WAFF (TV)

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For other uses, see WAFF (disambiguation).
WAFF
FCC
Facility ID591
ERP137 kW
HAAT576 m (1,890 ft)
Transmitter coordinates34°42′39.3″N 86°32′7″W / 34.710917°N 86.53528°W / 34.710917; -86.53528 (WAFF)
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.waff.com

WAFF (channel 48) is a television station in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTHV-LD (channel 29). The two stations share studios on Memorial Parkway (US 431) in Huntsville; WAFF's transmitter is located south of Monte Sano State Park.

History

The Decatur years (1954–1969)

WAFF is northern Alabama's oldest television station. The station first began broadcasting from studios and transmitters in Decatur (30 miles (48 km) west of Huntsville) on July 4, 1954, as WMSL-TV, channel 23. It was owned by Frank Whisenant, a Decatur businessman whose company, Tennessee Valley Radio & Television Corporation,[2] also owned WMSL radio (AM 1400, now WWTM). Both stations took their calls from Mutual Savings Life Insurance Company, who founded WMSL radio in 1935.

WMSL-TV originally carried programming from all four networks of the time—NBC,

DuMont Network—but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost the DuMont Network when that one began closing down in 1955; it lost ABC when WAAY-TV started in Huntsville in 1959 as an ABC affiliate; and, finally, lost CBS when WHNT-TV
began transmitting as a CBS affiliate in 1963.

During the late 1950s, WMSL was also affiliated briefly with the NTA Film Network.[3]

Until the early 1960s, Decatur was the largest city in the viewing area, and it was centrally located—thus making it a good location for the region's first TV station. However, when Huntsville became the region's largest city due to the exponential growth of

U.S. Army Missile Command and NASA installations, Whisenant decided to move WMSL-TV there as well; it was the only major station in the market licensed in Decatur. Whisenant applied to change WMSL-TV's city of license to Huntsville as well, even though the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had changed its regulations so it could have kept its license in Decatur. However, because the station's original channel assignment, channel 23, was too close in frequency to the area's Alabama Educational Television outlet, WHIQ (channel 25), the FCC required WMSL-TV to move to channel 48 as a condition on its permit to relocate its city of license. The move to a higher UHF frequency was highly unusual for that time, especially during the 1960s, when the All-Channel Receiver Act
had only recently been passed. Many UHF stations that had started operations on channels above 40 or so were able to move to lower allocations per FCC action, or even to VHF.

WMSL-TV began broadcasting on channel 48 in January 1969, while simulcasting on channel 23 for several days afterwards. Some weeks later, Whisenant closed the station's studios in Decatur when the new studios opened in Huntsville. In the meantime, Whisenant sold WMSL radio to Clete Quick, another Decatur businessman.

Early years in Huntsville (1969–1974)

On September 1, 1967, about 16 months before moving to Huntsville, WMSL-TV had to begin sharing the NBC affiliation for North Alabama with WAAY-TV (meaning the market had no local ABC affiliate for a year; the network was available only on out-of-market stations in

Shoals region
of northwestern Alabama.

Call sign and ownership changes

In October 1974, Whisenant sold the station to

syndicated
programs, but very little seemed to work.

Still, the station pressed forward; around 1980 or 1981 a new tower was constructed on the south end of Monte Sano, adjacent to the station's studios. The tower measured some 1,476 feet (450 m) in height and was constructed in an effort to provide better reception to viewers across northern Alabama and southern middle Tennessee. The weather forecaster at the time, Glenn Bracken, held a coloring contest for schoolchildren across the viewing area, whereby they could depict their scenes of the new "tall tower" and incorporate WAFF's marketing message "New Tall Tower Means More Picture Power" and have their drawing and name presented during the nightly weather forecast (which usually took place on a balcony outside the news studio's doors). Also, during this period, WAFF began airing promotional spots showing various scenes of its news personalities interacting with residents of its viewing area, along with its news helicopter, "Sky48," to a song titled "We're Your Kind of People."

1982 studio fire and aftermath

On the evening of March 24, 1982, the station's building, situated on Monte Sano to overlook Huntsville proper, caught fire and burned. Local firefighters found the fire hydrant at the end of the driveway had yet to be connected to the water main and the water pressure of nearby hydrants were low; this situation would later prompt competitor WHNT to relocate to downtown Huntsville, some years later. It was a few days when WAFF began broadcasting through the auspices of local

North Memorial Parkway, some miles away from Monte Sano; microwave links connected the studios to the transmitter and tower. The fire would also prompt Huntsville city officials to repair the water pressure situation and build a new fire station atop Monte Sano, which sits directly across from WAAY's studios.[5]

Recent history (1980s–present)

Logo used from 1996 to January 2014

The disaster may have proved to be a blessing in disguise, as AFLAC began investing money in developing talent and production facilities, enabling WAFF to start making a serious ratings impact for the first time since the early 1970s. Not only did the station benefit from the renewed popularity of NBC in the mid-1980s, but its acquisitions of highly popular syndicated shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune made it a hit with viewers in the Tennessee Valley region. Since that time, the station has experienced continued success.

AFLAC sold WAFF, along with its other broadcasting properties, to Raycom Media of Montgomery, Alabama in 1996, making it a soon-to-be sister station to Montgomery's WSFA, which became the flagship of the said company in the next decade.

Sale to Gray Television

On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including WAFF), and Gray's 93 television stations) under Gray's corporate umbrella. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion—in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom—resulted in WAFF gaining a new sister station in an adjacent market, including CBS affiliate WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee as well as its sister station WBXX-TV (while separating it from WTNZ).[6][7][8][9] The sale was approved on December 20,[10] and was completed on January 2, 2019.[11][12]

Programming

Perhaps the most popular of WMSL's local programs was the weekday

Baptist
minister.

WAFF made a controversial decision in the mid-1980s to preempt

religious programming on cable television, as would be the case in later years. However, Letterman and FNV were eventually picked up by ABC affiliate (and former full-time NBC outlet) WAAY (airing after Nightline) and aired there until Swaggart's sexual scandal in 1988 impacted his ministry to the point that he had to cancel the daily program. Thereafter, WAFF returned both Letterman and FNV to their regular timeslots and continues to this day to air NBC's entire late-night schedule without preemptions. WAAY also cleared several NBC daytime shows, between 9 and 10 a.m. Central Time before ABC's daytime programming
began for the day, that WAFF passed on during this period as well.

News operation

At 4:30 a.m. on October 25, 2010, WAFF began broadcasting its news programming in high definition, making it the first station in the Huntsville television market to do so. However, while the station's studio shots are in high definition, much of WAFF's field video has remained in

standard definition
even after rival WHNT-TV upgraded to full high-definition newscasts in February 2011.

As with the other two major-network Huntsville stations, weather forecasting became a very high priority for WAFF in the 1990s, especially after the city experienced a

meteorological
equipment.

WAFF's "First Alert Doppler Radar" (formerly "Live Stormtracker Doppler"), which was located in Limestone County just off of US 72, was destroyed when it was hit by a large and violent tornado (which produced EF5 damage in nearby Tanner, approximately 10 miles (16 km) away from the radar site) on April 27, 2011. A camera mounted on the tower showed the tornado approaching the radar moments before it struck; aerial footage taken after the tornado showed that the radar's tower remained standing despite being in the tornado's damage path. However, the large ball on top containing the radar equipment was destroyed and never found.[13] In March 2012, WAFF installed a 1 million watt C-Band doppler radar system supplied by Huntsville-based Baron Services to replace the previously destroyed radar terminal.[14] That company was formed by former WAFF meteorologist (who also worked for WAAY previously) Bob Baron.

Raycom News Network and Raycom Weather Network

WAFF is part of the Raycom News Network, a system designed to rapidly share information among a group of four Raycom-owned stations and websites serving the state of Alabama. A regional network has developed among

Phenix City's WTVM, Montgomery's WSFA, and Birmingham's WBRC in which stations share information, equipment such as satellite trucks or even reporters' stories. Between them, these four stations cover the state of Alabama. The four stations also comprise the Raycom Weather Network and the Raycom Alabama Weather Blog, where meteorologists from all four stations post forecasts and storm reports, as well as live feeds from all of the cameras that the four stations operate. The site also has live feeds of the radars of WTVM, WSFA, WBRC and WAFF. The only ex-Raycom station in Alabama (which is no longer a sister station of WAFF) not participating in the arrangement is WDFX-TV in the Dothan
area, which formerly received its news programming from WSFA.

In popular culture

WAFF received national media attention on July 29, 2010, when a report aired on July 28 became a viral video known as the "Bed Intruder Song".[15] The video features the reaction of Antoine Dodson in response to a rape attempt on his sister, Kelly Dodson.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of WAFF[16]
Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming
48.1 1080i
16:9
 WAFF Main WAFF programming / NBC
48.2 480i Bounce Bounce TV
48.3 WAFF365
The365
48.4 LAFF Laff
48.5 Grit Grit
48.6 Defy TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WAFF shut down its analog signal, over

UHF channel 48, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[17][18] It, according to an FCC filing, was to relocate to channel 48 and increase power. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 49 to channel 48; there also was an increase in transmitter height in December 2011.[19]
The accompanying planned increase in transmitter power, however, was considerably reduced. This resulted in the station broadcasting at 48 kW ERP instead of the originally planned 356 kW ERP.

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WAFF". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "WAFF48: Station History". WAFF48. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  3. ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, archived from the original on June 14, 2009
  4. ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook of 1977: The TV Marketplace" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  5. ^ WAFF 48 (June 13, 2015). "1982 - WAFF studio destroyed by fire". YouTube. Archived from the original on April 6, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "GRAY AND RAYCOM TO COMBINE IN A $3.6 BILLION TRANSACTION". Raycom Media (Press release). June 25, 2018.
  7. ^ Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018). "Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  8. ^ Eggerton, John (June 25, 2018). "Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
  9. ^ Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018). "Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
  10. ^ "FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger", Broadcasting & Cable, December 20, 2018, Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  11. ^ "Gray Closes On $3.6 Billion Raycom Merger". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  12. ^ "Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions", Gray Television, January 2, 2019, Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  13. ^ rexoutdoors (May 19, 2011). "Aerial View of the WAFF-TV Radar Hit by EF5 Tornado on April 27, 2011 in North Alabama". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  14. ^ Baron Installs 1 Megawatt Radar For WAFF, TVNewsCheck, March 7, 2012.
  15. Viacom Media Networks
    . Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  16. ^ "RabbitEars.Info". Rabbitears.info. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  17. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). August 29, 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  18. ^ "Federal Communications Commission DA 08-2302" (PDF). Fjallfoss.fcc.gov. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  19. ^ Staff, FCC Internet Services. "Eng Details TV". Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved November 14, 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WAFF_(TV)&oldid=1212393358"