WIAT 42

WIAT 42 is the CBS-TV affiliate for the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston market. It is a UHF television station licensed to Birmingham on analog channel 42 (digital channel 30). Its transmitter, the WIAT Tower, is located on Red Mountain. The station is currently owned by Media General, but has been sold, pending regulatory approval, to Atlanta-based New Vision Television.

The station, known from its founding in 1965 as WBMG, was purchased by Media General from Park Communications in 1997. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WIAT (It's About Time) in 1998 as part of an overall rebranding of the station's flagging news department.

On New Year's Day 1998, General Manager Eric Land cancelled WBMG's newscast and shut down the news department. Over the next month, the station went through a serious overhaul from graphics and set to logo and newscast format. During that time, the station showed a picture of a clock at 5 and 10 p.m. -- the slots where the news used to air. The new format debuted on February 5, 1998 — the same day as the start of the Winter Olympics — with a new name and motto, "CBS42 Daily News. It's About Time". As part of the overhaul, the station stopped using on-air reporters, focussing instead on the anchor personalities.

Ratings improved somewhat, and the station won its first-ever Emmy Awards in the year after the revamp. Behind-the-scenes disputes with management and on-air talent remained problematic, leading to a number of lawsuits. Nevertheless, WIAT has steadily improved its ratings in the last decade, and has been far more competitive than ever before, actually finishing first in some timeslots.

Beginning October 2005 WIAT teamed with WB affiliate WTTO 21 to begin producing a 9 p.m. newscast. Using the same set and anchors as WIAT and a modified graphics package, the WB News at 9 airs 7 days per week.

In April 2006, Media General bought four NBC owned and operated stations, including WVTM. Since the FCC will not allow one entity to own two of the four largest stations in a single market, Media General opted to keep the higher-rated WVTM and sell WIAT to another owner. On August 1, 2006 Media General announced that they had made a deal to sell WIAT and another CBS station in Mason City, Iowa to Atlanta-based New Vision Television for $35 million. New Vision plans to purchase another 8-10 stations in the coming year.

WIAT does not air a morning newscast, but reportedly will begin a morning show in May of 2007.

References

• "Media General sells WIAT-CBS to New Vision Television" (August 1, 2006) Birmingham Business Journal.

External links

• WIAT website
• Classic TV at Birmingham Rewound.