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WNCF is the ABC-affiliated television station for Central Alabama's River Region that is licensed to Montgomery. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 31 (or virtual channel 32.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Gordonville. Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, WNCF is operated by Bahakel Communications through a shared services agreement. This makes it a sister station to CW affiliate WBMM and CBS affiliate WAKA. All three television outlets share studios on Harrison Road in North Montgomery. Syndicated programming on WNCF includes ''Family Feud'', ''Maury'', ''Divorce Court'' and ''The Rachael Ray Show'' among others. The station can also be seen over-the-air in standard definition through WBMM's second digital subchannel on UHF channel 22.2. This airs from a transmitter in unincorporated southeastern Bullock County along the Pike County line. ==History== The station signed-on as WCCB-TV in 1962 with unknown owners. This venture failed shortly thereafter and the station went dark. Few recall this short beginning of channel 32's history. Bahakel Communications, headed by Cy Bahakel (a native Alabamian), purchased the dormant channel 32 license and returned it to the air in early 1964 as WKAB-TV (standing for "Kasner and Bahakel", referring to Bahakel's engineering partner and close friend, Don Kasner) as the fourth television station in the Montgomery area. Bahakel wound up taking the original WCCB calls for his flagship station in Charlotte, North Carolina. The station was an ABC affiliate right from the start, but faced competition and duplication from the network's original outlet, WSLA in Selma. Even after the launch of this station, WSLA continued broadcasting ABC programming to the western parts of the market because of UHF's limited coverage area at the time. WSLA would not drop the affiliation until 1968 when the station went dark due to a fire that completely destroyed the WSLA facility; it stayed dark until 1973 when it returned as a CBS affiliate. After that, Bahakel gradually boosted WKAB's signal to just over 1 million watts. This put it on par with CBS affiliate WCOV-TV, but was still far inferior to NBC affiliate WSFA-TV. Bahakel sold channel 32 in 1985 in order to buy channel 8, which had recently changed its calls to WAKA and was about to activate a new tower that would give it primary coverage of Montgomery. The station changed its calls to WHOA-TV (for "Heart Of Alabama") on September 4, 1989. The station has gone through several owners, including Media General among others. It became WNCF on July 1, 1999 coinciding with a short-lived return to the local news race. It originally aired a digital signal on UHF channel 51 from a transmitter located at its studios. It was announced on July 7, 2011 that Bahakel will purchase WBMM from SagamoreHill Broadcasting. Even before the sale received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Bahakel entered into a shared services agreement (SSA) with SagamoreHill resulting in WNCF being operated by WAKA. SagamoreHill will retain responsibility for WNCF's programming, personnel, and finances while Bahakel will provide WNCF with sales and administrative services as well as production and technical services. Despite being the senior partner in the SSA, the combined operation would be based at an upgraded high-definition facility at WNCF's studios. WAKA moved from its longtime home in south central Montgomery to the WNCF facility in 2012. The move was made somewhat easier due to the fact (and the irony) that Bahakel has always owned the channel 32 facility, leasing it to channel 32's subsequent owners after selling the channel 32 license in 1985 to obtain WAKA. To restate and clarify a rather confusing chain of events: Bahakel owned and operated channel 32 as WKAB until selling it in 1985 to purchase the more desirable WAKA. While Bahakel sold channel 32's license, he continued to own its studios. The WNCF property offers more space for WAKA to upgrade to a full high-definition operation. WAKA had found it difficult to modernize and expand its old facility due to its location close to downtown.〔http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/in-montgomery-three-stations-to-merge_b14261#more-14261〕〔http://www.waka.com/news/8226-cbs-8-is-a-part-of-a-huge-montgomery-media-merger.html〕〔http://www.wncftv.com/localnews/ABC-32-WBMM-and-WAKA-Merge--125188434.html〕 In September 2012, as part of the "beefing up" process of the station afforded by the relationship with WAKA, WNCF increased its power from 50 kW to 720 kW from a new transmitter located at the WAKA tower and transmitter facility. This new location was only 2 miles from the old WNCF tower, which had been sold to a tower company years ago to help out WNCF's bottom line. At that point, WNCF was merely a tenant of that tower, which continues to hold other tenants. 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「WNCF」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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