Editing WTTO (section)

== Newscasts ==
WTTO launched its own in-house news operation on September 8, 2003, and began airing a nightly hour-long prime time newscast, titled ''WB21 News at 9:00''. The program was developed and formatted around the ''[[News Central (American TV program)|News Central]]'' local/national hybrid news concept created by Sinclair that year; local news segments originated from the station's Beacon Parkway studios in Birmingham, while national news, weather and sports segments were based out of studios located at Sinclair's corporate headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. In addition, WTTO also aired "The Point", a controversial one-minute [[conservative]] political commentary feature during its newscasts; the segment was required to air on all Sinclair-owned stations that aired local newscasts (regardless of whether it carried the ''News Central'' format or not).

=== Outsourcing to WIAT ===
{{see|WIAT#News operation}}
The ''WB21 News at 9:00'' was unable to make headway against WBRC's longer-established (and much higher-rated) 9&nbsp;p.m. newscast, which debuted in September 1996 upon its switch to Fox; as a result, WTTO outsourced production of its evening newscast to CBS affiliate WIAT through a news share agreement in October 2005.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Battle of Birmingham|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/battle-birmingham/109068|first=Allison|last=Romano|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Reed Business Information|date=December 9, 2005|access-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref> The WIAT-produced newscast was canceled on October 13, 2006, due to low ratings; the ''News Central'' format had earlier been phased out entirely in its other markets by March 2006.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sinclair cuts back on 'News Central': Live newscasts' viewership called low|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-143246497.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134639/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-143246497.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 24, 2015|first=Andrea K.|last=Walker|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]]|date=March 15, 2006|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Sinclair's NewsCentral model loses stations|url=http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/sinclairs-newscentral-model-loses-stations/249219|website=TelevisionWeek|publisher=NewBay Media|date=March 13, 2006|access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref>