WIAT

WIAT, virtual channel 42 (UHF digital channel 30), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by Media General. WIAT maintains studio facilities located on Golden Crest Drive (near Valley Avenue) in southeastern Birmingham; and its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain (next to the American General candelabra tower), near the southern edge of Birmingham.

History

Early history of UHF channel 42 in Birmingham

The history of the UHF channel 42 allocation in the Birmingham market traces back to 1949, when the Birmingham News Company (owners of The Birmingham News and Birmingham Age-Herald newspapers) filed a construction permit application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a television station license under the call letters WSGN-TV (for the South's Greatest Newspaper), which would have served as a sister station to radio station WSGN (610 AM, now WAGG; and 90.3 FM, now WBHM), owned by the News's Southern Broadcasting subsidiary. The station partnered with The Voice of Alabama, Inc., owners of WAFM-TV (channel 13, later WABT and WAPI-TV, and now WVTM-TV), to construct a broadcast tower next to its newly completed studio facility on Red Mountain, adjcent to Vulcan Park; plans called for WSGN-TV to operate from the radio stations' Radio Park building.