Branding My WAMY | ||
Channels Digital: WZDX-DT 54.2 (UHF)
Virtual: 54.2 (PSIP) Affiliations MyNetworkTV (2006–present) Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) First air date September 21, 1998; 18 years ago (1998-09-21) Call letters' meaning We're Alabama's MYNetworkTV | ||
"WAMY-TV" is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Tennessee Valley area of Northeastern Alabama. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, WAMY is sister to Fox affiliate WZDX and the two share studios on North Memorial Parkway (U.S. 231/U.S. 431/and U.S. 72) in Huntsville. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Maury, and The Wendy Williams Show. Many MyNetworkTV affiliates are housed on digital subchannels of other stations and use their call signs but WAMY and cable-only "WNFM-TV" in Southwest Florida are the only network affiliates that have fictional calls.
WAMY is broadcast on WZDX's second digital subchannel. This airs on UHF channel 54.2 from a transmitter in Monte Sano Mountain in the Mountain Heights section of the city. In most areas, the station is carried on Comcast and Charter cable channel 8. As a result, its logo refers to this although it is known on-air as My WAMY. There are some locations, including Decatur, where the station is located on other cable systems and channels. DirecTV carries WAMY-TV for subscribers in the Huntsville, Alabama designated market area, most DirecTV satellite receivers display WAMY on virtual channel 6.
History
The station first began broadcasting on September 21, 1998. It was only offered on cable and was affiliated with the new WB network via The WB 100+, a group of cable-only WB stations that shared programming outside of primetime. It had the call letters WAWB-TV and used them in a fictional manner. Those calls should not be confused with WUPV in Richmond, Virginia which used the calls officially from 1995 until 1997. As a WB affiliate, WAWB was known on-air as "The Valley's WB". It was unusual that when the station signed-on it was a cable-only WB affiliate. That arrangement was common for television markets numerically ranked at 100 or above. In those areas, The WB was offered on cable as part of The WB 100+. The Huntsville/Decatur/Florence market is ranked at 84 well below the cut off at 100.
In 2002, when WZDX launched the second digital signal of the market on UHF channel 41, WAWB began to be seen on that station's new second digital subchannel. This move was made in order to offer non-cable viewers access to WB programming. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new broadcast network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.
MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. On April 4, UPN affiliate WHDF was announced as becoming the market's CW affiliate. On April 18, it was made public that WAWB was to become the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate. The station began showing the new MyNetworkTV network logo in the corner of the screen on June 1 during promotions of the coming switch. WAWB changed its fictional call letters to "WAMY-TV" when MyNetworkTV began broadcasting on September 5. WHDF began broadcasting The CW on September 18.
On November 6, 2013, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including WZDX (and thus "WAMY") for $87.5 million. The sale was completed on December 1, 2014.
"WAMY-TV" was an initial affiliate of the American Sports Network with its first broadcast on August 30, 2014.