affiliate wbma ld . wabm birmingham tuscaloosa anniston alabama united states city birmingham alabama branding my68 general abc 33 40 dt2 1 channels digital 36 uhf virtual 68 psip 1 affiliations .1 mynetworktv .2 abc .3 james spann 24 7 weather 1 owner sinclair broadcast group birmingham wabm tv licensee inc. 1 first air date january 31 1986 ; 30 years ago 1986 01 31 call letters meaning we ve got alabama s best movies or alabama birmingham or alabama sister station s wtto wdbb wbma ld 1 former callsigns wcaj 1986 1991 former channel number s analog 68 uhf 1986 2009 former affiliations dt1 independent 1986 1995 march august 1998 upn 1995 march 1998 august 1998 2006 dt2 thecooltv 2010 2012 transmitter power 885 kw height 406 m facility id 16820 transmitter coordinates 33 29 4.5 n 86 48 25.4 w 33.484583 n 86.807056 w 33.484583 ; 86.807056 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wabm68.com wabm virtual channel 68 uhf digital channel 36 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station located in birmingham alabama united states . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a de facto triopoly with abc affiliate wbma ld channel 58 and cw affiliate wtto channel 21 ; sinclair also operates tuscaloosa based wdbb channel 17 which operates as a satellite station of wtto under a time brokerage agreement with owner cunningham broadcasting . all three stations share studio facilities located on beacon parkway west in southeastern birmingham ; wabm maintains transmitter facilities located at the american general candelabra tower on red mountain near interstate 65 in southwestern birmingham . contents 1 history 1.1 as an independent station 1.2 upn affiliation and brief disaffiliation 1.3 mynetworktv affiliation 1.4 wbma simulcast on wabm dt2 and dt3 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 references 5 external links history edit as an independent station edit the station first signed on the air on january 31 1986 as wcaj originally operating as a religious independent station . some of the initial programs that were featured on the station consisted of catholic programs from the irondale based eternal word television network as well as programming from the southern baptist convention owned american christian television system acts ; it initially also carried secular comedy drama and western programming on weekday afternoons and evenings . its original studio facilities were located on the campus of samford university . after the trinity broadcasting network signed on wtjp tv channel 60 in gadsden that july wcaj s viewership declined significantly and were never able to recover for the remainder of its tenure as a religious station . by early 1987 wcaj converted to a schedule consisting entirely of christian programming . eventually by that fall the station added home shopping programming and infomercials to fill part of its schedule while retaining some religious programs which were relegated to mornings and late evenings ; in 1990 the home shopping and infomercial programming was removed from the lineup at which time the station reverted to an entirely religious schedule . in 1990 the station was sold to krypton broadcasting which changed its call letters to wabm and reformatted it into a general entertainment independent in january 1991 ; the reformatted lineup featured a mix of classic movies dramas and westerns . however the station struggled at first against fox affiliate wdbb channel 17 now a cw affiliate and its gadsden based satellite wnal tv channel 44 now ion television owned and operated station wpxh tv and the market s leading independent station wtto channel 21 also now a cw affiliate . although the birmingham market essentially covered three separate markets including tuscaloosa and anniston gadsden it was not nearly large enough population wise at the time for what were essentially three independent stations and there simply was not enough first run syndicated and acquired programming to fill all of their schedules . in 1991 wdbb and wnal became semi satellites of wtto which had assumed the fox affiliation for the market earlier that year simulcasting that station s programming 22 hours a day . as part of the deal wdbb wnal moved their stronger programs onto wtto s schedule . this resulted in wtto owning a large amount of programming that it no longer had time to air so it sold a large amount of its cartoons and classic sitcoms to wabm . even with a stronger format wabm still trailed wtto in the ratings . channel 68 had a disadvantage when it came to signal coverage especially after wdbb and wnal became full time satellites of wtto in 1993 . between those three stations wtto wdbb and wnal provided a strong combined signal comparable to those of abc affiliate wbrc tv channel 6 now a fox affiliate and nbc affiliate wvtm tv channel 13 . in contrast wabm provided only a city grade signal within the birmingham metropolitan area while transmitting a grade b signal in the western and northern parts of the market . wabm also suffered because krypton had run into financial problems during the early 1990s which placed wabm at a severe disadvantage when it came to acquiring the strongest programming . after selling off its sister stations in west palm beach wtvx now a cw affiliate and jacksonville florida wnft now cbs affiliate wjax tv krypton sold wabm to a small locally based group who in 1993 . the new owners immediately entered into a local marketing agreement with abry owned wtto . under the lma wtto and wabm began sharing certain programs although both stations continued to maintain separate schedules and wtto provided advertising services for wabm on their behalf . in september of that year the station began carrying programming from the prime time entertainment network syndication service . in 1994 sinclair broadcast group assumed the rights to the lma with wtto wdbb when it acquired the latter upon its merger with abry . upn affiliation and brief disaffiliation edit on january 16 1995 wabm became the birmingham charter affiliate of the united paramount network upn . however it essentially continued to program as an independent station since upn only provided prime time programming on monday and tuesday evenings when the network launched and would not carry five nights a week of programming until september 1998 . it was one of three stations unaffected by the september 1996 affiliation switches that saw wbrc become a fox owned and operated station and its longtime abc affiliation move to wbma ld channel 58 and former cbs affiliates wcft tv channel 33 now heroes & icons affiliate wses in tuscaloosa and wjsu tv channel 40 now heroes & icons affiliate wgww in anniston . in march 1998 wabm disaffiliated from upn affiliation over concerns by sinclair over ratings and monetary issues as other stations owned by the company did in several additional markets following sinclair s signing of a lucrative affiliation deal with the wb which wtto wdbb affiliated with in an unrelated deal two years earlier . for five months the station reverted to being an independent station though the only effect on the station s schedule was the replacement of upn programming with syndicated film packages during prime time and on saturday afternoons and infomercials taking the place of the network s upn kids block on sunday mornings . in the interim local cable providers began carrying the network s secaucus new jersey new york city based flagship wwor tv to allow upn programming to remain available in the birmingham market ; on the fringes of the market the network was available only on cable systems through one of two out of market stations wupa in atlanta and wgsa in baxley savannah as most providers had dropped wwor s superstation cable feed earlier in the decade due to the lack of interesting programming used to replace shows seen on the main wwor signal after syndex rules went into effect and the cable feed had been discontinued by satellite distribution rightsholder advance entertainment corporation one year earlier and lent to discovery communications to increase national distribution for animal planet . however the loss of upn created a side effect for wabm as it experienced a decline in viewership without a network affiliation . complaints were also lodged to the station from vocal star trek fans whose only option for watching star trek voyager were either by seeing it through upn affiliates from other markets over the air or on cable a subscription to dish network directv or primestar to receive distant upn stations via the satellite providers respective superstation packages or through tape trading . sinclair would eventually reach a new affiliation pact with the network for the stations which lost their upn affiliations but did not subsequently join the wb . after wabm re affiliated with upn on august 10 1998 wwor was dropped from the few area cable systems that carried it within days of wabm s reunion with the network . to make up for the pre emptions of the program caused by the disaffiliation wabm aired an all day voyager marathon that november showing all thirteen episodes that wabm was not able to air during the second half of the 1997 98 season with the permission of upn and the program s production company paramount television . by the late 1990s the station began to reduce the amount of classic sitcoms movies and syndicated cartoons such as dennis the menace and sailor moon on its schedule in favor of more recent sitcoms and the addition of talk reality and court shows . channel 68 continued to air animated series on weekday mornings until august 2003 when upn discontinued its children s program block disney s one too . on may 20 2000 more than a decade after most television stations had converted to the audio format wabm began transmitting its programming with stereophonic sound . in 2001 sinclair purchased wabm outright creating the birmingham tuscaloosa anniston market s first television duopoly with wtto wdbb . mynetworktv affiliation edit on february 22 2006 news corporation announced the launch of mynetworktv a new sixth broadcast network that would be operated by fox television stations and its syndication division twentieth television . mynetworktv was created to compete against another upstart network that would launch at the same time that september the cw which assumed the scheduling model and most programming operations of the wb but originally consisted primarily of a mix of upn and the wb s higher rated programs as well as to give upn and wb affiliated stations that were not named as charter cw affiliates another option besides converting into independent stations . 2 3 on march 1 2006 five days before sinclair announced an agreement to affiliate 17 of its upn wb and independent stations with the network sinclair broadcast group and fox entertainment group announced that wabm would become the market s charter affiliate of mynetworktv . wabm joined the network when mynetworktv launched on september 5 2006 ; wtto wdbb became central alabama s cw charter affiliate when that network launched on september 18 . for a time wabm had considered acquiring the local broadcast rights to 4kids tv the fox network s children s program block via a time lease agreement with 4kids entertainment . sister station wtto had continued to carry its predecessor fox kids even after it lost the fox affiliation to wbrc in september 1996 ; it dropped fox kids programming in the fall of 2000 however wbrc did not acquire the rights to the block leaving it and future blocks programmed by 4kids entertainment unavailable in the birmingham market . wabm eventually picked up fox s weekend marketplace paid programming block in lieu of wbrc when it replaced 4kids tv in december 2008 . wbma simulcast on wabm dt2 and dt3 edit on july 29 2013 allbritton communications announced that it