| Selma/Montgomery, Alabama | |
|---|---|
| Branding | CBS 8 (general) CBS 8 News |
| Slogan | CBS 8 News is Everywhere |
| Channels | Digital: 42 (UHF) Virtual: 8 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 8.1 CBS 8.2 descriptive video service 8.3 weather radar 8.x Me-TV [1] |
| Owner | Bahakel Communications (Alabama Broadcasting Partners) |
| First air date | March 17, 1960 |
| Sister station(s) | WBMM, WNCF |
| Former callsigns | WSLA (1960–1984) |
| Former channel number(s) | 8 (VHF analog, 1960–2008) 55 (UHF digital, 2005–2008) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1960–1968) silent (1968–1973) |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 496 m |
| Facility ID | 701 |
| Website | waka.com |
WAKA is the CBS-affiliated television station for Central Alabama's Black Belt region licensed to Selma. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 (PSIP virtual channel 8) from a transmitter in Gordonville. The station can also be seen on Knology and Charter channel 8. There is a high definition feed offered on Charter digital channel 708 and Knology digital channel 902. Owned by Bahakel Communications, WAKA has studios on Eastern Boulevard (US 80/US 231) in Montgomery. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Wheel of Fortune, The Doctors, Dr. Phil, Jeopardy!, and Inside Edition.
Contents |
On WAKA-DT2 is a secondary audio channel featuring descriptive video service. On WAKA-DT3, Knology digital channel 117, and Charter digital channel 138 is a 24-hour live weather radar feed.
| Channels | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main WAKA programming / CBS SAP/descriptive video service on 8.2 |
| 8.2 | |||
| 8.3 | 480i | 4:3 | Weather radar |
Selma's analog VHF 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 (740 AM now WMSP). Originally an Independent, it became Montgomery's ABC affiliate soon afterwards. However, it only provided a Grade B signal to Montgomery, and 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. Oftentimes, if the engineer was not paying attention, local WBRC breaks and IDs would air on WSLA.[2]
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 a 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. The Selma station was allowed just a 360-foot (110 m) tower just west of Selma, with only 3,000 watts of power.
Almost at once, Deep South applied to amend its permit requesting a much taller tower just north of Prattville with a full 316,000 watts of power, the most allowed for a high-band VHF station. The new location would have easily covered Montgomery while still being within 15 miles of Selma as required by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. However, the FCC blocked this move due to a protest from Montgomery's then-CBS affiliate, WCOV-TV, 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 move its programming there. Deep South proposed another facility this time from unspecified facilities in Southern Montgomery County only to be rejected again due to protests from WCOV. Probably afraid the license would be in jeopardy, Deep South went on-the-air from its originally-specified facilities in Selma.
The station's facilities burned down on August 1, 1968, cause undetermined. WCOV's then-owner, Gay-Bell Corporation made a move to purchase the silent channel 8 facility from Deep South and it intended to 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 station (and one that probably would have not been contested to operate as such 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 was not rebuilt until 1972, when the dormant station was bought by Gala Broadcasting. Gala's owner, Charles Grisham of Huntsville, also owned that city's CBS affiliate WHNT-TV. The station was rebuilt in Selma and returned to the airwaves on November 1, 1973[3] as a full-time CBS affiliate. Grisham continued the battle for a tall tower and full power to cover Montgomery while WCOV continued its fight to prevent this. One of WSLA's applications to increase coverage (but out of direct fire from WCOV and WKAB) involved placing its tower in a position that would have allowed respectable coverage into Birmingham and Tuscaloosa as well as to Selma and Montgomery. This application, however, was challenged by UHF stations WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa and WBMG (now WIAT) in Birmingham.
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 UHF by re-assigning the channel 12 frequency to Columbus, Georgia (which would have made that market all VHF). This got nowhere but did extend the battle. Finally, with all arguments exhausted and the FCC (in keeping with its emphasis on deregulation) becoming more neutral in the protection of UHF facilities, WSLA was issued a construction permit in 1984 for a new tower in Lowndes County which would give the station primary coverage of Montgomery. 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.
Bahakel Communications bought WAKA from Grisham in 1985 and remains the owner today. That same year in April, WAKA began broadcasting from its long-sought 1,757-foot (536 m) tower with 316,000 watts of power. It now boasted 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 later joined the upstart Fox network.
WAKA 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 to the FCC to move its post-transition channel to channel 42 since any channel above 51 would not be allocated for digital television after February 17, 2009. In order to get its post-transition channel up and running, WAKA ceased analog broadcasting on channel 8 on November 28, 2008.
At that time, the analog antenna and broadcasting equipment were removed from its tower and replaced with digital equipment for channel 42 (digital channel 55 continued to operate via a side-mounted antenna at full power). Digital channel 42 signed-on January 19, 2009 while digital channel 55 signed-off on the mandated date of February 17. Although for only a month, WAKA has the distinction of being the only facility in the country to actually operate two digital channels at the same time (42 and 55) as part of the digital transition. WAKA is the only big four station in the market to operate at full power (1 megawatt). PSIP is used to display WAKA's virtual channel as 8.
On July 7, 2011, WAKA announced ambitious plans to purchase WBMM (CW) and operate a shared services agreement with WNCF (ABC) that will make them a media powerhouse in Montgomery. The plans call for building a new, ultra-modern, entirely HD communications center on the WNCF site (which, ironically WAKA's Bahakel has always owned). When completed, the operation of the WAKA facility on Eastern Boulevard, long hampered by lack of expansion space due to its urban location, will cease.[4]
In the past several years, in order to be more competitive, the station has expanded its news department with additional personnel, outlying bureaus, and more newscasts. Bureaus with live broadcast capabilities are based in Selma (on Landline Road/SR 22 Truck/SR 219) known as the West Alabama Newsroom and in Greenville known as the South Alabama Newsroom. In addition, WAKA operates a third bureau in Troy, Alabama. Those expansions along with improved production values helped WAKA become a solid runner-up to long-dominant WSFA in local Neilson ratings. In the July 2011 ratings, WAKA's noon and weekend 10 pm newscasts out-rated WSFA in key demographic areas. These types of victories for WAKA have happened in the past, and continue to signal a growing preference for the station's news product.
From January 2007 until September 2010, through a news share agreement, the station produced a weeknight half-hour prime time newscast (known as CW News at Nine) on CW affiliate WBMM (owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting). The arrangement was terminated after its sister station WNCF expanded its news department and introduced full thirty-minute taped shows weeknights at 9 (on WBMM) and 10.
On January 3, 2011, WAKA entered into another news share agreement with WCOV (owned by the Woods Communications Corporation) to produce a nightly prime time show known as WCOV News at 9. Previously, that station had its newscasts produced by WSFA but chose not to renew the outsourcing arrangement. Unlike most CBS affiliates, WAKA does not air a full two-hour weekday morning show but rather a 90-minute block beginning at 5:30 am. The 6 o'clock hour of CBS 8 News This Morning is simulcast on WMRK-FM 107.9. WAKA maintains simulcast agreements with numerous radio stations in central and south Alabama in the event of severe weather events.
Anchors
CBS 8 First Alert Weather Network
The 8 Team
Reporters
| Name | Span | Current position | Previous positions | Before WAKA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Lennox | August 2009–present | CBS 8 News This Morning, | WAIQ in Montgomery. Hosted "For The Record" for 10 years on Alabama Public Television until it was cancelled. | |
| Jeff Sanders | January 2005 – present | CBS 8 News at Noon & 5 | CBS 8 News This Morning / at Noon | Weather anchor at WTVY in Dothan, AL |
| Jamie Langley | 2009–present | CBS 8 News at 5 | ||
| Glenn Halbrooks | March 2003–present | CBS 8 News at 6 & 10 (2003–2007, late August 2010 present) | CBS 8 News at 6 & 10 and CW News at 9 (Jan. 2007- August 2010) | WDEF-TV in Chattanooga, TN. |
| Stefanie Hicks | July 2004 – Present | CBS 8 News at 6 and 10 | WSFA 12 News at 6 & 10 | WTVY in Dothan, AL |
| Katy Solhoff | April 2011-present | |||
| 'George McDonald | June 2005 – Present | West Alabama Newsroom Reporter (July 2007 – Present) | General Assignment Reporter | WTOK-TV in Meridian, MS |
| Krista Littlefield | December 2007 – present | General Assignment Reporter | ||
| Elise Burkart | September 2008 – Present | South Alabama Newsroom Reporter | University of West Georgia | |
| Tamika Bickham | August 2010–present | General Assignment Reporter | University of Miami | |
| Amanda McKenzie | January 2011–present | General Assignment Reporter | Anchor/Reporter at NYFA, Intern at NBC's The Today Show | University of Florida |
| Ashley McDonald | April 2007-May 2009 / May 2010 – present | Chief Meteorologist (as of May 2010) | Morning/Noon Meteorologist (June 2008-May 2009), Weekend Meteorologist (April 2007-June 2008) | WTOK-TV in Meridian, MS (2007) and WXIA in Atlanta (2010) |
| Marcy Novack | January 2011–present | Morning Meteorologist | ||
| Micah Harris | May 2010 – present | Weekend Meteorologist | KTEN in Oklahoma | |
| Dee Jackson | Late 1990s-? and February 2002 – present | Sports Director | KCTV in Kasas City | |
| Stu McCann | May 2008 – Present | Weekend Sports Anchor | KCWY in Wyoming |
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