News Operation
WBRC broadcasts a total of 45½ hours of local news a week (7½ hours on weekdays, 3½ hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays), more than any other television station in the Birmingham television market and the most of any station in the state of Alabama. News programming on WBRC ranges from a traditional 10 p.m. newscast, to a 90-minute early evening news block, to an hour-long 9 p.m. newscast, to 4½ hours (4:30-9 a.m.) of weekday morning newscasts.
After WBRC became a Fox affiliate in 1996, the station has placed more emphasis on its newscasts, maintaining a newscast schedule very similar to the one it had as an ABC affiliate, along with additional 7-9 a.m. and 5:30-6 p.m. newscasts, and what was at first a 30-minute primetime 9 p.m. newscast. The 9 p.m. newscast was expanded to a full hour by 1999. The station is one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (at 10 p.m. Central time, in WBRC's case; and one of the few Fox stations running a 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast seven nights a week), in addition to the primetime (9 p.m.) newscast, along with one of the few to continue their Big Three-era 10 p.m. newscast after the affiliation switch.
WBRC is part of the Raycom News Network, a system designed to rapidly share information among Raycom's widespread group of television stations and websites; the regional network also involves Columbus/Phenix City ABC affiliate WTVM, Montgomery NBC affiliate WSFA and Huntsville NBC affiliate WAFF in which stations share information, equipment such as satellite trucks or even reporters' stories. Between them, the four stations cover the state of Alabama. The four stations also comprise the Raycom Weather Network and the Raycom Alabama Weather Blog, where meteorologists from all four stations post forecasts and storm reports, as well as live feeds from all of the cameras that the four stations operate; the site also has live feeds of the four stations' doppler radar systems: WBRC, WTVM, WSFA, and WAFF. The only Raycom station in Alabama not participating in the arrangement is WDFX-TV in the Dothan area, which receives its news programming from WSFA.
On July 14, 2009, the Saturday evening 6 p.m. newscast was eliminated, as part of cutbacks at the station. On October 26, 2009 WBRC began broadcasting its local newscasts in High Definition, making WBRC the third television station in the entire state of Alabama—and the second station in the Birmingham-Tuscaloosa-Anniston market after WVTM-TV—to do so. The news set and the graphics were also redesigned in the transition to HD.
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