TheRolyPoly 1844 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Vulcan = The Vulcan statue that serves as Birmingham's symbol. Times-Mirror = WVTM's former owners, the Times-Mirror Broadcasting Company (owned from 1980 to 1993, when they sold WVTM to New World, and eventually NBC.) Man, I was gonna say that. The TImes-Mirror Broadcasting Company changed the station's call letters on March 28th, 1980 from WAPI. Kinda funny how Hearst once owned WVTM 13 under it's pre-merger Argyle Broadcasting. WVTM 13 was being sold to New World, but New World was being bought by WBRC and therefore, WVTM had to be sold to NBC in 1996. It was owned by Argyle but operated by New World under a time-brokerage agreement. The same happened to KNSD San Diego. (All of this according to Wikipedia) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobvick 9 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Vulcan = The Vulcan statue that serves as Birmingham's symbol. Times-Mirror = WVTM's former owners, the Times-Mirror Broadcasting Company (owned from 1980 to 1993, when they sold WVTM to New World, and eventually NBC.) Also, Channel 13's studios are located atop Red Mountain, right by the Vulcan statue. I would imagine that it being so close played no small part in the selection of the calls, otherwise, if not for Vulcan, I would venture to bet they would have went with WBTM, (Birmingham) kind of like former sister station WHTM in Harrisburg that was previously WTPA before being bought by Times Mirror in 1980. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4164 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Calls changed in 1980 when Times Mirror purchased the station from Newhouse. I am not sure how many people would even know the calls WVTM if you just stopped and asked them. I know that older viewer's would be aware of WAPI. Still ... we are talking about a call change that happened 35 years ago. Its a generational gap. Those under 40 probably wouldn't even care and the ratings effect would be completely negligible. More people likely associate the WAPI calls with the Cumulus Radio news/talker and not with channel 13. Likewise, iHeart isn't going to petition Raycom to share the WBRC calls with WERC AM/FM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4164 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Vulcan = The Vulcan statue that serves as Birmingham's symbol. Times-Mirror = WVTM's former owners, the Times-Mirror Broadcasting Company (owned from 1980 to 1993, when they sold WVTM to New World, and eventually NBC.) The Times-Mirror Company's flagship newspaper was the Los Angeles Times. The Times, shortly after its founding, encountered financial trouble and was taken over by the Mirror Company, who had been running a newspaper of the same name. Interestingly, the sale of WVTM to New World forced WBRC to be sold outright to Fox, who had to honor the station's ABC affiliation contract for over a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaNewser 0 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 WJSU IS NOW WGWW WCFT is now WSES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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