owned mynetworktv affiliate wabm . wbma ld birmingham alabama united states branding alabama s abc 33 40 general ; official abc 33 40 general ; colloquial abc 33 40 news newscasts slogan working for you channels digital see table below subchannels see table below affiliations abc owner sinclair broadcast group wbma licensee llc first air date november 18 1994 ; 21 years ago 1994 11 18 call letters meaning see table below sister station s wabm wtto wdbb former callsigns w58ck 1994 1997 former channel number s analog 58 uhf 1996 2011 former affiliations independent 1994 1996 transmitter power see table below height see table below class ld facility id see table below transmitter coordinates see table below licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website abc3340.com wbma ld virtual channel 58 uhf digital channel 40 is an abc affiliated television station located in birmingham alabama united states . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a de facto legal triopoly with cw affiliate wtto channel 21 and mynetworktv affiliate wabm channel 68 ; sinclair also manages tuscaloosa based wdbb channel 17 which operates as a satellite station of wtto under a time brokerage agreement with cunningham broadcasting . wbma ld maintains studio facilities located at the riverchase office park on concourse parkway in hoover although with an address assigned to birmingham and its transmitter is located atop red mountain near the tarpley city neighborhood in southwestern birmingham . wbma transmits a low power digital signal which provides an over the air broadcasting radius that is effectively limited to birmingham proper and nearby areas in jefferson tuscaloosa walker bibb and shelby counties . because of this the station s programming is simulcast as a digital subchannel on three other central alabama stations that act as full power relays including those of wabm and wdbb in order to reach the entire birmingham tuscaloosa anniston market . the station s brand name abc 33 40 is derived from the two stations that operated as full power satellites of wbma to distribute its programming to southwestern and northeastern areas of central alabama from the station s acquisition of the abc affiliation in september 1996 until october 2014 wcft tv channel 33 in tuscaloosa and wjsu tv channel 40 in anniston which now respectively operate as heroes & icons affiliates wses and wgww . contents 1 stations 1.1 former 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 history 3.1 early history and formation of trimulcast with wcft tv and wjsu tv 3.2 acquisition by sinclair 3.3 sale of wcft and wjsu to howard stirk holdings 4 programming 5 news operation 5.1 weather coverage 5.2 social media 5.3 on air staff 5.3.1 notable current on air staff 5.3.2 notable former on air staff 6 see also 7 references 8 external links stations edit while wbma is technically considered the main station and official abc affiliate for the birmingham tuscaloosa anniston market the signal of the low powered wbma is simulcast on the digital subchannels of the three full powered stations within the market to ensure reception across central alabama and some adjacent areas . nielsen media research treats wbma and its subchannel based simulcast feeds as one station in local ratings counts using the identifier name wbma . for the sake of brevity the station will be referred to hereafter in this article by that name when referencing the station and its repeaters including those it maintained prior to the 2014 sale of the present day wses and wgww to howard stirk holdings . station city of license physical channel vc1 first air date call letters meaning erp haat facility id transmitter coordinates wbma ld2 birmingham 40 uhf 58 september 1 1996 birmingham alabama 1 15 kw 255 m 60214 33 26 28.2 n 86 53 1.5 w 33.441167 n 86.883750 w 33.441167 ; 86.883750 wabm dt26 birmingham 36 uhf 68.2 january 31 1986 alabama 885 kw 406 m 16820 33 29 4.5 n 86 48 25.4 w 33.484583 n 86.807056 w 33.484583 ; 86.807056 wdbb dt26 bessemer 18 uhf 17.2 october 8 1984 dubose broadcasting 350 kw 675 m 71325 33 28 51.3 n 87 24 2.9 w 33.480917 n 87.400806 w 33.480917 ; 87.400806 wgww dt25 6 anniston 9 vhf 40.2 october 26 1969 15.6 kw 359 m 56642 33 36 24.3 n 86 25 3.1 w 33.606750 n 86.417528 w 33.606750 ; 86.417528 wgww former edit station city of license physical channel vc1 first air date call letters meaning erp haat facility id transmitter coordinates years as wbma repeater current status wcft tv3 tuscaloosa 33 uhf 33 october 27 19654 chapman family television original owner 300 kw 657 m 21258 33 28 48.6 n 87 25 49.8 w 33.480167 n 87.430500 w 33.480167 ; 87.430500 wses 1996 2014 heroes & icons affiliate wses map all coordinates using osm map all coordinates using google map up to 200 coordinates using bing export all coordinates as kml export all coordinates as georss export all coordinates as gpx map all microformatted coordinates place data as rdf notes 1 virtual channel psip . 2 . wbma ld used the callsign w58ck until 1997 at which time the callsign was officially changed to wbma lp . 3 . wses used the callsign wcft tv from its 1965 inception until 2015 . wses operated as an independent station from 1965 to 1970 and as a cbs affiliate from 1970 to 1996 . 4 . the broadcasting and cable yearbook states that wcft tv signed on october 27 while the television and cable factbook states it signed on october 29 . 5 . wgww used the callsign whma tv from its 1969 inception until 1984 and callsign wjsu tv from 1984 until 2015 . it was a cbs affiliate from 1969 to 1996 with a secondary nbc affiliation from 1969 to 1970 . 6 . wbma ld is simulcast on wabm dt2 wdbb dt2 and wgww dt2 . digital television edit digital channels edit the digital channels are multiplexed on all stations however each station especially wabm and wdbb due to pre existing affiliations carries different channel feeds on their digital signals in addition to simulcasts of wbma ld and either of its digital subchannels channel video aspect psip short name programming 2 3 4 5 58.1 68.2 17.2 40.2 6 720p 16 9 abc3340 main programming abc 58.2 68.3 480i 4 3 abc3340 wbma wx wdbb 3340 wx wabm james spann 24 7 weather 58.3 16 9 abc3340 heartland american sports network analog to digital conversion edit although wbma lp was not obligated to shut off its analog signal as the law exempted low powered stations from the national transition from analog to digital television broadcasts the federal communications commission fcc encouraged low power television stations to vacate from high band uhf channels 52 to 69 as these out of core allotments were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the conversion . on december 3 2010 the fcc granted wbma lp a construction permit to flash cut its digital signal into operation on uhf channel 40 formerly occupied by the analog signal of wjsu and shut down the analog signal . wbma lp had a permit to operate on vhf channel 11 but due to possible interference with fellow abc affiliates wtvm in columbus georgia and wtok tv in meridian mississippi the latter of which transmits on its former analog frequency the station decided to modify the application to transmit the signal on uhf channel 40 . 7 wbma lp signed on its low power digital signal in late may 2011 under the call letters wbma ld ; through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 58 . history edit for the pre 2014 histories of wbma ld s former satellite stations see wses history and wgww history . early history and formation of trimulcast with wcft tv and wjsu tv edit on may 5 1994 great american communications which would be renamed citicasters following the completion of its debt restructuring later that year agreed to sell birmingham s longtime abc affiliate wbrc channel 6 and three of its sister stations fellow abc affiliate wghp in high point north carolina nbc affiliate wdaf tv in kansas city and cbs affiliate ksaz tv in phoenix to new world communications for 350 million in cash and 10 million in share warrants . as part of a broader deal between new world and the fox broadcasting company signed on may 23 of that year new world agreed to affiliate five of its eight existing television stations and the four it had acquired from great american with fox in a series of affiliation transactions that would take two years to complete due to the varying conclusion dates of their ongoing contracts with either abc nbc or cbs . 8 9 10 three weeks later new world agreed to buy nbc affiliate wvtm tv channel 13 and three other stations from argyle television holdings cbs affiliates kdfw in dallas fort worth and ktbc in austin and abc affiliate ktvi in st. louis in a purchase option structured deal worth 717 million . 9 due to conflicts with fcc ownership rules of the time period new world subsequently decided to establish and transfer the licenses of wbrc and wghp into a trust company with the intent to sell them to the fox network s broadcasting subsidiary fox television stations in the case of birmingham new world could not keep wbrc and wvtm since the fcc then forbade a single company from owning two television stations in the same market ; the concurrent argyle and citicasters acquisitions also put new world three stations over the fcc s twelve station ownership limit . although the sales of wbrc and wghp were finalized on july 24 1995 fox television stations could not switch wbrc s network affiliation in the short term as the station s contract with abc would not expire until august 31 1996 . while this forced fox to operate wbrc as an abc affiliate for thirteen months after the sale s closure it gave the latter network enough time to find a new central alabama affiliate . abc first approached wtto channel 21 now a cw affiliate which along with semi satellites wdbb channel 17 in tuscaloosa and wnal tv channel 44 now ion television owned and operated station wpxh tv in gadsden was set to lose its fox affiliation to channel 6 for a deal to replace wbrc as its birmingham outlet . however the owner of wtto sinclair broadcast group only expressed interest in carrying abc s prime time and news programming . it also refused to launch a news department for wtto as the group did not factor local news production into its corporate budget at the time this was despite the fact that sister station wdbb had maintained a standalone news operation at the time abc started negotiations with wtto which was eventually shut down when the former switched to a full time wtto simulcast in december 1995 . in november 1995 allbritton communications purchased cbs affiliate wcft tv channel 33 in tuscaloosa from federal broadcasting for 20 million ; it concurrently signed a deal with fant broadcasting to assume operational responsibilities for wnal tv under a local marketing agreement . then in january 1996 after it terminated the wnal deal allbritton acquired the non license assets of cbs affiliate wjsu tv channel 40 in anniston from osborne communications corporation for 12 million through an lma arrangement which included an option to eventually purchase the station outright . allbritton wanted to relocate wjsu s transmitter facilities closer to birmingham to provide a stronger signal within that metropolitan area and nearby tuscaloosa ; 11 however the relocation was prohibited under fcc regulations that required a station s transmitter site be located no more than 15 miles 24