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WABM, virtual channel 68 (UHF digital channel 36), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station serving Tuscaloosa, Anniston and its city of license Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as part of a triopoly with ABC affiliate WBMA-LD, and CW affiliate WTTO (channel 21); Sinclair also operates WTTO satellite WDBB (channel 17) under a time brokerage agreement with owner Cunningham Broadcasting. All three stations share studio facilities located on Beacon Parkway West in southeastern Birmingham, WABM's transmitter is located at Red Mountain. As part of Sinclair's acquisition of Allbritton Communications and its ABC-affiliated station cluster WBMA+, and Sinclair's inability to legally retain ownership of the station's two full-powered translator stations, WCFT and WJSU, WABM began to carry ABC programming from low-power station WBMA in September 2014 to serve as a replacement for the two full-powered signals. ==History== The station first signed on the air on January 31, 1986 as WCAJ, operating as a religious independent station. Some of the shows that initially aired on the station were Catholic programs from the Irondale-based Eternal Word Television Network, as well as programming from the Southern Baptist Convention's ACTS Network. The original studios were located on the campus of Samford University. However, its ratings took a dive after the Trinity Broadcasting Network signed on WTJP-TV (channel 60) in July and never recovered. Eventually, it began airing home shopping programming and infomercials with religious shows being relegated to part of the broadcast day. In 1990, the station was sold to Krypton Broadcasting, who changed its call letters to WABM and reformatted the station into a general-entertainment independent that featured classic movies, dramas and westerns. However, the station struggled at first against Fox affiliate WDBB (channel 17) and its Gadsden-based satellite WNAL (channel 44, now WPXH-TV) and the market's leading independent station, WTTO (channel 21). The Birmingham market wasn't nearly large enough at the time for what were essentially three independent stations, and there simply wasn't enough programming to go around. In 1991, WDBB and WNAL became semi-satellites of WTTO, which had taken the Fox affiliation earlier that year, simulcasting that station's programming 22 hours a day. As part of the deal, WDBB/WNAL moved their stronger shows onto WTTO's schedule. This resulted in WTTO owning a large amount of programming it no longer had time to air, so it sold a large amount of its cartoons and classic sitcoms to WABM. Even with a stronger format, WABM still trailed WTTO in the ratings. The station had a disadvantage when it came to signal coverage, especially when WDBB and WNAL became full-time satellites of WTTO in 1993. WTTO, WDBB and WNAL provided a strong combined signal comparable to those of WBRC-TV and WVTM-TV. In contrast, WABM covered only Birmingham with a city-grade signal, while the western and northern parts of the market received a grade B signal. WABM also suffered because Krypton was going through financial problems, which put WABM at a severe disadvantage in acquiring programming. After selling off WABM's sister stations in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville, Florida; Krypton sold WABM itself in 1993 to a small locally-based group. The new owners immediately entered into a local marketing agreement with Abry-owned WTTO. Under the LMA, WTTO and WABM began sharing certain programs (although both stations maintained separate schedules) and WTTO sold advertising time on WABM. On January 16, 1995, WABM became one of the charter affiliates of the United Paramount Network. By that time, Sinclair had merged with Abry and inherited the LMA. It remained with UPN, even through the 1996 affiliation switch that saw longtime ABC affiliate WBRC switch to Fox. In March 1998, WABM dropped the UPN affiliation over concerns by Sinclair over ratings and monetary issues, as did several of the company's other stations in several markets after Sinclair signed a lucrative affiliation deal with The WB (which WTTO affiliated with in an unrelated deal two years earlier). For five months, the station reverted to being an independent station, though the only effect on the station's schedule was the replacement of UPN programming with syndicated film packages during primetime and Saturday afternoons, and infomercials in place of UPN Kids on Sunday mornings. In the interim, local cable providers piped in the network's New York City-based flagship, WWOR-TV, to keep UPN programming available in the Birmingham area, but for the most part the network was only seen on cable systems on the fringe of the market via WUPA-TV from Atlanta and WGSA from Baxley and Savannah, as most providers had dropped WWOR's "superstation" cable feed years before due to uninteresting programming replacing the main signal after SyndEx laws came into place, and the cable feed had been discontinued by satellite distribution rights holder Advance Entertainment Corporation a year earlier to increase distribution for Animal Planet. However, WABM did see a viewership decline without a network affiliation. It also received complaints from vocal Star Trek fans who had to watch Voyager on UPN affiliates over-the-air from other markets, switch to the Dish Network, DirecTV, or PrimeStar satellite services for their "superstation" packages, or through tape trading. Sinclair would eventually reverse its decision and come to terms with the network, resulting in WABM rejoining UPN on August 10. WWOR was dropped from the few area cable systems it was on within days of the re-acquisition of WABM's UPN affiliation. In November of that year, WABM made up for the pre-emptions by airing an all-day Voyager marathon, showing all 13 episodes that WABM was not able to air during the second half of the 1997–98 season, with the permission of UPN and Paramount Television. Sinclair purchased WABM outright in 2001, creating a duopoly with WTTO. By the late 1990s, the station shifted away from classic sitcoms, movies and syndicated cartoons (such as ''Dennis the Menace'' and ''Sailor Moon'') towards more recent sitcoms as well as adding talk, reality and court shows. It continued to air cartoons on weekday mornings until August 2003, when UPN discontinued its Disney's One Too children's block. On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a new network that would be operated by Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television that was created to compete against The CW, another upstart network that would launch at the same time that September (and originally consisted primarily of UPN and The WB's higher-rated programs) as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.〔(News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV ), ''Broadcasting & Cable'', February 22, 2006.〕 On March 1, 2006, Sinclair and Fox announced that WABM would become the market's MyNetworkTV affiliate, it joined the network on September 5, 2006; WB affiliate WTTO/WDBB became the area's CW affiliate when it launched on September 18. For a time, WABM had considered acquiring the local rights to 4Kids TV, the Fox network's children's program block. Sister station WTTO had continued to carry its predecessor, Fox Kids, even after it lost the Fox affiliation to WBRC in September 1996; it dropped Fox Kids programming in the fall of 2000, however WBRC did not pick it up, leaving it and future blocks programmed by 4Kids Entertainment unseen in the Birmingham market. WABM eventually picked up the ''Weekend Marketplace'' paid programming block in lieu of WBRC, when it replaced 4Kids TV in December 2008. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WABM」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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