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Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston, Alabama United States |
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City | Birmingham, Alabama |
Branding | WBRC Fox 6 (general) WBRC Fox 6 News (newscasts) |
Slogan | On Your Side |
Channels |
Digital: 50 (UHF) Virtual: 6 () |
Affiliations | |
Owner |
Raycom Media (WBRC License Subsidiary, LLC) |
First air date | July 1, 1949 |
Call letters' meaning |
We're the Bell Radio Company (original owner of WBRC radio) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Former affiliations | |
Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
Height | 373 m |
Facility ID | 71221 |
Transmitter coordinates | 33°29′21.2″N 86°47′56.1″W / 33.489222°N 86.798917°WCoordinates: 33°29′21.2″N 86°47′56.1″W / 33.489222°N 86.798917°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www |
WBRC, virtual channel 6 (UHF digital channel 50), is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by Raycom Media. WBRC maintains studio and transmitter facilities located atop Red Mountain, between Vulcan Trail and Valley View Drive, in southeastern Birmingham (located to the immediate west of the studios of NBC affiliate WVTM-TV, channel 13); the station shares its transmitter tower with local NOAA Weather Radio station KIH54.
On cable, WBRC is available on Charter Spectrum channel 7, and Comcast Xfinity and AT&T U-verse channel 6 in standard definition; and in high definition on Spectrum digital channel 1007, and Xfinity and AT&T U-verse channel 1006.
The station first signed on the air on July 1, 1949, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 4 as WBRC-TV (standing for Bell Radio Company, after Fountain Heights physician J.C. Bell, founder of radio station WBRC (960 AM). the "-TV" suffix was dropped from the call sign in June 1999). Although WBRC-TV was the first television station in Birmingham to be granted a license by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it is the second-oldest television station in Alabama, signing on just over one month after WAFM-TV (channel 13, now WVTM-TV), which debuted on May 29. It was originally owned by the Birmingham Broadcasting Company, run by Eloise D. Hanna, along with WBRC radio. Hanna's first husband, M. D. Smith, had bought WBRC radio from Bell in 1928. Her son, M.D. Smith III, who worked at the radio stations in advertising sales and was later promoted to program director and vice president, ran the television station as its operations manager.