WSFA

The station's call letters—SFA—are an acronym for "South's Finest Airport". but the city's first. WSFA radio quickly became a landmark in Montgomery and was most famous in its early days for launching the career of country music legend Hank Williams, a native of nearby Georgiana, in the 1940s. By the mid-1950s, the new medium of television was sweeping the nation and Persons won the construction permit for Montgomery's second television station on VHF channel 12. This allocation was supposed to be occupied by Montgomery's first television station, CBS affiliate WCOV-TV (it is now a Fox affiliate). However, due to a delay in getting a transmitter for channel 12, WCOV was forced to move to UHF channel 20. Persons built a state-of-the-art facility on Delano Avenue to house both the television and radio stations in 1954, The sale was approved on December 20, 2018, and was completed on January 2, 2019. On September 17, 2024, Gray and the New Orleans Pelicans announced a broader deal to form the Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network, which will broadcast nearly all 2024–25 Pelicans games on Gray's stations in the Gulf South, including WSFA. WSFA gained two new sister stations in the market when Gray Media acquired WCOV-TV and Cozi TV affiliate WIYC (channel 48) on May 1, 2026, creating a legal triopoly with WSFA. ==News operation==

Local programming includes WSFA's major commitment Not long after the Gaylord family bought the station in 1955, they dispatched Frank McGee, top anchorman at company flagship WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City, to Montgomery as News Director. Under McGee, WSFA gained a national reputation for its coverage (fed periodically to the network) of local events in the Civil Rights Movement such as the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 involving Rosa Parks and the varied activities of Martin Luther King Jr. during his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. McGee eventually joined NBC News as a correspondent and hosted Today from 1971 until his death in 1974. By the time Liberty bought WSFA in 1959, it had developed an image as a news-intensive station. Wanting to repeat WSFA's success, Liberty began developing strong news departments at its other stations as well. On January 15, 2007, it added an entertainment/lifestyle magazine-type program known as Alabama Live. Airing weekday mornings at 11, the show reflects on its slogan of "Coverage. Community. Commitment." because it incorporates special features and guest interviews usually not conducted in traditional newscasts. WSFA established a news share agreement with Fox affiliate WCOV (owned by the Woods Communications Corporation) on January 7, 2008. This resulted in a 35-minute newscast being added on that station, weeknights at 9. It was known as Fox News at 9 because the broadcast was simulcasted on then-WSFA sister station and fellow Fox affiliate WDFX-TV in Dothan. A weekend half-hour edition began in summer 2008. On August 3, 2008, WSFA upgraded its newscasts to high definition level, becoming the first station in Montgomery to do so. The news set and graphics were redesigned in the transition. Initially, the 9 p.m. shows were not included because they originated from an older, secondary set at WSFA's studios. However, in spring 2010, those broadcasts began airing in HD with updated graphics separate from programs seen on WSFA. Since WDFX and WCOV both aired Fox News at 9, there was regional coverage provided by reporters based at WDFX's studios (referred to on-air as the Wiregrass Newsroom). After WCOV's contract with WSFA expired at the end of 2010, that station entered into a new agreement with CBS affiliate WAKA to produce a nightly prime time newscast at 9 covering Montgomery. On January 1, 2011, WSFA transitioned its prime time show, renamed The News at 9, to its RTV digital subchannel. The format is mostly unchanged except for originating from WSFA's primary set. It continued to be simulcast on WDFX until 2020. ==Technical information==

Subchannels The station's signal is multiplexed: WSFA-DT2 had been part of the NBC Weather Plus but reverted to a local weather channel after the national service was discontinued on December 31, 2008. In February 2010, Retro Television Network (RTV) moved from WSFA-DT3 to WSFA-DT2, combined with weather updates and other shows. On September 26, 2011, WSFA replaced RTV with Bounce TV, as part of Raycom's affiliation deal with that network. WSFA-DT2 also includes repeats of newscasts from the main channel, live local weather updates, syndicated programming, and broadcasts from Raycom Sports. The third digital subchannel, WSFA-DT3, currently broadcasts the country music-oriented network Circle. WSFA-DT3 had originally aired The Tube Music Network until its shuttering on October 1, 2007. RTV then took its place. WSFA-DT3 was shut down on December 31, 2009, in order to start beta testing of applications that would transmit its signal to mobile devices, but was then re-opened in October 2014 carrying Grit TV. Analog to digital conversion WSFA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandated. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 14 to VHF channel 12. ==References==