WIAT

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WIAT (channel 42), branded as Alabama's 42, is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, serving as the market's outlet for The CW. Owned by network parent Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Golden Crest Drive atop Red Mountain. Channel 42 in Birmingham went on the air as WBMG on October 17, 1965, nearly nine years after its construction was approved. It was the city's third commercial station after channels 6 and 13 (now WBRC and WVTM-TV), whose very high frequency (VHF) signals carried further than WBMG's ultra high frequency (UHF) signal; the Birmingham Television Corporation, which built channel 42, had been unsuccessful in efforts to allocate a third VHF TV channel to Birmingham. The station initially aired the CBS and NBC programs not aired by channel 13 until the two stations each took full-time network affiliations in 1970. It was hemmed in by its weaker signal, the existence of CBS affiliates in Tuscaloosa and Anniston, and the dominance of the VHF stations in the ratings. Roy H. Park Broadcasting acquired WBMG in 1973, but WBMG never moved above third in the market. In response to low ratings, the station dropped local news in 1982 and restored it in 1987; the newscasts, titled Action News Birmingham, became known for a combative style and emphasis on metro-area news, but they were never highly viewed. By 1997, syndicated reruns of Sanford and Son attracted more viewers than WBMG's evening news, and a new Birmingham TV station pushed channel 42 into fourth place in news. When Media General acquired the Park group in 1997, it planned a major overhaul of the long-struggling station. General manager Eric Land fired all of WBMG's on-air presenters as well as other news employees in December 1997. For a month, channel 42...