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Wcft-tvWCFT-TV, channel 33, along with WJSU-TV is one of the two satellite television stations for the ABC affiliate of the Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa television market, WBMA, ABC33/40. WCFT's city of license of Tuscaloosa. History WCFT signed on the airwaves from Tuscaloosa in 1965. WCFT's call letters stands for W Chapman Family Television, the original license holder. The original owners was composed of a group of 8 Tuscaloosa businessmen that saw the benefits of the station in both the business and community service. It began as an independent station was difficult and not very profitable, so the orginal owners sold the station to Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based Service Broadcasters in 1967. The new owners rejuvinated the station by pumping money into it. They purchased new equipment and improved the station's image, and through an interesting deal with Birmingham-based WBMG 42, the then Birmingham television market's CBS affiliate, and was granted rights to CBS network programming. However, it was not until 1970 that WCFT became a full-fledged CBS affiliate. By the early 1980's, WCFT was the leading local news station in Tuscaloosa (with newscasts called "Eyewitness News"), beating out all of the Birmingham stations broadcasting into the Tuscaloosa area. In 1987 Arbitron made Tuscaloosa its own television market. This combination of "33/40" came about in 1995 when Allbritton Communications purchased WCFT in Tuscaloosa. Since WBRC-TV was changing from ABC to Fox, Allbritton contracted with Flagship Broadcasting to local market agreement WJSU and convert both WCFT and WJSU from CBS affiliates to ABC affiliates as satellites of a low power station based in Birmingham. WBMG (at the time now WIAT) would serve as the region's CBS affiliate. The deal went through and Arbitron ended up collapsing the Tuscaloosa and the Anniston Markets into the Birmingham Market in September of 1998 making it the 39th largest DMA in the nation. ABC 33/40's coverage stretches from the Alabama-Georgia line all the way to Columbus, Mississippi. External Link *Official Website of ABC33/40
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