and Brunswick, Georgia to switch to the network. On September 1, 1996, when WBRC-TV officially became a Fox owned-and-operated station and W58CK/WCFT/WJSU became an ABC affiliate, WTTO and WDBB reverted to operating as independent stations. Simultaneously, WNAL formally terminated the WTTO simulcast, and became the CBS affiliate for Gadsden and northeastern Alabama. WBRC originally planned to carry the entire Fox network schedule, running the Fox Kids block on weekday afternoons to replace the displaced ABC soap opera lineup upon its move to the W58CK trimulcast (which would be collectively known as "ABC 33/40," a brand referencing the respective channel numbers of WCFT and WJSU, and will mostly be referred to hereafter in the article as "WBMA+"). However, in what would be the catalyst to a change in the carriage policies for Fox Kids that allowed stations the option of either airing the block or being granted the right to transfer the rights to another station in the market, Sinclair approached WBRC about allowing WTTO to retain Fox Kids, which the Fox network (on behalf of Fox Television Stations) allowed it to keep. On February 2, 1997, WTTO and WDBB became affiliates of The WB Television Network, and changed its on-air branding to "WB 21". It was one of the first Sinclair stations to affiliate with the network, occurring six months before the group struck an agreement to affiliate most of its UPN-affiliated and independent stations that it either owned or controlled to The WB on July 21. Prior to that point, Birmingham had been one of the largest markets that was not served by a local WB affiliate; central Alabama residents were only able to receive WB programs on satellite and some cable providers through the national superstation feed of the network's Chicago affiliate, WGN-TV (now an independent station; its cable feed now operates as a standalone channel), which carried the network's programming nationwide from The WB's launch in January 1995 until October 1999. With the WB affiliation, WTTO added one of Fox Kids' competitors, Kids' WB, to its inventory of children's programming. The station carried Kids' WB's weekday morning and afternoon blocks together on Monday through Friday mornings (bookending Fox Kids' weekday morning block) on either a one-day delay or live-to-air depending on the time slot and accordant block; the Saturday morning edition of the block, meanwhile, aired on Sundays in a day-behind arrangement as WTTO aired the Fox