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Birmingham, Ala., has made significant strides in recent years to bridge the chasm that split the city along racial lines for decades, even as media around the country have continued to replay graphic images of racial discord from the past. "Birmingham has suffered from that imagery, but I think the people Here have worked hard to overcome that," says Gary Stokes, president and general manager of NBC's owned-and-operated WVTM-TV in Birmingham. "[Visitors] realize that this market is a lot more progressive than it's given credit for," adds Stokes, who is African American.
In addition to Birmingham, the DMA also includes the cities of Tuscaloosa and Anniston. The local economy, formerly heavily reliant on the steel industry, has been expanding and welcoming other forms of manufacturing. On the western side of the market, near Tuscaloosa, Mercedes-Benz is planning to double the size of its auto plant. Toward the east, Honda has committed to building a large facility to produce its Odyssey cars. "Big box" retailers including Target and Costco have opened outlets in the area.
Like the market itself, the local TV business in Birmingham has seen some significant changes in recent years. In November 1998, Nielsen Media Research introduced people meters to measure viewership in the market, replacing diary returns. As is usually the case when Nielsen meters are brought in, the stronger stations in the market took a bit of a ratings hit, while the stations with weak numbers in the diary returns enjoyed a ratings boost. Nielsen subsequently expanded its Birmingham measurement area to include Tuscaloosa and Anniston, moving the DMA from No. 51 in the U.S. all the way up to No. 39. The addition of Tuscaloosa brought 61,000 TV households, and Anniston added another 44,000. The total number of TV households in the DMA is 667,650.
A complex network-affiliation swap and a flurry of ownership changes also have brought changes to the Birmingham TV scene. When Fox Television Stations purchased ABC affiliate WBRC in July 1995, ABC was temporarily left without an outpost in the market. Allbritton Communications stepped in and purchased one station in Tuscaloosa and another in Anniston and combined the two properties with its lowpowered outlet in Birmingham to create a new ABC affiliate, WBMA-TV (available on Channels...