The two stations share studios on Memorial Parkway (US 431) in Huntsville; WAFF's transmitter is located south of Monte Sano State Park.

However, when Huntsville became the region's largest city due to the exponential growth of U.S. Army Missile Command and NASA installations, Whisenant decided to move WMSL-TV there as well; it was the only major station in the market licensed in Decatur.

Still, the new channel 48, which took over WAAY-TV's old ABC affiliation when its NBC contract expired in September 1968, made persistent efforts to serve its greatly expanded viewing area, which now included most of the Shoals region of northwestern Alabama.

AFLAC did not immediately turn the corner with WAFF; the station kept fine-tuning its newscasts and acquiring some nationally popular syndicated programs, but very little seemed to work.

The tower measured some 1,476 feet (450 m) in height and was constructed in an effort to provide better reception to viewers across northern Alabama and southern middle Tennessee.

The weather forecaster at the time, Glenn Bracken, held a coloring contest for schoolchildren across the viewing area, whereby they could depict their scenes of the new "tall tower" and incorporate WAFF's marketing message "New Tall Tower Means More Picture Power" and have their drawing and name presented during the nightly weather forecast (which usually took place on a balcony outside the news studio's doors).

Eventually, WAFF would rebuild at a new location, occupying a former jewelry store on North Memorial Parkway, some miles away from Monte Sano; microwave links connected the studios to the transmitter and tower.

[5] The disaster may have proved to be a blessing in disguise, as AFLAC began investing money in developing talent and production facilities, enabling WAFF to start making a serious ratings impact for the first time since the early 1970s.

[11][12] Perhaps the most popular of WMSL's local programs was the weekday children's show hosted by station general manager Benny Carle, a Birmingham native who honed his talents for many years on WBRC-TV there.

The show was typical for its day, featuring about 10 to 15 school-aged children in the studio with the host, who conducted party games, told stories, and engaged in clownish behavior; cartoons were shown during the one-hour (later 30-minute) late-afternoon (later mid-morning) program.

WAFF made a controversial decision in the mid-1980s to preempt Late Night with David Letterman (and on Fridays, Friday Night Videos) in favor of evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's daily half-hour program at 11:30 p.m. for several years, largely to cater to the area's conservative religious population and in the likelihood that it would bring in more money than local ad revenues would for Letterman's show.

Thereafter, WAFF returned both Letterman and FNV to their regular timeslots and continues to this day to air NBC's entire late-night schedule without preemptions.

At 4:30 a.m. on October 25, 2010, WAFF began broadcasting its news programming in high definition, making it the first station in the Huntsville television market to do so.

WAFF is part of the Raycom News Network, a system designed to rapidly share information among a group of four Raycom-owned stations and websites serving the state of Alabama.

A regional network has developed among Columbus–Phenix City's WTVM, Montgomery's WSFA, and Birmingham's WBRC in which stations share information, equipment such as satellite trucks or even reporters' stories.