WVTM-TV

WVTM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with NBC and CBS. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities atop Red Mountain, between Vulcan Trail and Valley View Drive in southeastern Birmingham, adjacent to the Vulcan statue and next to the studios of Fox affiliate WBRC (channel 6). WVTM-TV was the first television station to broadcast in Alabama. It began airing test programming in June 1949 as WAFM-TV and initiated regular service on July 1, the same day as WBRC. It was co-owned with WAPI and WAFM radio and changed call signs to WABT in 1953, after being acquired by The Birmingham News, and WAPI-TV in 1958. For its first 21 years on air, the station held two network affiliations: CBS and ABC (1949–1954), NBC and ABC (1954–1961), and NBC and CBS (1961–1970). Though Birmingham gained a third station in 1965, WBMG (channel 42, now WIAT) initially relied on network programs that channel 13 chose not to air before WAPI-TV opted to become a sole NBC affiliate beginning in May 1970. The Times Mirror Company acquired the station in March 1980 and, as it had separated from WAPI radio, changed its call sign to WVTM-TV (Vulcan–Times Mirror). Under Times Mirror, WVTM became competitive in news with WBRC for the first time following the 1981 hiring of former WBRC anchors Joe Langston and Herb Winches. Though they left after less than two years, WVTM remained neck-and-neck with WBRC until 1989, when that station began to widen the news ratings gap. In 1993, Times Mirror sold its last stations, WVTM among them, to Argyle Television Holdings. Argyle was bought by New World Communications, which was simultaneously involved in switching other stations including WBRC to Fox. However, a 10-year affiliation deal with NBC protected...