Technical Profile: WTTO-DT

TV Technical Profile: WTTO

Channel:: 21
ATSC 1.0 Programming, simulcast via other area stations:: 21.1 - CW HD; 21.2 - Antenna TV
21.3 - Comet
21.4 - TBD
ATSC 3.0 Programming:: 6.1 - WBRC (Fox)
13.1 - WVTM (NBC)
21.1 - WTTO (CW)
42.1 - WIAT (CBS)
68.2 - WABM (ABC 33/40)
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] On Red Mountain. Looking at Vulcan from downtown, their tower is the third down with the multiple "tines" at the top.
Power (ERP):: 1 MW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1,385 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: 41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (OSM Link); [FCC]
[RabbitEars.info]
[FCCData]; [Wikipedia]; [Facebook] for WTTO; [Bhamwiki]
[Studio] Street View of the station's studio as well as that for sister station WABM.; Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Holdings II, LLC
Station History:: Started off as an independent, licensed to Homewood. The calls have always been WTTO (Tv Twenty One). Became a Fox affiliate when that network was just starting. Later was the WB affiliate for Birmingham, and also is LMA'ing WDBB in Tuscaloosa and WABM in Birmingham. WDBB acted pretty much as a mirror of WTTO's prime time WB and syndication programming, even carrying the "WB 21" logo in the corner. In the fall of 2003, WTTO added a short 10pm news & weather program. It was rumored that this station would be airing the CW network after the merger between UPN and WB was completed. WABM-68, is a Sinclair owned station, like WTTO. WABM has picked up the My Network TV affiliation, leaving WTTO (and WDBB!) to pick CW.; On February 17^th 2009 the station discontinued standard analog broadcasts and began airing "nite lite" programming consisting of information on how to acquire and setup a digital converter box. That ended after the new transition date in June 2009. This station operated on a Special Temporary Authority for a period after the switchover, until a period before May of 2011.; In July 2009 it was announced that this station would be picking up the ESPN-created "SEC Network" for collegiate sporting events, with programming in high definition. In October 2010 the station was part of 10 Sinclair stations to launch "The Country Network", featuring all country music videos. The station has historically been rebroadcast on W62BG, a lot power translator located in downtown Birmingham, designed to cover the areas missed by the tall Red Mountain tower. After moving to a spot on Red Mountain and increasing its potential coverage area, the translator went off air. That license was canceled in late October 2011. Sony Television announced that Sinclair stations would be picking up their classic movies channel, getTV, in the summer of 2014. It replaced ZUUS Country on 21.2 in early July 2014. The Comet sci-fi network debuted on Halloween, 2015, and in November it was discovered that Antenna TV would be added as part of a roll-out of the channel to multiple Sinclair owned properties. It debuted at the start of 2016, displacing GetTV to the -.4 subchannel. GetTV was removed entirely in June 2017 to make way for the youth and internet culture-centric TBD network.

The station received a construction permit to relocate from RF channel 28 to 21 in early August 2017 as part of the FCC repacking process. The station began operating under a Special Temporary Authority at low power on RF channel 21 in late August 2019, and signed on permanently with their 1 MW authorization in April 2021.

In late May 2022, the station filed a notice with the FCC over plans to convert to ATSC 3.0 broadcasting on 23 June 2022. The station will likely be rebroadcasting WBRC (Fox), WVTM (NBC), WTTO (CW), WIAT (CBS) and WABM (ABC 33/40). WTTO's existing content is being displaced to other stations as part of the change. The roll out date was bumped to 14 July 2022. In July, it was announced that the stations' ATSC 3.0 rollout was delayed until October, for unspecified reasons. Of interest is that Comet did appear on WVTM's RF 7.8 (mapped to 21.3), meaning that both WTTO and WVTM are broadcasting Comet on the same virtual channel. The ATSC 3.0 launch was later reportedly delayed again, this time to early December. On 5 December 2022, the station launched ATSC 3.0 programming after the ATSC 1.0 programs were moved to other area broadcasters.