Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 1

Mo bra-haha The practice of showing bra straps has plenty of support Features B6 4mat High 79 Low 70 Weather A2 Best Bets Neil Gaiman brings talent to upscale graphic novels PageBI Ann Landers Best Bets Business Classified Comics Crossword Deaths B4 Editorials B1 Features Cl Get This D9 Horoscope B5 Lotteries B5 MeboState D7 Sports Schools try teaching based on four general ways people learn Metro El BS A2 El D1 BS Birmingham Post-Herald FINAL EDITION ES3BEEE WfetMCgJ Visit could be key to pro team Changes still have television market in turmoil how they stack up In the Nielsen ratings refers to the percentage of television sets tuned to a particular station lC -WABM The 50- Sfw1 Simpsons" WBMA News WBMQ News "WBRC News TV channels "WTTO The Andy and Griffith programs show" WVTM News May 96 Nov 96 FatW May 97 In September 1996 television market was shaken up by several affiliation switches and the arrival of a new station WBMA 3340 A year later the effects of that shakeup are reflected in the overall Nielsen ratings which reveal a tighter more competitive market The view at 5 pm 53011 WABM "Fresh 50 Prince of Bel WBMA ABC news 30 WBMQ CBS news WBRC Fox 6 World News 10 WTTO By Lewis Kamb Birmingham Post-Herald The future of professional sports in Alabama could lie beneath steel girders about 500 miles away to the Gateway to the West A local contingency of dvic business and sports officials are to SL Louis today to study how that city's multipurpose domed stadium lured a professional football team there Members of the Metropolitan Area Planning Strategy committee hope that information gleaned from architects and administrators of the TransWorid Dome will shed light on how Birmingham can bund a domed WVTM NBC news M-gg Fat 97 May 7 WABM UPN Owner: Glencaim WBRC Fox Owner: Fox Broadcasting WABM "Martin" WBMA News WBMQ News WBRC News WTTO "Home Improvement" WVTM News May 96 Nov 96 Fat 97 May 97 By Darla Powell Birmingham Port-Herald It was nearly a year ago that Birmingham's television market turned upside down On Sept 1 1996 the city's topnted news station WBRC-6 changed its network affiliation ban ABC to Fok replacing and Home Improvement with "Melrose Place and "The On the same day WBMA-3340 debuted as the city's new ABC affiliate boasting a news staff that included several former WBRC personalities including popular meteorologist James Spam WBMA and the other stations in town WVTM-13 ABM-66 WTTO-21 and saw the switch as an opportunity to challenge WBRCs dominance The great Birmingham Television War of 1996-97 had In the year that followed Binning- ham metamorphosed bom a relatively quiet TV market into an arena cutthroat competition with lawsuits content controversies and aggressive counterprogramming It was in the words of WBRC General Manager Stan Knott "a topay-turvey An analysis of the ratings from the May 1997 sweeps period compared with the numbers from the previous year shows Just how dramatically the market has changed WBRC4 This time last year WBRC dominated the local news ratings Its 6 pm uewcast drew a 46 percent share of the viewing audience compared to mly 17 penxnt for iti nearest rival WVTM But now WBRC finds itself hi a fight In the May 1997 ratings book its 6 pm newscast drew 26 percent of WABM "Mama's Family" WBMA Various WBMQ Various 30 WBRC First on Fox WTTO "Cheers" WVTM Various 10 20 I WBMA ABC I Owner: Albritton I Communications May 96 Nov 96 Fob 97 Me 97 want to look at some models like the TWA Dome to help us make some of our own derisions for laid Dr Larry Lemak president of the Alabama Sports Foundation Lemak Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington and lwd businessman Larry Striplin were among those who bonded private Jet bound this morning far SL Louis Cnee there meet TransWorid Dome General Manager Andy McDonald and HOK Sport Senior Vice Preri-dentRonLabinskL HOK Sport tow designed many of the top professional facilities to the nation in-g the TransWorid Dome Miamfs Joe Robbie Stadium and Baltimore's Orioles Park at Camden Yard More recently the architectural firm has do-' signed pro football stadiums to Jacksonville Charlotte and Nashville In a telephone interview from Iris office to Kansu City Mo Thursday LabtosH said a top tty "5 notch multipurpose facility WABM "Sanford and Son" WBMA News WBMQ News WBRC News -WTTO The Andy Griffith WVTM News WBMQ CBS Owner Media General Fob 97 May 97 Soukk Mqr 1987NMmnmtngt Staff graphic they (WBMA) know that he said "Had James stayed our lead probably would have been Please tars to TV page Al the viewing audience While still the top news station no longer a Juggernaut TVs think we weathered the storm of transition very well" said Knott who was WBRCs news director before becoming the station's general manager "We knew it was going to be of the factors in WBRCs drop Knott said was the ion of Spam "The one that hurt us the most is James Residents eye closing armory tional Guard" Henries Atchison said it will be up to the state Armory Commission to decide what happens to the Norwood Armory and the other facilities Other armories to be vacated are in Livingston Ariton Hammondville and Ashville Gwen Sykes former president of the Norwood Neighborhood Association said she hopes the Norwood Armory built in the mid-1950s can be used as a community center "Years ago when there was talk that it would doe we looked at the possibility of using it as a recreation she said Ms Sykes who supervises activities at the Norwood Neighborhood Community Center said the large brick building and grounds could be used as a second recreation center Please tars to ARMORY pap AS Guard that began with the end of the Cold War Mqj Gen Clyde A Henries adjutant general laid three objectives were considered in deciding which units to deactivate "First we will be able to facilitate manpower resources Secondly we will maintain a strong Guard presence throughout the state and finally and most importantly we will improve the overall readiness of the Alahama Na Two of the units that meet at the armory are being deactivated Headquarters 131st Signal Battalion and Company A 131st Signal Battalion LL Col Bill Atchison public affairs officer for fire national guard said the units have 231 positions He said personnel will be transferred to other units The deactivations are part of a long-range downiixing of the Army and the By Bob Johnsoa Birmingham Port-Herald Norwood neighborhood residents say they hope a doing National Guard ar-mory will be turned into a community center I The Alabama National Guard is deactivating 11 units statewide ad -closing five armories by Oct 1 Norwood Armory at 1313 27th St North i Anglers hope to hook good positioning Bonds rehashed for next session absolutely far a city to attract a major sports franchise "You have to have the facilities with all the revenue-gathering devices these days before a franchise would actually consider coming to your community" he said McDonald said the group from Birmingham is only one of several dvic groups that have traveled to SL Louis to recent months to tour "one of the newest stateof-the-art domed stadiums to the Officials finn Nashville Detroit Cleveland and Boston have checked out the structure to learn more about stadiums McDonald said learn from the performances of McDonald said "We looked to the Alamo Dome and the Georgia Dome far our project and then took it to the next level" SL Louis home of the football Rams the baseball Cardinals and the hockey Blues is a potential goldmine of knowledge far cities learning the dos and donts of landing a professional sports team After the football Cardinals escaped to Phoenix fa 1988 SL Louis emerged a leading candidate far an NFL expansion 1 franchise in 1993 But squabbles among a group of private investors and a stadium lease dispute' put the city out of the running Learning from experience' the city of SL Louis in 1994 put together an allegiance of private backers dvic negotiators and public support in its effort to win over a Lin Angeles Rama franchise unhappy with its accommodation to Anaheim One of the crucial factors in the courtship was the construe-tlon of the 70000-seaL TransWorid Dome fended through city county and state bands and specially imposed tourism and hotel taxes Please tare to KEY page Al By Richard Scott Birmingham Port-Herald PELL (TTY When Guido Hibdon fished the BASS Masters Classic at Lake Logan Martin in 1992 and VS Jdnd woman made a daily habit of leaving him tomatoes on her dock By Ted Bryant Birmingham Port-Herald Gov Fob James has told legislators he will propose three band issues in addition to state budgets in a special session he plans to call for Aug 18 The band issues are similar to those that failed during this year's regular session one for highways another far parts and a third to pay for new technology in schools James has not issued a formal call far the session which is primarily to adopt state education and General Fund budgets to replace those James vetoed alter the regular session ended in May In a letter sent to legislators this week James discussed his session plans although he was not specific about the amounts of the bond issues he will propose In the regular session James asked that legislators approve borrowing $700 million for highways $80 million for renovation in the Mate park system and 1125 million to wire schools far computers Enclosures with his letter to lawmakers said $35 million in school bonds will be adequate to wire schools far the Internet and that no computers or software will be purchased with the borrowed fends The remainder of the bond issue an unspecified amount will allow school systems to borrow fends to replace both portable and permanent classrooms that are outdated James said School systems may opt to borrow the money against their regular appropriation far capital improvements or continue to receive those annual appropriation far use an a pay-as-you-go bask During the regular session James and LL Gov Don Sfegelman disagreed over the school band issue Siegelman proposed borrowing $300 million to replace all portable classrooms In the state while James asked only for technology money Please tare to BONDS page Al Christine Jacobs Port-Herald BASS Masters Classie eontendar Dava Hita casts his line doss to thw launching site on Lake Logan Martin Ho caught two ban by 8 i today Doug Amos of WMSP Sports Radio accompanied Hite What happens to the fish? D1 Several have shot at (Hie D1 Pro of the day D2 Dalton Bobo in fourth place D2 place with 12 pounds 13 ounces of fish sorted through a whole lot of fish I probably caught 50 fish hut none of them were very trig Tve still got a lot of spots left to fish the one thing about this lake never run out of places to catch fish Tve got to get some better Please tan to HOOK page Al "If weighing Hib-dan said got a whole sack Aril right Too bad not called the Produce Masters Classic Big tomatoes may be plentiful in Alabama this time of year but Mg baa as easy to harvest hard to find a quality trite out said Kevin VanDam who entered today's second round in third During opening round of the Classic that same woman left more tomatoes tor Hibdon's son Dion When Dion brought one of the big fat healthy tomatoes to the weigh-ir RAJLS founder Ray Scott threatened to weigh it 1:.