WTVM
WTVM, virtual channel 9, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Columbus, Georgia, United States and serving the Chattahoochee Valley of west-central Georgia and east-central Alabama. The station is owned by Gray Television, which also operates Fox affiliate WXTX under a shared services agreement with owner American Spirit Media. The two stations share studios on Wynnton Road in the Dinglewood section of Columbus; WTVM's transmitter is located in Cusseta, Georgia.
On cable, WTVM is available on Charter Spectrum, Mediacom, and WOW! channel 10.
History
The station signed-on for the first time on October 6, 1953, as WDAK-TV airing an analog signal on UHF channel 28. It was a primary NBC station with a secondary ABC affiliation. WDAK was the first television station in the Columbus market and is the fifth-oldest in the state of Georgia and second-oldest outside Atlanta. During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. It was originally owned by Allen Woodall Sr. and Martin Theaters. Studios were located on 1st Avenue in downtown Columbus where Carmike's corporate headquarters were until December 2016.Woodall sold his interest in the station to Martin Theaters in 1956 and the call letters were changed to the current WTVM. It moved to VHF channel 9 in 1960 in a three-way switch-and-move approved by the Federal Communications Commission in which WRBL moved from channel 4 to channel 3 and WTVY-TV in Dothan, Alabama moved from channel 9 to channel 4. The moves were permitted because two years earlier Martin Theaters had bought WROM-TV in Rome, Georgia and moved it north to Chattanooga, Tennessee while changing its calls to WTVC. Eventually, WTVM's old channel 28 allotment was occupied by Georgia Public Broadcasting's WJSP-TV.
On the same day WTVM moved to channel 9, it switched its primary affiliation to ABC, while relegating NBC to secondary status shared with WRBL. This was very unusual for a then two-station market, especially one of Columbus' size. Usually, ABC, as the smallest and weakest network, was relegated to secondary status on one or both of existing stations. ABC would not be on the same footing with CBS and NBC until the 1970s, when markets of Columbus' size However, Martin Theaters wanted to get WTVM in line with WTVC, which has always been an ABC affiliate. Additionally, fellow NBC affiliates WSB-TV in Atlanta and WSFA-TV in Montgomery, Alabama both transmitted fairly clear Grade B signals to the region. In contrast, much of Western Georgia and Eastern Alabama did not have access to ABC full-time. The nearest ABC affiliate that put even a Grade B into Columbus was WLWA-TV in Atlanta, which easily covered much of the northern portion of the market. Martin realized that an ABC affiliation would not bring significant out-of-market competition. Augusta businessman J. B. Fuqua bought Martin Theaters in 1969, including both WTVM and WTVC.
Early in 1970, Fuqua moved WTVM to its present studios on Wynnton Road. The station switched to ABC full-time in October of that year when WYEA signed-on and took over the NBC affiliation. Fuqua sold-off his broadcast interests in 1980, with WTVM going to Western Broadcasting. SFN Publishing eventually became the owner in 1984. A group of SFN managers formed Pegasus Broadcasting and purchased WTVM in 1986. AFLAC bought the station in 1989, making channel 9 AFLAC's flagship station. In 1997, AFLAC sold its entire broadcasting division, including WTVM, to an investment group that merged with Ellis Communications to form Raycom Media. On February 2, 2012, Chief Meteorologist Derek Kinkade hinted on the WTVM Weather Facebook page that major studio changes were on the way. On February 16, all WTVM newscasts and Fox 54 News at 10 moved to the newsroom, while a temporary weather office was constructed in the hallway between the editing bay and the newsroom. The new HD-ready set is to be completed in early March. On July 22, 2012, WTVM began airing newscasts in High Definition starting with Fox 54 News at 10.
WTVM-DT2 previously carried a 24-hour local weather channel. Programming consisted of current weather conditions with forecasts, a live feed of "Live Doppler 9", and severe weather alerts when conditions warrant. On Saturday mornings, the subchannel broadcast educational shows to fulfill an E/I requirement. Despite being called "Storm Team 9 Weather Now", it was not affiliated with The Local AccuWeather Channel. It was replaced with Bounce TV on September 26, 2011. The channel is available on all cable systems in the viewing area.
Sale to Gray Television
On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets under the former's corporate umbrella. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion—in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom—resulted in WTVM gaining new sister stations in nearby markets, including CBS affiliate WTVY and NBC affiliate WRGX-LD in Dothan, Alabama. The sale was approved on December 20, and was completed on January 2, 2019.Digital channels
The station's digital signal was multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP short name | Programming |
| 9.1 | 720p | WTVM-DT | Main WTVM programming / ABC | |
| 9.2 | 480i | Bounce | Bounce TV | |
| 9.3 | 480i | Circle | Circle | |
| 9.4 | 480i | Grit | Grit | |
| 9.5 | 480i | Quest | Quest |
Programming
programming on WTVM includes Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.News operation
WTVM presently broadcasts 27½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week.In addition to the main studios, the station operates an East Alabama bureau near the campus of Auburn University. WTVM produces a nightly prime time show for sister station WXTX known as Fox 54 News at 10. At one point, there was also an hour long broadcast seen weekday mornings at 7 on that station. However, this production was canceled.