham market's first), signing on a few months after WPMI-TV
WPMI-TV
WPMI is the NBC-affiliated television station for South Alabama and much of the Emerald Coast of Florida. Licensed to Mobile, the station broadcasts on digital UHF channel 15. WPMI's transmitter is located near Robertsdale. The station is owned by Newport Television, LLC as part of a duopoly with...
in Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
. It was a typical UHF independent that aired numerous cartoons, movies, and sitcoms. The first program it broadcast was a rerun of the 1970s action series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979–1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series aired....
. It quickly became the strongest independent station in Alabama, and one of the strongest in the nation. The station's original owner, Chapman Broadcasting, sold it to Arlington Broadcasting in 1983. It was sold to HR Broadcasting in 1987. Despite being one of the strongest independent stations in the country, WTTO turned down the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliation when that network started up. Even without Fox, the station continued to prosper. HR Broadcasting sold WTTO to Abry in 1989.
Meanwhile, WDBB had its start in October 1984 as an independent station licensed to Tuscaloosa, also serving Birmingham. The station was owned by Dubose Broadcasting (hence its call letters) and operated from studios on Jug Factory road on the southern edge of Tuscaloosa. In the fall of 1985, WDBB gained the broadcasting rights to the Alabama Crimson Tide's football and basketball coaches shows. The shows had aired on WBRC
WBRC
WBRC, virtual channel 6, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Birmingham, Alabama designated market area. The station is owned by Raycom Media, and its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham...
and then WAPI, later WVTM
WVTM-TV
WVTM-TV, channel 13, is the NBC-affiliated television station in the Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa-Gadsden, Alabama television market. The station is owned by Media General...
, and this was a major coup for the upstart station.
In 1986, the station moved its city of license to Bessemer and built a new tower there in an attempt to improve its coverage in the Birmingham area. It signed on WNAL-TV (channel 44) in Gadsden
Gadsden, Alabama
The city of Gadsden is the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama, and it is located about 65 miles northeast of Birmingham, Alabama. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 103,459. Gadsden is closely associated with the...
as a satellite to serve the northern part of the market. The Fox network launched soon afterward, and WDBB/WNAL became the Birmingham area's Fox affiliate. However, neither station decently covered Birmingham and couldn't get on several large Birmingham-area cable systems.
In January 1991, Fox moved its affiliation to WTTO after all efforts to get better cable coverage for WDBB/WNAL failed. Soon after, WDBB and WNAL began simulcasting WTTO for all but two hours of the broadcast day. By 1993, WNAL and WDBB simulcasted WTTO which nonetheless only called itself "Fox21". WDBB then moved back to its original transmitter near Tuscaloosa, but remained licensed in Bessemer. Within a few years, WTTO was one of the strongest Fox affiliates in the country.
While WDBB broadcast much of the same programming as WTTO, the Tuscaloosa station operated its own local news department twice during its history. First as NewsCenter 17 and then as WDBB 17 News. WDBB 17 News directly competed with then-CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate WCFT-TV (which, incidentally, had been Chapman's flagship station) for West Alabama viewers. The newsroom and studio were housed at WDBB's studio. Talent such as Dan Cates and Don Hartley, who were already known from previous stints on other TV and radio stations, were part of the news department. Later on, they were joined by Gene Lively, longtime anchor at WVTM.
Abry merged with Sinclair in 1994. A few months later, Sinclair began a Local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
with WABM, which joined UPN in 1995. Meanwhile, that same year, New World bought WBRC from Citicasters. At the same time, it bought WVTM from Argyle. This posed a serious problem for New World. It not only owned two stations in the same market, but now owned more stations than the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) allowed. A few months later, however, New World and Fox reached a deal in which New World would switch most of its stations to Fox affiliates. This gave New World a chance to solve its Birmingham ownership problem by selling WBRC directly to Fox.
WBRC had been an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate for decades, and ABC didn't want to lose too much share in what had been one of its strongest markets. It originally wanted to affiliate with WTTO, which by this time had become the third-highest rated station in Birmingham. However, at the time Sinclair didn't budget for local newscasts on its stations (it would not own any Big Three stations for another year). Also, Sinclair was only interested in ABC's prime time shows, sports, and ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
, not a full affiliation. ABC turned down this offer out of hand in late 1995 Soon afterward, WDBB's separate newscast was shut down. The newsroom and studio were vacant until late 1997, when upstart WJRD moved into WDBB's former facilities to re-launch local news for West Alabama. Some of WJRD's talent were former WDBB staffers who had been let go two years earlier. WJRD is now WVUA-CA
WVUA-CA
WVUA-CA is a Class A commercial television station owned by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, affiliated with This TV. The station is licensed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with studios on the university's campus...
.
WTTO and WDBB continued as Fox stations until WBRC's affiliation deal with ABC ran out in September 1996. The two stations then became independents, though WTTO held onto Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
after WBRC didn't pick it up. In the meantime, WNAL was sold to Fant Broadcasting and became the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate for Gadsden and northeast Alabama. That station is now WPXH-TV, the Ion Television station for central Alabama.
In February 1997, WTTO and WDBB affiliated with the WB network. Before then, Birmingham had been one of the largest markets without a WB affiliate.
In the late 1990s, WTTO gradually moved away from movies, classic sitcoms, and cartoons to more talk/reality shows, court shows, as well as recent sitcoms (which they ran all along). WTTO dropped Fox Kids programming in the Fall of 2000 and WBRC did not pick it up. That year Fox stopped requiring its own stations from carrying it whether or not another station could be found. The main reason for this change was because the stations were having a tougher time making a profit running such programming. This was due to new FCC regulations in terms of the amount of ads allowed during children's programming as well as the content of such advertising. This made advertisers for children rely more on cable and caused syndicators to move their programming to cable.
Still WTTO continued cartoons in the afternoons as they ran Kids' WB
Kids' WB
Kids' WB! was Warner Bros. American childrens programing division brand for The WB Television Network. In September 2006, the block moved to The CW Television Network. The CW is the result of The WB's merger with UPN in 2006...
programming until that ended nationwide in January 2006. The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon block on The CW Television Network that premiered on May 24, 2008 in the place of Kids' WB...
still runs on Saturday mornings. In September 2003, WTTO finally began to produce its own local newscast, titled "WB21 News at 9:00". However, in October 2005, the market's CBS-affiliate, WIAT
WIAT
WIAT, virtual channel 42, is the CBS-affiliated television station in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston/Gadsden, Alabama television market. Licensed to Birmingham, it broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 30, although through the use of PSIP, the station's virtual channel number is...
, began producing the newscasts for WTTO. The newscast was cancelled October 13, 2006.
The WB merged with UPN in September 2006 to form The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
, a network featuring programming from both networks. Sinclair announced on May 2, 2006 that WTTO would become the CW affiliate. As a CW affiliate, the station was branded as "CW21". On February 17, 2009 at 11:59 PM, WTTO and WDBB ceased to transmit their signals in analog format on channels 21 and 17. The stations are now exclusively available in ATSC digital format.
Tower
The WTTO Tower is a 609.6 m (2000 ft) tall guyed mast structure used for communication purposes. It was finished in 1986 and is located in Windham Springs, AlabamaWindham Springs, Alabama
Windham Springs is a small unincorporated community in northeastern Tuscaloosa County, Alabama west of the Jefferson - Walker county line. Near Windham Springs, there is the WTTO Tower, a guyed TV mast, which is one of the tallest constructions on earth....
, in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at 33°28′51"N 87°24′03"W.