timing of the relaunch was chosen for a reason; partly due to the merger of WCFT, WJSU and WBMA-LP into Birmingham's ABC affiliate two years earlier, Nielsen collapsed the previously separate Tuscaloosa and Anniston-Gadsden markets back into the Birmingham market. The move, which took effect in September 1998, resulted in the newly re-enlarged market jumping twelve spots on Nielsen's annual media market rankings at one stroke (from 51st to 39th place). At the same time, Nielsen converted Birmingham to a metered market in the fall of 1998 for ratings purposes. The rebooted newscasts initially did not employ any on-air reporters. Instead, in a style similar to the modern-day multimedia journalist concept, the station used crews of photographers with either reporters or field producers, and one-man bands, to produce and edit stories, in an approach that emphasized content over personalities. All stories were narrated by the anchors, echoing the manner in which most television stations provided reports during their newscasts well into the 1960s. Designed as "news for busy people," the station imposed strict time limits on story packages, with all segments structured in the form of "news minutes" (such as "Top Story in a Minute," "Weather Minute," "Neighborhood Minute" and a "2-Minute Drill" sportscast) in order to be able to incorporate a broad array of local, national and international stories and feature segments within each half-hour newscast. One anchor manned the news desk, while the other read stories from various places on the new set. Al Primo, who created the "Eyewitness News" format at KYW-TV in Philadelphia back in 1965, delivered sharp criticism of what he felt was "a product that was generated solely by research and implemented by people who don't know anything about the news business" and "the most disjointed presentation [of a newscast] that I have ever seen in my life". Land responded to Primo's scathing remarks by comparing the format to the Al Schottelkotte News, a longtime staple of WCPO-TV in Cincinnati from the 1960s until 1990, for which he had been a reporter: "[The Al Schottelkotte News] was very nontraditional, but jam-packed with information." The new anchor team was mostly made up of talent who had not previously worked in the Birmingham market. Original co-anchor Keith Cate – who co-anchored the weeknight newscasts with Sherri Jackson, who herself remains with WIAT – had previously been a main anchor at WMAR-TV in Baltimore; his reaction to