kickball association . waka selma montgomery alabama united states branding cbs 8 general alabama news network newscasts me tv montgomery on dt2 channels digital 42 uhf virtual 8 psip subchannels 8.1 cbs 8.2 metv affiliations cbs 1973 present owner bahakel communications alabama broadcasting partners first air date march 17 1960 ; 56 years ago 1960 03 17 call letters meaning we always know alabama sister station s wbmm wncf former callsigns wsla 1960 1984 former channel number s analog 8 vhf 1960 2008 digital 55 uhf 2005 2008 former affiliations abc 1960 1968 dark 1968 1973 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 496 m class dt facility id 701 transmitter coordinates 32 8 57.9 n 86 46 42.6 w 32.149417 n 86.778500 w 32.149417 ; 86.778500 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website waka.com waka is the cbs affiliated television station for central alabama s river region that is licensed to selma . it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 42 or virtual channel 8.1 via psip from a transmitter in gordonville . owned by bahakel communications waka is sister to cw affiliate wbmm and abc affiliate wncf . however the latter is actually owned by sagamorehill broadcasting but operated by bahakel through a shared services agreement . all three television outlets share studios on harrison road in north montgomery . syndicated programming on waka includes wheel of fortune dr. phil the doctors and jeopardy among others . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 4 references 5 external links history edit channel 8 debuted on march 17 1960 as wsla acronym for selma . the station was originally owned by the brennan family and their company deep south broadcasting along with wbam radio in montgomery 740 am now wmsp and broadcast from a converted home in selma with the studio located in the garage . deep south originally sought the wbam tv call letters for channel 8 . however in those days selma and montgomery were separate markets and federal communications commission regulations at the time would not allow companion call letters to be issued to stations located in different markets . originally an independent it picked up an abc affiliation soon afterward . channel 8 was the only primary abc affiliate in south central alabama . in montgomery abc was relegated to off hours clearances on nbc affiliate wsfa tv and cbs affiliate wcov tv . originally deep south could not afford a direct network feed . instead station engineers switched to and from the signal of wbrc tv in birmingham whenever abc programming was available . often if the engineer was not paying attention local wbrc breaks and ids would air on wsla . 1 it operated from a tiny 360 foot 110 m tower just west of selma with only 3 000 watts of power . this effectively limited its coverage area to dallas county . in 1964 wkab tv later whoa tv and now wncf started up as montgomery s abc affiliate but wsla continued to broadcast abc programming to the western part of the market because of uhf s limited coverage at the time . interestingly it could be argued that wsla was almost always a cbs affiliate . once it ended a brief stint as an independent station and affiliated with abc it also established a secondary affiliation with cbs by carrying one hour of that network s programming every week with ted mack s original amateur hour . the station fought a 30 year battle probably the longest on record over its current transmitting facilities . channel 8 received its construction permit in february 1954 weeks before the area s only other vhf station montgomery s wsfa . early on the brennans realized that selma and montgomery were going to be a single market . almost as soon as they received the construction permit from the fcc the brennans applied to replace channel 8 s original low powered facility with a much taller tower near lowndesboro operating at a full 100 000 watts of power . it would have been the tallest broadcasting structure ever and would have been strong enough to easily cover montgomery while staying within 15 miles of selma as required by fcc rules . numerous government agencies chimed in on this application and it was struck down due to aeronautical safety issues . the brennans then applied for a 1 750 foot tower just north of prattville with a full 316 000 watts of power the most allowed for a high band vhf station . however the fcc blocked this move due to a protest from wcov which claimed that the fcc would not be fostering the growth of uhf stations if it allowed the expansion . in truth wcov feared that if wsla was permitted to expand its signal cbs would make wsla the exclusive cbs affiliate for the montgomery area . deep south proposed another facility this time from unspecified facilities near strata in southern montgomery county only to be rejected again due to protests from wcov . by this time the channel 8 allocation in selma had caught the attention of post stations the broadcasting division of the washington post . in the late 1950s in an effort to maximize the 12 vhf channels available the fcc proposed relaxing its mileage separation rules for these channels . the separations were proposed to be decreased only a few miles to minimize interference ; however the channel 8 at selma would be one of a handful of channels that could fall under this action . had the proposal been implemented the channel 8 license would have been moved to birmingham channel 8 at nashville then occupied by wsix tv under 10 miles too close to birmingham according to established fcc interference separation rules had prevented this in the past . the post made it clear that it would like to move the channel 8 allocation to birmingham . meanwhile the brennans seemed to have no immediate plans to activate channel 8 at selma . this was logical since selma was just barely large enough to support a full service television station and the only way for the station to be profitable would be if it served montgomery . probably afraid the license would be in jeopardy deep south went on the air from its originally specified facilities in selma about eight months afterward . later deep south applied to build a 2000 foot tower in west blocton that could serve birmingham tuscaloosa and selma . this request also failed after two other uhf stations wcft now wses in tuscaloosa and wbmg now wiat in birmingham objected out of concerns for fostering uhf s growth . wcft and wbmg had construction permits for new towers but stated they would not do so if channel 8 was granted a tower at west blocton . the station s facilities burned down on august 1 1968 ; to this day the cause is still unknown . wcov s then owner gay bell corporation made a move to purchase the silent channel 8 facility from deep south and operate it as a low powered west alabama repeater of wcov . however the fcc would not allow wcov to reduce channel 8 s power . for some unknown reason perhaps the enormous amount of capital expense that would have been required wcov passed on the chance to operate channel 8 as a full power satellite even though there would have been little difficulty getting fcc authorization to do so since wcov the main protester in the channel 8 expansion case would have owned the facility . due to intense competition from the montgomery stations especially wsfa and the large amount of money deep south had invested in the legal fight wsla stayed off the air until 1972 when charles grisham of huntsville and his company gala broadcasting bought the dormant channel 8 license . gala also owned huntsville s cbs affiliate whnt tv . the station was rebuilt in selma and returned to the airwaves on november 1 1973 1 as a full time cbs affiliate . over the next decade grisham continued the battle for a tall tower and full power to cover montgomery only to be derailed each time by protests from wcov . at one time wcov proposed that the fcc move the analog channel 8 frequency to tuscaloosa as an educational station and then make the entire montgomery market a uhf island by reassigning the channel 12 frequency to columbus georgia which would have made that market all vhf . this got nowhere but did extend the battle . by the early 1980s the fcc in keeping with its emphasis on deregulation had become more neutral in the protection of uhf facilities . with all possible arguments exhausted the fcc granted wsla a construction permit in 1984 for a new 1 757 foot 536 m tower in gordonville roughly halfway between selma and montgomery . the new tower would give the station primary coverage of montgomery while still being within 15 miles of selma . at the same time the fcc collapsed selma into the montgomery market . the station s call sign changed to waka on october 28 1984 unofficially said to stand for in jest we are kicking ass . it was thought that with the move to montgomery the calls wsla would be confused with those of wsfa . grisham sold waka to current owner bahakel communications in 1985 . that april waka activated its new tower . it now claimed to have the largest coverage area in the entire state of alabama . the station provides at least secondary coverage from the fringes of the birmingham and tuscaloosa suburbs to the florida panhandle and wiregrass region to the southeast . on new year s day 1986 waka became the sole cbs affiliate for montgomery after the network dropped its programming from wcov . that station spent the first half of 1986 as an independent before joining the upstart fox network in october . soon after activating its new tower waka moved most of its operations to a state of the art studio in montgomery . for a time newscasts were split between the selma and montgomery studios . before the end of the 1980s channel 8 moved its entire operation to montgomery . however the station still has a news bureau in selma . on july 7 2011 waka announced ambitious plans to purchase wbmm and operate a shared services agreement with wncf . the plans called for merging all three stations operations at a new ultra modern hd ready facility at wncf s studios though waka is the senior partner . ironically bahakel was the founding owner of channel 32 selling it in 1985 in order to buy waka . however it still owned the harrison road facility leasing it to channel 32 s various owners over the years . waka s original montgomery studio had long been hampered by its location close to downtown which limited its ability to expand . 2 waka moved its operations to wncf s facility in 2012 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 8.1 1080i 16 9 waka dt main waka programming cbs 8.2 480i waka me metv analog to digital conversion edit waka shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 8 on november 28 2008 . the station was the first station in the montgomery market to broadcast in stereo and is the only one to transmit with a full one megawatt in digital equivalent to five megawatts for an analog transmitter . because of waka s original digital allocation on uhf channel 55 and a belief by ownership that a return to vhf channel 8 for digital service may create reception issues waka petitioned