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  Station Logo
  Station Slogan The Most Powerful Name in Local News
  Station Branding ''FOX6''
  Analog 6 ( VHF )
  Digital 50 ( UHF )
  Affiliations Fox
  Founded July 4 , 1949 on channel 4 (moved to channel 6 in 1953)
  Location Birmingham, Alabama - Anniston, Alabama - Tuscaloosa, Alabama
  Callsign Meaning '''B'''ell '''R'''adio '''C'''ompany
  Owner Fox Television Stations Group
  Former Callsigns ''none''
  Former Affiliations NBC (1949-54),<br> CBS (1954-61),<br> ABC (1949-96, secondary until 1961),<br> DuMont (1949-1953, secondary)
  Effective Radiated Power 100 KW (analog) <br> 1 MW (digital)
  Homepage wwwwbrccom


WBRC TV, channel 6, '''''FOX6''''' is the Fox O&O Station in the Birmingham / Anniston / Tuscaloosa, Alabama television market. Its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham.


HISTORY

WBRC began operation on July 4 , 1949 on channel 4 as an NBC affiliate. The station also carried secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont {Link without Title} . It was owned by Eloise D. Hanna along with WBRC-AM 960. The station's call letters stand for Bell '''R'''adio '''C'''ompany, after J.C. Bell, WBRC-AM's first owner.

It moved to channel 6 in 1953 and later that year Ms. Hanna sold the station to Storer Broadcasting . WBRC became a CBS affiliate in 1954 , coinciding with a move into a new studio built by Storer, where the station remains today. It also shared ABC programming with WAPI-TV (now WVTM-TV ). In 1957, Storer sold WBRC to Taft Broadcasting of Cincinnati .

In 1961 , WBRC took the ABC affiliation full time, leaving WAPI to share CBS and NBC. This was very unusual for a market with only two commercial stations. Usually, both stations shared ABC as a secondary affiliation. ABC would not be on anything resembling an equal footing with CBS and NBC until the 1970s. However, Taft had very good relations with ABC. Most of Taft's TV stations were affiliated with ABC, including its flagship station, WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, which was one of ABC's strongest affiliates, and also, Taft's chairman was a personal friend of ABC president Leonard Goldenson . Also, CBS had begun airing news and documentary programming very supportive of the Civil Rights Movement , and this didn't sit well at all with WBRC's management. ABC had very few full-time affiliates south of Washington, D.C. at the time, but now had the full benefit of one of the South's strongest signals and biggest coverage areas.

WBRC was one of ABC's strongest affiliates over the years. For a time, it lodged the ABC dot logo inside its own "6" logo, similar to what Philadelphia 's WPVI-TV does now.

In the late 1980s , WBRC, along with most other Taft stations, was sold to Great American Broadcasting .

In early 1990s , New World Communications made a deal to buy a number of stations from both Great American Broadcasting and Argyle Television. That, however, presented a problem, as the company would then own both WBRC and WVTM (previously an Argyle station). As a result, while other New World stations affiliated with Fox, WBRC (along with WGHP in High Point, North Carolina ) was transferred directly to Fox. (New World kept WVTM until it was sold to NBC in 1996, and most other New World stations were acquired outright by Fox in 1997 .)

Fox assumed control of WBRC and WGHP in the summer of 1995 , and moved its programming to WGHP in September. However, WBRC's affiliation agreement with ABC did not expire until September 1996 , so Fox had to run WBRC as an ABC affiliate for over a year.

When the affiliation switch finally took place in September 1996, Fox programming moved to WBRC from WTTO (which affiliated with WB in 1997 ), and WBRC's ABC affiliation moved to the station combo of WBMA/WCFT/WJSU . (However, Fox's children programming remained on WTTO, and did not move to WBRC even after WTTO dropped it in 2000 , causing Fox's Saturday morning cartoons to not be seen in the Birmingham area.)

Since the affiliation switch, the station has been known as ''"FOX6"''. It has gained the reputation of having one of the nation's highest-rated primetime newscasts: ''"FOX6 News at 9:00"''. It also airs 43 hours of locally produced news programming per week, the most in the market.

WBRC is one of only a few stations in the country to have had primary affiilations with all of the Big Three networks, and is probably the only station in the country to have had primary affiliations with all four current major networks (the Big Three plus Fox).


NEWSCAST TITLES


WRBC in Birmingham is one of the five FOX O&O Stations to have a 10pm Newscast the others are KDFW in Dallas WITI in Milwaukee WDAF in Kansas City and KSAZ in Phoenix in the Central and Mountain Time Zones,also there sister station in Eastern Time Zone WTVT in Tampa has a 11pm Newscast as test for other FOX O&O Stations,if Successful all FOX O&Os will have 10pm and 11pm Newscast in their areas.

also,in 2006,WRBC is expected to get new set,design by FOX News Channel new music,a new logo,and new graphics to remesblance the FOX News Channel the following FOX O&O stations has the same logo look almost as the FOX News Channel. WTVT in Tampa WHBQ-TV in Memphis WNYW in New York City KTVI in St. Louis and KTTV in Los Angeles.



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