Editing WTTO (section)

===Disaffiliation from Fox and eventual switch to The WB===
On May 5, 1994, Great American Communications (which would be renamed Citicasters following the completion of its debt restructuring later that year) agreed to sell WBRC and three of its sister stations—fellow ABC affiliate [[WGHP]] in [[High Point, North Carolina]], NBC affiliate [[WDAF-TV]] in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] and CBS affiliate [[KSAZ-TV]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]]—to [[New World Pictures#New World Communications|New World Communications]] for $350 million in cash and $10 million in [[share warrant]]s. As part of a broader deal between New World and Fox signed on May 23 of that year, New World agreed to affiliate five of its eight existing television stations and the four it had acquired from Great American with Fox, in a [[1994 United States broadcast TV realignment|series of affiliation transactions]] that would take two years to complete due to the varying conclusion dates of their ongoing contracts with either ABC, NBC or CBS.<ref>{{cite news|title=COMPANY NEWS; GREAT AMERICAN SELLING FOUR TELEVISION STATIONS|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/06/business/company-news-great-american-selling-four-television-stations.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 6, 1994|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Geoffrey Foisie">{{cite web|title=Argyle socks away profit. (New World Communications Group Inc. acquires Argyle Television Holdings)|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-15493423.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109123708/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-15493423.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 9, 2016|first=Geoffrey|last=Foisie|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|date=May 30, 1994|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Fox Gains 12 Stations in New World Deal|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4230288.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011163409/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4230288.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 11, 2013|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=[[Hollinger International]]|date=May 23, 1994|access-date=June 1, 2013}}</ref> WBRC was one of the stations involved in this agreement. Although WTTO had established itself as one of the network's strongest affiliates, Fox jumped at the chance to align with WBRC, which had been the dominant station in central Alabama for over three decades.

Three weeks later, New World agreed to buy WVTM-TV and three other stations—CBS affiliates [[KDFW]] in [[Dallas]]–[[Fort Worth]] and [[KTBC (TV)|KTBC]] in [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], and ABC affiliate [[KTVI]] in [[St. Louis]]—from Argyle Television Holdings, in a purchase option-structured deal worth $717 million.<ref name="Geoffrey Foisie"/> The two purchases created a problem for New World due to conflicts caused by restrictions on television station ownership imposed by the FCC at the time; New World was not permitted to retain both WBRC and WVTM in any event as the ownership of two television stations in the same market by a single company was prohibited, and the concurrent acquisitions would give New World ownership of a combined fifteen stations, three more than the FCC allowed. The group's affiliation deal with Fox allowed New World to solve its ownership conflicts in Birmingham, as it chose to establish and transfer the license of WBRC into a [[trust company]] with the intent to sell the station to the network's broadcasting subsidiary, [[Fox Television Stations]]; the trust transfer was completed on July 24, 1995.

Although the transfer of WBRC to the trust was finalized on July 24, 1995, Fox could not switch WBRC's network affiliation in the short-term, as the station's contract with ABC would not expire until August 31, 1996. While this forced Fox Television Stations to operate WBRC as an ABC affiliate for 8½ months after its purchase of the station from the New World-established trust closed on January 17, 1996, creating the rare situation in which a station was run by the owned-and-operated station group of one network but maintained an affiliation with one of its competitors, it gave ABC enough time to find a new central Alabama affiliate. The network first approached WTTO for an affiliation agreement. However, Sinclair—which would not own any stations affiliated with either of the [[Big Three television networks|Big Three]] networks until it acquired [[River City Broadcasting]] in 1996—was only willing to carry ABC's prime time and [[ABC News (United States)|news]] programming, as it was not interested in carrying the network's then-languishing daytime and Saturday morning programs. Even though WDBB operated a news department at the time negotiations with ABC began, Sinclair was also not willing to start a news department for WTTO; the group did not allocate a budget for news production for its non-Big Three stations at the time.

Unlike situations in [[KDNL-TV|St. Louis]] and the [[WXLV-TV|Piedmont Triad]], where the network had little other choice but to align with a Sinclair-owned station (or one that the group would later acquire) due to a lack of another financially secure full-power station, other options were available in the Birmingham market. After turning down the WTTO offer in late 1995, ABC reached an agreement with [[Allbritton Communications]] to affiliate with WCFT in November of that year; Allbritton planned to acquire the non-license assets of WNAL-TV under a local marketing agreement and convert it into a satellite of WCFT-TV. Allbritton would later terminate the proposed LMA with WNAL and entered into an LMA with Osborne Communications Corporation to take over the operations of WJSU-TV; it also purchased [[low-power broadcasting#Television|low-power]] independent station W58CK (channel 58, now [[WBMA-LD]]) to serve as the official ABC affiliate for central Alabama for the purpose of being counted in the Birmingham station ratings reports (as [[Nielsen Media Research|Nielsen]] designated Tuscaloosa and Anniston as separate markets at the time), with WCFT and WJSU serving as its satellites; this prompted Allbritton to sign a groupwide affiliation deal with ABC which renewed the network's affiliations with its stations in [[KATV|Little Rock]], [[KTUL|Tulsa]], [[WHTM|Harrisburg]], [[WSET-TV|Roanoke]], and [[WJLA|Washington, D.C.]] and caused the company's stations in [[WGWG|Charleston]] and [[WPXC-TV|Brunswick, Georgia]] to switch to the network.<ref>{{cite web|title=Allbritton takes another route to Birmingham|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17986166.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109123708/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17986166.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 9, 2016|first=Elizabeth|last=Rathbun|periodical=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]|publisher=[[Reed Business Information|Cahners Business Information]]|date=January 8, 1996|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Allbrigton Has Designs On CBS Affiliate WCFT|url=https://variety.com/1995/tv/features/allbrigton-has-designs-on-cbs-affiliate-wcft-99123941/|first=Dennis|last=Wharton|periodical=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|publisher=[[Reed Business Information|Cahners Business Information]]|date=November 19, 1995|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Tuscaloosa, Ala. (TV stations change hands)|url=https://business.highbeam.com/137332/article-1G1-17785711/tuscaloosa-ala|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222094445/https://business.highbeam.com/137332/article-1G1-17785711/tuscaloosa-ala|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 22, 2015|first=Mark|last=Gimein|periodical=Mediaweek|date=January 8, 1996|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref>

On September 1, 1996, when WBRC-TV officially became a Fox owned-and-operated station and W58CK/WCFT/WJSU became an ABC affiliate, WTTO and WDBB reverted to operating as independent stations. Simultaneously, WNAL formally terminated the WTTO simulcast, and became the CBS affiliate for Gadsden and northeastern Alabama. WBRC originally planned to carry the entire Fox network schedule, running the [[Fox Kids]] block on weekday afternoons to replace the displaced ABC [[soap opera]] lineup upon its move to the W58CK trimulcast (which would be collectively known as "ABC 33/40", a brand referencing the respective channel numbers of WCFT and WJSU, and will mostly be referred to hereafter in the article as "WBMA+"). However, in what would be the catalyst to a change in the carriage policies for Fox Kids that allowed stations the option of either airing the block or being granted the right to transfer the rights to another station in the market, Sinclair approached WBRC about allowing WTTO to retain Fox Kids, which the Fox network (on behalf of Fox Television Stations) allowed it to keep.

On January 27, 1997, WTTO and WDBB became affiliates of [[The WB Television Network]], and changed its on-air branding to "WB 21".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99840634/tube/|date=January 16, 1997|page=B1|title=Tube|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=}}</ref> It was one of the first Sinclair stations to affiliate with the network, occurring six months before the group struck an agreement to affiliate most of its [[UPN]]-affiliated and independent stations that it either owned or controlled to The WB on July 21.<ref>{{cite news|title=WB woos and wins Sinclair|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1997/BC-1997-07-21.pdf|page=4|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|date=July 21, 1997|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref> Prior to that point, Birmingham had been one of the largest markets that was not served by a local WB affiliate; central Alabama residents were only able to receive WB programs on [[satellite television|satellite]] and some cable providers through the [[NewsNation|national superstation feed]] of the network's [[Chicago]] affiliate, [[WGN-TV]] (now an independent station; its cable feed now operates as a standalone channel), which carried the network's programming nationwide from The WB's launch in January 1995 until October 1999.<ref>{{cite news|title=Time Warner Takes Crucial Step Toward New Network Television: A pact with superstation WGN-TV gives it access to 73% of homes. Analysts say that will still leave gaps.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-04-fi-63860-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=December 4, 1993|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Last night Dawson's last ? WGN ceases to air WB programming|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18522684.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328150224/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18522684.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 28, 2015|newspaper=[[The Charleston Gazette]]|date=October 7, 1999|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref>

With the WB affiliation, WTTO added one of Fox Kids' competitors, [[Kids' WB]], to its inventory of children's programming. The station carried Kids' WB's weekday morning and afternoon blocks together on Monday through Friday mornings (bookending Fox Kids' weekday morning block) on either a [[broadcast delay|one-day delay]] or live-to-air depending on the time slot and accordant block; the Saturday morning edition of the block, meanwhile, aired on Sundays in a day-behind arrangement as WTTO aired the Fox Kids weekend block on Saturdays. During the late 1990s, WTTO reduced the number of movies, classic sitcoms and cartoons on its schedule, and began shifting its syndicated programming towards a lineup of [[talk show|talk]], [[reality television|reality]] and [[court show]]s as well as more recent syndicated sitcoms, that would become the common variety of programming for netlet stations at that time.

In early 2000, WDBB relocated its transmitter facilities back to its original {{convert|609.6|m|ft|adj=on|sp=us}} [[guyed]]-mast transmission tower in [[Windham Springs]] (which was constructed and completed shortly before the station signed on in 1982). WTTO dropped the Fox Kids block back in September 1999, at which time, the station moved the Kids' WB blocks to weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Neither WBRC, nor any other central Alabama station, chose to acquire the local rights to Fox's children's programming lineup; as a result, Fox Kids, as well as the successor blocks that [[4Kids Entertainment]] programmed for the network after 2002 (Fox Box and [[4Kids TV]]), were not cleared in the Birmingham market for the {{frac|7|1|2}} years that the network continued to carry children's programming; in addition, WTTO (as with WBRC) declined to air the [[paid programming]] block that replaced 4Kids TV in January 2009, ''[[Weekend Marketplace]]''; it would air instead on WABM. WTTO has continued to air the children's program blocks carried by The WB, and later by The CW (Kids' WB, [[Toonzai|The CW4Kids/Toonzai]], [[Vortexx]] and [[One Magnificent Morning]]), without interruption through the years. In 2001, Sinclair purchased WABM outright, creating the Birmingham–Tuscaloosa–Anniston market's first television [[duopoly (broadcasting)|duopoly]] with WTTO/WDBB.