Technical Profile: WGWW-TV

TV Technical Profile: WGWW

Channel:: 9
Programming:: 40.1 - Heroes and Icons
40.2 - // ABC 33/40 (WABM 60.2)
40.3 - James Spann 24/7 Weather
Transmitter Location:: [map] Bald Rock Mtn., near Moody.
Power (ERP):: 15.6 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1,178 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: 36 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; [FCC]
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[Picture] Legal ID snapshot showing the current ident under Howard Stirk Holdings, October 2015.
[Picture] Legal ID snapshot showing the various channels that ABC 33/40 is available on as of May, 2015.
Owned by HSH Birmingham (WCFT) Licensee, LLC
Station History:: Station signed on October 26, 1969 as WHMA-TV. Was owned by local newspaper Anniston Star, which also owned WMHA-AM and FM. Station started with programming from NBC and CBS, and in the mid-70's dropped NBC for full CBS affiliation. The station was donated to Jacksonville State University for a writeoff, hence the more recent calls WJSU. The station was later owned by Flagship Broadcasting, but LMA'd by Allbritton, who owns WCFT. In the summer of 2014 the FCC approved the merger of Allbritton with Sinclair Television Group, who was to shut the station down as part of a merger agreement with the FCC. The shutdown was to have happened 30 September 2014 according to FCC documents, but for a few days after the cutoff date, WJSU was being reported still on air, carrying just the Heartland channel on the -.1 subchannel. ABC moved to WABM's and WDBB's -.2 channels. The weather is also on WABM 68.3. Howard Stirk Holdings, a minority media company that agreed to purchase WCFT in Tuscaloosa also agreed to purchase WJSU in order to keep the station on the air for east Alabama viewers. The license was transferred to HSH from TV Alabama in early December 2014.; WBMA, a low power station, is official Birmingham's ABC affiliate. WJSU, along with Tuscaloosa station WCFT served as "satellites" to rebroadcast ABC all over central Alabama until the Sinclair acquisition. WBMA began digital broadcasts in the winter or spring of 2011.; This station elected to keep analog broadcasts on until the new June 12^th deadline. They will remain on RF channel 9 post-transition. In October 2012 the station added a basic weather radar to their -.2 subchannel. This became the new digital-only Nashville Network on 1 November 2012 and the weather (later renamed "James Spann 24/7 Weather") moved to the -.3 subchannel. The Nashville Network later became Heartland. On March 11, 2015 the call sign changed from WJSU to WGWW. Although it failed to debut on 1 October 2015 as promised, Heartland was eventually replaced by Heroes and Icons in the first part of October, 2015.