Patriots across Alabama have an added reason to celebrate this holiday weekend.
Nextstar Media Group on Thursday announced that 171 of its nationwide affiliate stations across 100 markets will begin daily broadcasting of the Star-Spangled Banner this Labor Day, September 2.
In Alabama, Nextstar owns Birmingham’s WIAT CBS 42; Huntsville’s WZDX Rocket City Now and WHDF; Mobile’s WKRG News 5 and WFNA; and Dothan’s WDHN. The company also owns Columbus, GA’s WRBL, which reaches part of east Alabama.
Nextstar’s daily offering of the national anthem will come through a new partnership with Broadcast Music Inc. and Belmont University’s Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business featuring a variety of “emerging artists.”
“Nexstar’s core mission is to provide exceptional service to the local communities where we operate across America through our organization-wide commitment to localism, unbiased local broadcast journalism and telling the local stories that matter to our viewers and their families,” Tim Busch, president of Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc., said in a statement.
“Nexstar’s local teams take great pride in their ability to bring the local communities they serve together and that is why we are excited to partner with BMI and Belmont University to broadcast this new daily series featuring the Star-Spangled Banner that will air 365 days of each year. This unique collaboration supports higher education in business for the music and entertainment industry, while providing aspiring professional artists and songwriters a national distribution platform to showcase their respective talents. We look forward to returning the time-honored tradition of including the National Anthem in our stations’ broadcasts with this new partnership,” he added.
The first group of songwriters reportedly to be featured include Nashville-based Brian Sutherland, Texas native Kristen Kelly and 2018 American Idol contestant Julia Cole. All musical genres will be highlighted during the series, according to Nextstar.
This comes after Gray Television in recent months announced that most of its affiliate stations would return to this long-held American tradition of playing the national anthem every day.
For Gray, this included WSFA in Montgomery, WBRC in Birmingham, WAFF in Huntsville, WTVY in Dothan, WTOK in Meridian, MS, and WTVM in Columbus, GA, participating.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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