commentary feature during its newscasts; the segment was required to air on all Sinclair-owned stations that aired local newscasts (regardless of whether it carried the News Central format or not). However, the newscast was unable to make headway against WBRC's longer-established (and much higher-rated) 9:00 p.m. newscast, which debuted in September 1996 upon its switch to Fox; as a result, WTTO outsourced production of its evening newscast to CBS affiliate WIAT through a news share agreement in October 2005. The WIAT-produced newscast was canceled on October 13, 2006, due to low ratings; the News Central format had earlier been phased out entirely in its other markets by March 2006. Technical information Subchannels The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed digital signals of other Birmingham television stations: Analog-to-digital conversion On February 2, 2009, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced in an e-mail release to all cable and satellite television providers carrying its television stations that, regardless of the exact date of the mandatory switchover to digital-only broadcasting for full-power stations (which Congress rescheduled days later to June 12), its stations (including WABM) would shut down their analog signals on the originally scheduled transition date of February 17. WTTO and WDBB shut down their analog signals, respectively over UHF channels 21 and 17, at 11:59 p.m. on that date. WTTO's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 28; through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 21. WDBB also continued to operate its digital signal on its pre-transition digital channel, UHF 18; digital television receivers display its virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 17. As part of the SAFER Act, WTTO and WDBB kept its analog signal on the air until March 19 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters. With the digital conversion, WTTO moved its transmitter facilities from its analog transmitter site east on Red Mountain to a digital transmitter overlooking the Goldencrest neighborhood, that it shares with radio stations WZZK (104.7 FM) and WBPT (106.9 FM). The move and the resulting expansion of its coverage area, resulted in the shutdown of W62BG as the main signal provided adequate coverage of the entire Birmingham area; the translator's license was canceled in late October 2011. ATSC 3.0 See also Tallest structures in