Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 25

Sirminfthom NetOS SATURDAY Birmingham Fost-IIerald BIRMINGHAM September 12001 f1'? VmiV 1 -t V' i i rOST-HERALD Kills 4H i i i Linda Mays and Dave Baird Tuesday afternoon The ABC anchor the 5 pm WBMA-3340 newscast today The affiliate began broadcasting five years ago Bob FviqrFoot-Herald addition of WBMA and the ensuing changes made the TV market one of the most competitivein the country After switch TV market more competitive than ever Proration may cut All design program In May when Frank Setzer died suddenly of a heart attack the great majority of Alabamians never had heard of him But Setzer founder and director of the Auburn University Center far Architecture and Urban Studies left his mark on cities and towns throughout the state The center founded in 1990 has provided an urban design experience far scores of Auburn architecture students More importantly perhaps it has assisted scores of Alabama communities in drawing up blueprints far the future in the farm of comprehensive planning design and revitalization programs A broad diverse list of communities have used the services small towns such as Brighton Monlevallo Marion Lineville Chelsea Valley and Slocumb as well as urban areas such as Rosedale neighborhood and Five Points business district Birmingham has been a major beneficiary because of design projects in and around the city and also from work for various affordable housing initiatives The current ongoing projects are in Trussville Jasper Eutaw Russellville and Mooresville But the future of all such projects is in doubt because the future of the center is doubt and not just because of death The reason is the statewide budget cuts known as proration which has left the program with a $50 0094-year operating deficit That's approximately the cost of leasing and operating a portion of the old Parisian retail building downtown on 20th Street North Dan Bennett who took over a year ago as dean of Auburn's College of Architecture Design and Construction said the ideal solution would be to have a downtown building donated to the center One building has been offered but it would require extensive renovation personally philosophically want to do everything I can to make sure we maintain a presence in Birmingham but we're going to need some help" said Bennett an Auburn architecture graduate who' helped found the Birmingham center when he was chairman of Auburn's Department of Architecture in the late 1980s and early 901 "Auburn is in a rural location and about 80 percent of graduate architects end up working in cities I felt as did the accrediting agency that accredits us that we needed a definitive urban experience for our students And Birmingham was a logical place Even though Atlanta's closer (to Auburn) I thought we ought to keep it in Alabama" The center has thrived by many measures but it has never received as much publicity as Rural Design Studio a unique program through that builds innovative structures in Alabama's poverty-ridden Black Belt been kind of a Bennett conceded of the Birmingham program "Fir whatever reason the university has not publicized it a lot nor has the college" Nonetheless Bennett called the center's work amazing for scope of the work the variety of the work aid the quality of the work" it performs He told a story of an architecture student who grew up in Birmingham and complained about having to spend an academic quarter in the city "After three months he said 1 know my city at all and it's the best educational experience ever had I've learned things about Birmingham that will pay dividends to me heard a lot of those Bennett said Station changes In the bstlha years local commercial television stations haw made some network afffiation swaps Here's a rundown of the changes between 1996 and now WABM-68 UPN affiate in 1996 remains UPN affiate WBMA-3340 rid not exist in 1996 now ABC affiate WBRC-6 -ABC affiate in 1996 now Fox affiate W1AT-42 CBS affiate in 1 996 with cal letters WBMG now CBS affiate with new cal letters WPXH-44 -did not exist in 1996 now PAX affiate WTTO-21 Fox affiate in 1996 now WB affiate WVTM-13 NBC affiate in 1996 now NBC owned 9oucKiMlongn4ninQn would be the case five yean later I don't think we would have believed Although its viewership is still low PAX affiliate WPXH-44 entered the market in August of 1998 bringing the total to seven stations WIAT increased its viewership enough to add another half hour of news daily Huey said the station would launch a 6 pm weekday newscast Sept 10 WVTM is the only station that has seen significant losses in viewership and it was the station that had the fewest changes in 1996 biggest concern I had coming through the door was that while we changing we hadn't told everybody well still be said Gary Stokes WVTM general manager Stokes was hired by NBC shortly after the affiliation change WVTM began slipping in news ratings in 1998 but Stokes said they have plans to get back in the race In July WVTM hired a news director from its larger sister station in Miami "The focus hasn't changed The focus is as always to be the best station in this market and to provide the best news we can to our Stokes said But Huey prints out that change is what has seemed to work in Birmingham "Change is a good he said "If you adapt with time if you don't adapt with the demands of a market I think it's a quick As for the next five years Huey said economics are on the rise in Birmingham with the appearance of such retail stares as Nordstrom's and Saks Fifth Avenue That could mean an increase in advertising dollars available But Leonard said the competition will only increase "The next five years are going to be a mass media he said mentioning the broadcasting of digital signals required by 2001 With digital signals will came the ability to transmit far more information Televisions will eventually be linked with computers and with the right equipment viewers will be able to choose to get mare information during a newscast or even watch an alternate ending to a sitcom going to be mare competition for the eyeballs in the next five years than ever in the history of Leonard said He said it's hard to say how the upcoming changes will affect the Birmingham market but station managers agreed: Afore competition means an even better product for the viewer Robm Ctomow can be leechod XWW Bob Fariey con be roechod SI32MM1 or btortqfflporihorriiloom Instead the stations all upped the ante WBMA raided WBRCs staff to grab established weather man James Spann and other popular WBRC personalities a move that spawned lawsuits which were later settled out of court "Each of the people (at WBRC-6) took it as a real challenge to ensure that they would not give up the news battle Leonard said While four stations battled with newscasts two local stations turned to syndicated non-news programming and local sports to lure viewers WTTO became a WB affiliate in February of 1997 The station which runs mostly syndicated programs started airing local programming such as the Auburn University and University of Alabama shows and SEC football games WABM continued adding successful syndicated shows such as "Living Single" and as well as local sports While stations woe battling with local newscasts or syndicated shows another factor influenced the Birmingham market in early 1998 Nielsen Media Research added Tuscaloosa and Anniston into the Birmingham-area market meaning stations could claim bigger viewership with hopes that would mean more advertising dollars With the Nielsen changes Birmingham moved from being the 51st largest market in the United States to being No 39 with about 20 percent more people watching WBMG trying to capitalize on this and move from the last-place ratings went off the air and returned as WIAT with new news personalities and new management WIAT is still in last place in the news race but its ratings improved dramatically Amid the changes ratings for all stations have tightened WBRC remains at No 1 but with WBMA a close second Birmingham UPN affiliate WABM has better ratings than network average And WTTO is the top performing WB affiliate in the nation its syndicated programming gets better rat-ings than some local newscasts "(In 1996) we were losing the Fox affiliate and becoming independent again It was kind of a depressing time for us" WTTO and WABM general manager Sandy Stewart said 1 really think we are a stronger station today as a WB affiliate in a six-station market than we were as a Fox affiliate in a five-station market "If you would have told us that By ROBIN CLEM0W BIRMINGHAM POSrilERALD His first day on the job Gary Kelly found himself in a small Hoover apartment with three other guys all about to create a TV station It been done since the early years of television Stations often change ownership network affiliation or programming but creating a station to compete in an established market was virtually unheard of that is until the birth of ABC affiliate WBMA-U40 in Birmingham sitting around a dining room table with three other people and it did cross my mind have you done?" Kelly said of his first day as news director for WBMA in 1996 Today marks the five-year anniversary of first broadcast It was one of many changes in the Birmingham TV market beginning Sept 1 1996 that have made Birmingham television unique Before 1996 Birmingham had five commerical stations and WBRC-6 had most of the viewers In the last five yean Birmingham has grown to seven stations with the fop six close in the race for viewers It's so close that Birmingham may have the most competitive local TV in the country station officials said "If there are byproducts of this change that news competition is better than ever said WBRC general manager Dennis Leonard Competition means better news coverage and viewing options for local viewers he said The changes started when News Oorp which owns Fox Broadcasting Co began buying New World Broadcasting news outlets in a move intended to validate the news product at the then eight-year-old network WBRC long the ABC affiliate in Birmingham and the No 1 station in the market was one of 12 stations purchased and converted to Fox affiliates The Birmingham buyout left ABC in the lurch But knowing that Tuscaloosa and Anniston would join forces with Birmingham to create a larger market in the near future (the merger happened in 1998) ABC decided to combine two stations in the smaller markets and add a 1 -mingham office WCFT-33 in Tuscaloosa and WJSU-40 in Anniston both established in their respective news markets became WBMA "An entire station rose from the ashes like a Leonard said Other changes included: WTTO-21 then the local Fox affiliate became an independent Bob FarleyFost-Herald WBMA-3340 News Director Gary Kelly has been with the station since the affiliate shake-up five years ago station NBC bought WVTM-1J its local affiliate early in 1996 The station started making program scheduling changes that August CBS affiliate WBMG-42 then the struggling last-place station announced that it would be sold to Media General at the end of 1996 WBMG is now WIAT UPN affiliate ABM-68 had recently entered into a local marketing agreement with WTTO owner Sinclair Broadcasting and was starting to air regional sports such as the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks games "If anyone tells you they weren't nervous or concerned about the changes they be being honest with Leonard said The changes left the viewing audience confused Afore than that there was concern that Birmingham TV stations were stretching themselves too thin say you have 1 million people Well you can either divide it up between three stations or four said Mark Hickson chairman of the Communication Studies Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham The creation of WBMA added Sib hours of local news to the market and WBRC expanded its coverage to add SVb hours of news not like you can get people who want to watch the news to Hickson said "If you want more viewers you have to take them from somebody else "I guess if anything I'm sort of surprised that they all still have he said "I thought that one of them would have been pushed out by there are byproducts of this change that news competition is better than ever Elaine column runs Tuesday Thursday and Saturday in the Birmingham Post-Herald Brine WM con be leeched at 325-3197 or owfU poadwraKLoom pennis Leonard WBRC-6 general manager Adim Rurt Post-Herald Television photojoumaSsts from WVTM-13 WlAT-42 WBRC- sSiiT a.