In addition to its aforementioned reception problems, the news department had a reputation for being short of professional standards. According to local legends, the station's newscasts often – inadvertently or not – became comedy shows. Examples of this include Tommy Charles (a local radio personality formerly with WSGN and WAQY, who served as a sports anchor for WBMG during the mid-1970s) wadding up scripts and tossing them over his shoulder during the sports segment after he read them, as well as even letting deflating balloons fly around the set for no apparent reason. Under Park Communications ownership, the station made concerted moves to professionalize its newscasts; under general manager Hugh Smith, it hired Thom Gossom as lead anchor, and acquired the first color remote vehicle in Birmingham (which incorporated equipment originally purchased in 1972 for its broadcasts of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church's weekly services). These efforts led to little success in increasing its ratings, leading WBMG to discontinue long-form local news programming in 1980. For the next seven years, it aired syndicated shows at both 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. The only news programming that aired on channel 42 during this time consisted of hourly cut-ins during regular programming. WBMG re-established a full-fledged news department in 1987, but its newscasts barely registered much higher than hashmarks (less than one ratings share point) in the ratings. The station managed to make a name for itself while John Harrod served as its news director from 1990 to 1995. Harrod built a very aggressive and hard-hitting news department concentrating exclusively on local stories and investigative reporting. It also gradually expanded its news programming, adding two additional newscasts at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekdays by 1995. The station won a number of awards from the Associated Press for its reporting during Harrod's tenure. Indeed, when ABC began putting out feelers for a new affiliate in Birmingham, it seriously considered buying WBMG outright due to the performance of its news department. However, critical acclaim was not rewarded with a ratings win. Despite making a more credible effort than before, WBMG's newscasts barely registered as a blip in the ratings, lagging well behind WBRC and WVTM. It even fell to fourth shortly after the WBMA trimulcast launched its news department after it took over the ABC affiliation from WBRC when that station switched to Fox in September 1996. At one point in 1997, the station's