TV History Profile: WSFA

History:

Much of this historical information was gathered from the WSFA website's history pages.

WSFA-TV was spawned from the WSFA-AM radio station. The calls stand for "With the South's Finest Airport". The station signed on the air Christmas Day 1954. The original owner was Gordon Persons, who went on to become governor of Alabama.

The TV and radio stations was sold to Oklahoma Publishing Company in February of 1955.

In the mid-70's WSFA erected it's "tall tower", which at the time was the third tallest man made structure in the modern world.

The station was embroiled in controversy in the early 90's, when Retirement Systems of Alabama tried to buy the station for what at the time was considered a very high price. Opposition claimed that ownership would compromise the station's editorial independence.