WBMG 42

WBMG 42 was, until changing call letters to WIAT in 1998, the CBS-TV affiliate for the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston market.

Southern Broadcasting

WBMG ( BirMinGham) signed on December 6, 1965. It was founded by Bill DuBois, a local investment banker. A minority ownership was held by Southern Broadcasting, owners of radio station WSGN.

As was the case at the time with most UHF stations in markets served by at least two commercial VHF stations (CBS/NBC affiliate WAPI TV and ABC affiliate WBRC TV), WBMG experienced a considerable competitive disadvantage from the outset. Many households didn't have TV sets capable of viewing UHF signals without a converter, since the FCC hadn't required TV manufacturers to include UHF tuning until the previous year. The station's signal also left much to be desired. As a result, although on paper WBMG took the CBS affiliation from WAPI, CBS continued to allow WAPI to air some of its more popular programming. WBMG was left with several lower-rated CBS shows, and filled the schedule with some NBC shows that WAPI turned down, such as The Tonight Show. Both stations listed their affiliation as "CBS/NBC."

With a poor signal, the lack of sets with UHF capability and two of the South's oldest and most respected stations as competition, WBMG found the going rather difficult. But many of WBMG's problems were of its own making. Its newscasts often became comedy shows, likely due to the staff's perception of their futility against the longer-established WBRC and WAPI. For instance, sportscaster Tommy Charles wadded up scripts and tossed them over his shoulder after reading them. He also let balloons fly around the set for no apparent reason.

WBMG quickly gained notoriety in Central Alabama for its local shows, such as live studio wrestling, and the children's show "Sergeant Jack", which featured former WSGN radio disc jockey Neal Miller, who donned the uniform of a sheriff's deputy (and actually was sworn in as an honorary deputy by the Jefferson County sheriff himself) and engaged in fanciful banter with puppets.

Park Communications

WBMG became a full CBS affiliate when Park Communications bought the station in 1970 (nonetheless due to WAPI's decision for NBC, not WBMG's for CBS), and tried to professionalize the newscasts in the 1970s with little success. WBMG had no local newscasts at all from 1980 until 1987 aside from hourly cut-ins. During this time, the station broadcast syndicated shows at both 5 and 10 p.m. Even when local news returned in 1987, WBMG had no luck whatsoever competing with WVTM and WBRC. It was perenially one of CBS' weakest affiliates, in marked contrast to its competitors, who were two of their networks' strongest affiliates.

WBMG's ratings were so low that for several years, Birmingham-area viewers opted to watch CBS programming on two other stations in Central Alabama --WCFT 33 in Tuscaloosa and WJSU 40 in Anniston. WCFT and WJSU regularly trounced WBMG in their respective cities, especially in Anniston since WBMG's signal didn't cover Anniston very well at the time. When WBRC switched to Fox, WCFT and WJSU combined with low-powered WBMA- 58 to become the ABC affiliate for Birmingham, making WBMG the only choice for CBS. However, WBMG reaped almost no windfall from this switch and continued its dreadful ratings performance. As a result, CBS affiliated with another Central Alabama station, WNAL 68 (now WPXH 68) in Gadsden, which put a fairly decent signal into the Birmingham area as well as Anniston.

Media General

In 1997, Park Communications merged with Media General. WBMG stayed in the ratings basement with a mere 1% market share, trailing even reruns of Sanford and Son and The Andy Griffith Show. On January 1, 1998 General Manager Eric Land shut down WBMG's newscast and began a month-long overhaul. The station was relaunched on February 5 is WIAT.

External links

• Classic TV at Birmingham Rewound.