Editing WIAT (section)

===New ownership and management===
[[Media General]], a broadcaster and publisher based in [[Richmond, Virginia]], announced it would purchase Park Communications in July 1996, creating a company focused on media holdings in the Southeast.<ref name="Birm960723">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-media-general-pla/136778293/|date=July 23, 1996|page=F1|first=Jed|last=Graham|title=Media General plans to buy WBMG-42|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023|archive-date=December 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220063732/https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-media-general-pla/136778293/|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- Tue --> The company assumed ownership of WBMG in January 1997 and fired 17-year general manager Hoyle Broome in March. His replacement was Eric Land, who arrived from [[WGRZ]] in [[Buffalo, New York]].<ref name="Birm970326">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-new-broom-sweeps/98923014/|date=March 26, 1997|page=B3|first=Amy|last=Hetzner|title=New broom sweeps GM at WBMG|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023|archive-date=December 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220063732/https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-new-broom-sweeps/98923014/|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- Wed --> Among Land's first moves was simulcasting WBMG's newscasts on [[WPXH-TV|WNAL]] in [[Gadsden, Alabama|Gadsden]], which had replaced WJSU as the CBS affiliate in the eastern portion of the state.<ref name="Anni970405">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-anniston-star-viewers-to-get-another/36882452/|date=April 5, 1997|pages=1A, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-anniston-star-viewers-to-get-to-choo/99837929/ 2A]|first=Richard|last=Coe|title=Viewers to get another choice of local news|newspaper=The Anniston Star|location=Anniston, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref><!-- Sat --> The station also ended its longtime relationship with UAB athletics; Broome, a noted booster, was known for preempting CBS prime time programming for sports.<ref name="Birm970522">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-uab-tells-wbmg-by/136778378/|date=May 22, 1997|page=A1|first=Cary|last=Estes|title=UAB tells WBMG bye: 16-year marriage ends|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref><!-- Thu -->

Land's priority was to fix the news department; he had previously overseen major overhauls at WGRZ and at [[WEYI-TV]] in [[Saginaw, Michigan]]. The station's newscasts had sunk below ''The Andy Griffith Show'' on WTTO and ''[[Sanford and Son]]'' on [[WABM]] in the ratings,<ref name="Birm970523">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-new-newscasters-l/100537187/|date=May 23, 1997|pages=B8, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-tv/100537165/ B4]|first=Wade|last=Kwon|title=New newscasters litter TV landscape|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023}}</ref><!-- Fri -->{{r|Birm970808}} and they were so poor that not even the anchors' parents watched, Land later recalled.<ref name="BC121001">{{Cite web |last=Malone |first=Michael |date=October 1, 2012 |title=High-Flying Gannett Exec Lands on His Feet |url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/high-flying-gannett-exec-lands-his-feet-113604 |access-date=August 13, 2022 |website=Broadcasting Cable |language=en |archive-date=August 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813073824/https://www.nexttv.com/news/high-flying-gannett-exec-lands-his-feet-113604 |url-status=live }}</ref> Speculation of a major shakeup was fed by a major research project as well as the resignations of several senior managers over the course of 1997.<ref name="Birm971111">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-another-manager-a/98923196/|date=November 11, 1997|page=D1|first=Patrick|last=Rupinski|title=Another manager at WBMG-42 leaves|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023|archive-date=December 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220064300/https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-another-manager-a/98923196/|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- Tue -->

[[File:WIAT countdown clock.png|right|thumb|upright=1|alt=A television screenshot. On a black screen, from top: 1. The words IT'S COMING IN in a bold, white sans serif. 2. Inside a white box, a countdown showing days, hours, minutes and seconds. 3. In the lower right, a blue 3D circle with red elements suggesting the dial faces on a clock and, on top in white, the words "It's about time."|The countdown clock that WBMG aired instead of local news from January 1 to February 5, 1998]]

On December 11, 1997, WBMG fired all of its on-air anchors and reporters as well as other news staffers, a total of 21 people, effective December 31. Land declared, "We just cannot continue to offer a traditional newscast. That's already being done in this market." The station's employees had expected Land to make significant changes. While lead weeknight anchorman Chris Schauble told the ''[[Birmingham Post-Herald]]'' that he had known as early as Thanksgiving that he was going to be fired, many other staffers did not know exactly what would take place until the firings were announced.{{r|ajr-birminghamtotheworld}}<ref name="Birm971212">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-snowy-picture-for/98923222/|date=December 12, 1997|pages=C10, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-wbmg/98923337/ C8]|first=Patrick|last=Rupinski|title=Snowy picture for WBMG-42: Struggling station fires roster of newscasters|newspaper=Birmingham Post-Herald|location=Birmingham, Alabama|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 20, 2023|archive-date=December 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220064301/https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-post-herald-snowy-picture-for/98923222/|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- Fri --><ref>{{Cite news|date=December 12, 1997|pages=1A, 11A|first=John|last=Archibald|title=Channel 42 fires all on-air staff|work=The Birmingham News}}</ref> A day before the final newscast, on December 31, Land announced that it would be replaced with a clock counting down to the debut of a new newscast on February 5, coinciding with the start of the [[1998 Winter Olympics]], which aired on CBS; he joked, "More people will probably watch the clock than watched the news broadcast anyway."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Time for change: Countdown clock subs for 42 news|pages=1A, 7A|first=Russell|last=Hubbard|date=December 31, 1997|work=The Birmingham News}}</ref> The story attracted attention well beyond Birmingham; Mark Lorando in the New Orleans ''[[Times-Picayune]]'' compared Land's mass firing to [[The Last Show (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)|the series finale]] of ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'', in which nearly every news staffer was fired.<ref name="Time980107">{{Cite news|work=The Times-Picayune|title=Tuning into the future? A Birmingham station pulls the plug on its entire news department|page=E1|date=January 7, 1998}}</ref> During this time, the news department was reconstructed with input from focus groups and market research.<ref name="ajr-birminghamtotheworld">{{cite web|title=From Birmingham to the World—in a Minute|url=http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=2317|first1=Patrick|last1=Rogers|first2=Debra|last2=Durocher|periodical=[[American Journalism Review]]|publisher=[[Philip Merrill College of Journalism]]|date=April 1998|access-date=December 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222114746/http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=2317|archive-date=December 22, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The newsroom also kept functioning; the station sent coverage of the January 29 bombing of the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham's Southside neighborhood by [[Eric Rudolph]] to [[CBS Newspath]], [[CNN]], and stations in neighboring markets, even though it was not airing a newscast.<ref name="em020998">{{cite news|title=Alabama CBS affiliate tries spartan newscast| first=Jon|last=Lafayette|periodical=Electronic Media|page=49|date=February 9, 1998|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_televisionweek_1998-02-09_17_7/mode/2up?q=WBMG}}</ref>