WAKA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Selma, Alabama, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Montgomery area.

On the morning of July 31, 1968, WSLA employee Bailey Bowline, Jr. drove to work at 3:30 a.m. to discover the station had been set on fire, completely destroying the facility on Land Line Road and causing more than $100,000 in damage.

[4] Channel 8 had been for sale prior to the fire, and negotiations continued with H. Guthrie Bell, whose Gay-Bell Broadcasting owned WCOV-TV and a station in Lexington, Kentucky.

[7] Ten months later, on June 11, 1970, the Brennans filed to sell the station to Charles Grisham and his company, Central Alabama Broadcasting, which owned WHNT-TV in Huntsville and WYEA in Columbus, Georgia.

[8] Central Alabama also filed to rebuild WSLA with 25,100 watts of effective radiated power—the station had previously broadcast with 2,510 watts—which was approved by the FCC in 1971.

[8] However, it broadcast in one of the smallest markets in the United States, ranked 211th out of 215;[10] in 1981, its small news department produced just one early evening newscast, and the sports and weather presenters doubled as a swimming pool salesman and a station sales executive, respectively.

In May 1954, three months after the Brennans received the original construction permit, they filed to replace its rather spartan facility in Selma with a 1,750-foot (533 m) tower just north of Prattville, later amended to a site near Strata in southern Montgomery County.

The proceeding saw arguments from WCOV-TV, which feared that WSLA's move would jeopardize the development of UHF in Montgomery (and put its own CBS affiliation in jeopardy) and WSFA, but it was ultimately a defect in the proposed tower plan that prompted the FCC to deny the application in September 1958.

However, when the FCC rejected its application for a tower closer to Montgomery, Deep South went on the air anyway from its originally-specified facilities in Selma about eight months afterward, presumably fearing it would lose the license otherwise.

[20] At the same time, to avoid confusion with WSFA in preparation for the move, WSLA changed its call letters to WAKA—unofficially claimed to stand for "We Are Kicking Ass"—on October 29 and began its $4 million facilities improvement program.

In November 1984, Bahakel Communications, owner of WKAB, announced plans to buy WAKA and sell off the Montgomery UHF station.

[21] The Bahakel acquisition immediately sparked speculation about a potential affiliation shuffle in the Montgomery market, with rumors of ABC making the move to WAKA.

WAKA's original Montgomery studio had long been hampered by its location close to downtown, which limited its ability to expand.

In the past several years in order to become more competitive in the ratings, WAKA expanded its news department with additional personnel, outlying bureaus, and more newscasts.

In the July 2011 ratings, WAKA's weekday noon and weekend show at 10 out-rated WSFA in key demographic areas.

In January 2007, WBMM (then separately owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting) entered into a news share agreement with WAKA allowing the big three affiliate to produce the market's first prime time newscast on the CW outlet.

WBMM would begin to have competition to the outsourced broadcast on January 7, 2008, after Fox affiliate WCOV-TV entered into a news share arrangement with NBC outlet WSFA.

That agreement resulted in Montgomery's second prime time newscast at 9 which was only initially seen on weeknights for 35 minutes (a weekend half-hour edition would begin in Summer 2008).

On April 16, 2010, WNCF expanded its partnership with the Independent News Network (INN) and launched a half-hour weeknight newscast at 9 on WBMM airing in high definition.

This second incarnation of a WAKA-sponsored newscast in prime time features a music theme and graphics package modified from original use on Fox owned-and-operated stations.

Meanwhile, on January 1, 2011, WSFA transitioned its prime-time show to its second digital subchannel (currently affiliated with Bounce TV) resulting in three options for newscasts at 9.

The broadcasts on WAKA and WNCF are known on air as Alabama News Network and shows are simulcasted between the CBS and ABC affiliates on weekday mornings, weeknights at 10, and weekends.