WAFF

WAFF is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Tennessee Valley area of North Alabama in the United States that is licensed to Huntsville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 (also the station's virtual channel via PSIP) from a transmitter located south of Monte Sano State Park. Owned by Raycom Media, WAFF maintains studios on Memorial Parkway (U.S. Highway 431) in Huntsville. The station is carried on channel 8 on most cable systems in the market.HistoryThe Decatur years (1954–69)The station first began broadcasting from studios and transmitters in Decatur (30mi west of Huntsville) on July 4, 1954, as WMSL-TV, channel 23. It was owned by Frank Whisenant, a Decatur businessman who also owned WMSL radio (AM 1400, now WWTM). WMSL originally carried programming from all four networks of the time—NBC, CBS, ABC and the DuMont Network—but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost the DuMont Network when that one began closing down in 1955; it lost ABC when WAAY-TV started in Huntsville in 1959 as an ABC affiliate; and, finally, lost CBS when WHNT-TV began transmitting as a CBS affiliate in 1963.