WTTO-TV is an UHF television station that broadcasts on channel 21 licensed out of Homewood, through doesn't use that city in its legal ID. It is The WB affiliate of the Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa market. WTTO is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which also owners sister station WABM, local UPN affiliate. The station began originally in 1981, as an independent station that aired numerous movies and sitcoms. The station picked up the affiliation of the then fledging Fox network. The station was affiliated with Fox until the Big Switch of '96, in which Fox's owners Newscorp purchased the local ABC affiliate, WBRC, and later moved the Fox affiliation there. WTTO became an independent station as of September 6, 1996, but was originally a potential candid for the ABC affiliation. The reasoning behind that not happening is because at the time Sinclair was not a station group known for allowing too many of its smaller market stations to have local newscasts. The majority of the ABC affiliates produces their own newscast, so when that fell through, it left WTTO as an independent station. In January 1997, WTTO picked up the affiliation of the The WB network, and remain ever since. In September 2003, WTTO did finally began to produce its own local newscast name "WB21 News at 9:00".
