Creation of ABC 33/40
On May 23, 1994, Fox announced a deal with New World Communications to switch the affiliations of 12 stations New World owned or was buying from various Big Three networks to Fox. One of these was WBRC, which New World had agreed to purchase along with three other stations owned by Great American Communications earlier that month.[21][22] The result was that ABC needed a new affiliate in the Birmingham television market and WTTO no longer had a network affiliation.[23] Fox also maintained affiliates in western Alabama (WDBB, channel 17 in Tuscaloosa) and eastern Alabama (WNAL, channel 44 in Gadsden).
At the time of the switch, experts predicted one of two outcomes: WTTO would become an ABC affiliate, or ABC, concerned about moving to a UHF station, would sign WVTM-TV, leaving WTTO to affiliate with NBC.[24] In Birmingham, the acquisition of WBRC had another consequence. New World had an option to buy WVTM-TV as part of its purchase of Argyle Television but could not own both stations at once and, in January 1995, prepared to exercise the WVTM option by placing WBRC and WGHP in High Point, North Carolina, into a blind trust.[25] Three months later, Fox Television Stations acquired WBRC-TV and WGHP.[26]
In the meantime, ABC examined its options for a new affiliate to serve Birmingham. With WVTM-TV and WBMG in long-term contracts with their existing networks, the network had multiple options, which included the three Fox affiliates and WABM. By this time, WABM was operated under a local marketing agreement by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of WTTO.[27] In November 1995, Sinclair bought WDBB, with some observers questioning whether Sinclair was angling for the ABC affiliation.[28] The network opted for neither of those stations. On November 14, 1995, ABC announced it had agreed with Allbritton Communications to buy WCFT and lease WNAL from Fant Broadcasting. The combination would replace WBRC as Birmingham's ABC affiliate in 1996, once the affiliation contracts of WBRC and WCFT had run their course.[29] After Allbritton's deal to lease WNAL from Fant fell through, it reached a new deal to run WJSU for ten years.[30][31] WJSU had previously positioned itself for such a move by applying to relocate its tower closer to Birmingham,[32]
ABC 33/40 began broadcasting as the ABC affiliate for Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Anniston on September 1, 1996. However, some viewers, particularly in Shelby and St. Clair counties—including the studio at Hoover—and south and east of Birmingham, struggled to receive an adequate signal from either transmitter.[34] In October 1997, WJSU-TV's transmitter was moved from Blue Mountain near Anniston to Bald Rock Mountain, near Leeds. This solved some issues but created others in eastern Alabama.[35]
Within a year of launching, ABC 33/40 made national headlines. On April 30, 1997, it was the only ABC affiliate out of 223 stations that declined to screen "The Puppy Episode", an episode of the series Ellen in which Ellen DeGeneres came out as lesbian. General manager Jerry Heilman deemed the program unsuitable for family viewing, and ABC would not allow the program to be aired in a later time slot, so it opted not to air it at all.[36] Birmingham Pride secured the use of Boutwell Memorial Auditorium to screen the episode.[37] Some 2,500 people showed up, including national media outlets, as well as one of ABC 33/40's newscasters, Deborah Franklin, who called the decision "really embarrassing" for the station.[38] By this time, the WBMA call sign was in use to promote the station; Allbritton acquired[39] W58CK, a low-power station owned by Shirley H. James,[40] which changed its call sign to WBMA-LP later that year.[41]
In June 1998, ABC parent The Walt Disney Company entered into negotiations to purchase the eight Allbritton stations and the LMAs with WJSU-TV and WJXX serving Jacksonville, Florida, reportedly offering the company more than $1 billion to acquire them.[42][43] Negotiations between Disney and Allbritton broke down when the former dropped out of discussions to buy the stations the following month.[44]
The consolidation of WCFT and WJSU in the Birmingham media market led Nielsen Media Research to collapse the previously separate Tuscaloosa and Anniston Designated Market Areas in 1998, increasing the Birmingham market's population by 20 percent and moving it from the 51st- to the 39th-largest. By 2001, WBMA had established itself as a close second-place finisher to WBRC in local news ratings[45] as WVTM slipped from second to third. Observers credited WBMA's entry into the market with making Birmingham TV news more competitive overall[46] and increasing the quantity and quality of local sports coverage.[47]
Between May 26, 2008, and March 23, 2009, Nielsen Media Research mistakenly undercounted viewership for WBMA+ (the line-item for viewership of all transmitters broadcasting ABC 33/40). Due to what the company later described as a "procedural error", it failed to account for viewership accruing from the stations' digital signals, which were used to feed cable and satellite providers in the market, only recording viewership from the analog signals. As a result, viewership figures for ABC 33/40 were reported as less than half of what station management expected.[48] Nielsen continued to struggle with tabulating viewership for ABC 33/40 and other stations that were broadcast from multiple transmitters, resulting in reported unusual fluctuations in viewership, even within 15 minutes, and a week in January 2010 when it underreported ratings for WBMA's prime time lineup.[49]
