WSES

WSES, virtual and UHF digital channel 33, is a Heroes & Icons-affiliated television station serving Birmingham, Alabama, United States that is licensed to Tuscaloosa. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, and operates as a sister station to Anniston-based Heroes & Icons affiliate WGWW (channel 40). WSES maintains transmitter facilities located near County Road 38/Blue Creek Road, east of State Route 69 near Windham Springs.

History

As an independent station

The station first signed on the air on October 27, 1965 as WCFT-TV. Originally operating as an independent station, it was the first television station to sign on in western Alabama. It was originally owned by Chapman Family Television, a consortium of eight Tuscaloosa businessmen who saw the benefits of operating a television station to serve west-central Alabama, in terms of both business and community service purposes.

However, the station did not return a profit suitable enough for its owners throughout its first two years of operation, an issue that led Chapman Family Television to sell the station to Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based South Mississippi Broadcasting, Inc. (later Service Broadcasters) in 1967, becoming the company's second television station, after flagship WDAM-TV in that market. The new owners rejuvenated WCFT by heavily investing in the station, purchasing new broadcasting and transmission equipment, and improving the station's image. In addition to carrying syndicated programming, WCFT-TV also aired network programs from CBS and NBC that were not cleared for broadcast in the Bimingham market by WAPI-TV (channel 13, now WVTM-TV), which WBMG (channel 42, now WIAT) did during that same timeframe.