abstract
| - The television and radio stations were located on St. Louis Street in downtown Mobile until around 1980, when they were relocated to an area near the Bel Air Mall, which Giddens also had a hand in developing. The television station operates on the bottom floor and the radio stations operate on the second and third floors of the building. For years, WKRG-TV was the only locally owned station in the Mobile-Pensacola-Pascagoula area. This changed after the death of Giddens in 1993. First, the radio stations were sold, yet they still operated in the same building (and still do today under current owner Clear Channel). Spartan Communications purchased WKRG-TV in 1998, and Media General purchased Spartan in 2000. In 2002, the focus of the station switched to weather and news, and the channel's slogan was changed to reflect it: WKRG 5 became WKRG News 5 (based on the station's NewsCenter branding in the 1980s and 1990s), and it was touted as Mobile's "Weather Authority". The station debuted a new slogan in July 2004: News 5, Coverage You Can Count On, in conjunction with WKRG's 50th year in broadcasting. In 2007, WKRG developed a radio partnership with Clear Channel Communications reuniting the television station with its formerly owned stations WMXC Lite Mix 99.9 (formerly WKRG-FM) and WNTM News Radio 710 (formerly WKRG-AM), as well as WKSJ 95KSJ and WRKH 96.1 The Rocket. Ironically, these stations were co-owned with competing station WPMI until Clear Channel divested its television stations in 2008 to Newport Television. WKRG is also available to cable subscribers in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, and is usually the area's "B" CBS station behind WWL in New Orleans.
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