WSFA

WSFA

Montgomery/Dothan, Alabama United States
Branding	WSFA 12 (general) WSFA 12 News (newscasts) WSFA 12.2 (on DT2)
Slogan	We Stand For Alabama
Channels	Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 12 (PSIP)
Subchannels	12.1 NBC 12.2 Bounce TV 12.3 GritTV
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Raycom Media (WSFA License Subsidiary, LLC)
First air date	December 25, 1954 (1954-12-25)
Call letters' meaning	With the South's Finest Airport [1]
Sister station(s)	WDFX, WTVM, WAFF, WBRC
Former callsigns	WSFA-TV (1954-1986)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1954-2009) Digital: 14 (UHF, 2002-2009)
Former affiliations	DT2: NBC Weather Plus (2005-12/2008) Local Weather (12/2008-2/2010) RTV (2/2010-9/2011) DT3: Grit (TV network) (2014-)
Transmitter power	600 kW
Height	507 m
Facility ID	13993
Transmitter coordinates	31°58′28.6″N 86°9′44.2″W / 31.974611°N 86.162278°W / 31.974611; -86.162278
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	WSFA.com

WSFA is the NBC-affiliated television station for Central Alabama's Black Belt region licensed to Montgomery. The station boasts one of the largest coverage areas in Alabama, providing at least secondary coverage from the geographical center of the state to the Florida state line and from the Black Belt region to the Chattahoochee River bordering Georgia.^[2] In addition to its own transmitter in Grady, Alabama, WSFA has channels on Knology and Charter Communications cable television providers.

WSFA broadcasts a mix of original programming and NBC feed.^[3] Original programming includes WSFA's major commitment^[2] – regional and local news – with shows such as Alabama Live, WSFA 12 News First at 4, WSFA 12 News at 6, and WSFA 12 News at 10. The station also broadcasts national news with The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. Syndicated programming on WSFA includes Entertainment Tonight, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Judy, and The Insider.

WSFA is owned by the locally based Raycom Media, which has headquarters downtown at the RSA Tower. WSFA is one of Raycom's two flagships, alongside CBS affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Coverage

Broadcast and affiliations

The station is licensed to Montgomery, with studios on East Delano Avenue.

WSFA broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter in Grady along the Montgomery and Pike County line. The station can also be viewed on cable television, with Knology and Charter channel 11. A high definition feed is offered on Charter digital channel 711 and Knology digital channel 903.

WSFA was formerly the default NBC affiliate for the Dothan, Alabama. That status ended when Gray Television, which owns WTVY in Dothan, launched WRGX-LD as a NBC affiliate on June 1, 2013.^[4]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Logo for WSFA-DT2 during affiliation with RTV

WSFA-DT2 had been part of NBC Weather Plus but reverted to a local weather channel after the national service was discontinued on December 31, 2008. From there on it ran its own local version of the defunct weather show. In February 2010, Retro Television Network (RTV) moved from WSFA-DT3 to WSFA-DT2, combined with weather updates and other shows. On September 26, 2011, WSFA replaced RTV with Bounce TV, as part of Raycom's affiliation deal with that network. WSFA-DT2 also includes repeats of newscasts from the main channel, live local weather updates, syndicated programming, and broadcasts from Raycom Sports.

The third digital subchannel, WSFA-DT3, currently broadcasts the Grit (TV network) . WSFA-DT3 had originally aired The Tube Music Network until its shuttering on October 1, 2007. RTV then took its place. WSFA-DT3 was shut down on December 31, 2009, in order to start beta testing of applications that would transmit its signal to mobile devices, but was then re-opened in October 2014 carrying the Grit (TV network)

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSFA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 14 to VHF channel 12.^[6]

History

The station's call letters – SFA – are an acronym for South's Finest Airport.^[2] They can be traced back to 1930, when Gordon Persons (years before becoming Governor of Alabama) opened a radio station at the Montgomery Regional Airport (now Gunter Annex of Maxwell Air Force Base). The new station was the state's fourth station^[2] but the city's first.^[7] WSFA radio quickly became a landmark in Montgomery and was most famous in its early days for launching the career of country music legend Hank Williams, a native of nearby Georgiana, in the 1940s.

By the mid-1950s, the new medium of television was sweeping the nation and Persons won the construction permit for Montgomery's second television station on VHF channel 12. Ironically, this allocation was supposed to be occupied by Montgomery's first television station WCOV-TV. However, due to a delay in getting a transmitter for channel 12, WCOV was forced to move to UHF channel 20. A studio was built in 1954 to house both the television and radio stations,^[2] and WSFA-TV aired its first broadcast on Christmas Day 1954. Only two months later, in February 1955, WSFA was purchased by the Gaylord family's Oklahoma Publishing Company. At that time, WSFA-AM-TV was operated by a staff of 35. In 1956, the radio station was sold and moved to downtown Montgomery under a new set of call letters, WHHY^[2] (and then later still, WLWI). From then on, the television station now operated apart from its former namesake radio partner. The television station was sold again, in 1959, to the Broadcasting Company of the South from Columbia, South Carolina. A subsidiary of the Liberty Life Insurance Company, the company renamed itself Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation in 1965. Later in the decade, Liberty reorganized itself as The Liberty Corporation with Cosmos and Liberty Life as its subsidiaries. WSFA was the area's only VHF station until 1985. In 1986, it dropped the -TV suffix. Liberty exited the insurance business in 2002, bringing the station directly under the Liberty banner. The company merged with Raycom Media in 2006. Since Raycom is headquartered in Montgomery, WSFA became the corporation's flagship station. However, with Raycom's 2008 purchase of Lincoln Financial Media's television stations, WSFA now shares flagship status with Charlotte's WBTV.

Tracing back from its humble beginnings as the upstart television arm of a local radio station, WSFA is still broadcasting from its original West Montgomery location. Several expansions of the Delano Avenue facility now provide room for two large telecasting studios and a staff of more than one hundred.

News operation

Current WSFA 12 News opening nightly at 10PM

As the only VHF station in town for 31 years, WSFA has been the dominant news station in Montgomery for as long as records have been kept. The station has always devoted significant resources to its news department, resulting in a higher-quality product than conventional wisdom would suggest for what has always been a small market.

News programming is also on the subchannel during the time that its primary channel is air network programming.^[8]

Not long after the Gaylord family bought the station in 1955, they dispatched Frank McGee from his position as anchorman at company flagship WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City, to Montgomery as News Director. Under McGee, WSFA gained a national reputation for its coverage (fed periodically to the network) of local events in the Civil Rights Movement such as the Bus Boycott of 1955 involving Rosa Parks and the varied activities of Martin Luther King, Jr. during his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. McGee eventually joined NBC News as a correspondent and hosted Today from 1971 until his death in 1974. By the time Liberty bought WSFA in 1959, it had developed an image as a news-intensive station. Wanting to repeat WSFA's success, Liberty began developing strong news departments at its other stations as well. Today, WSFA airs over thirty hours of local newscasts per week, a considerable amount for a station in the 118th market and far and away the most of any station in Montgomery.

On January 15, 2007, it added an entertainment/lifestyle magazine-type program known as Alabama LIVE!. The show that airs weekday mornings at 11. The show reflects on its slogan of "Coverage. Community. Commitment." because it incorporates special features and guest interviews usually not conducted in traditional newscasts. WSFA established a news share agreement with Fox affiliate WCOV (owned by the Woods Communications Corporation) on January 7, 2008. This resulted in a 35 minute newscast being added on that station, weeknights at 9. It was known as Fox News at 9 because the broadcast was simulcasted on WSFA sister station and fellow Fox affiliate WDFX-TV in Dothan. A weekend half-hour edition began in Summer 2008.

On August 3, 2008, WSFA upgraded its newscasts to high definition level, becoming the first station in Montgomery to do so. The news set and graphics were redesigned in the transition. Initially, the 9 p.m. shows were not included because they originated from an older, secondary set at WSFA's studios. However, in Spring 2010, those broadcasts began airing in HD with updated graphics separate from programs seen on WSFA. Since WDFX and WCOV both aired Fox News at 9, there was regional coverage provided by reporters based at WDFX's studios (referred to on-air as the Wiregrass Newsroom). After WCOV's contract with WSFA expired at the end of 2010, that station entered into a new agreement with CBS affiliate WAKA to produce a nightly prime time newscast at 9 covering Montgomery. On January 1, 2011, WSFA transitioned its prime-time show, renamed The News at 9, to its RTV digital subchannel. The format is mostly unchanged except for originating from WSFA's primary set. It continues to be simulcast on WDFX.

References

External links

• WSFA
• WSFA mobile
• WDFX-TV "Fox 34"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSFA