WUAB

WUAB, virtual channel 43 (VHF digital channel 10), is a CW-affiliated television station serving Cleveland, Ohio, United States that is licensed to Lorain. The station is owned by Gray Television, as part of a duopoly with Shaker Heights-licensed CBS affiliate WOIO (channel 19). The two stations share studios on the ground floor of the Reserve Square building (on East 13th Street and Chester Avenue) in Downtown Cleveland, and transmitter facilities in the West Creek Reservation (between West Ridgewood Drive and the Rustic Trail) in Parma.
History.
Independent years.
The station first signed on the air on September 15, 1968; WUAB was originally owned by United Artists Broadcasting (owned by the film studio of the same name, then a Transamerica subsidiary). Eddie Manheim of Marcus Advertising handled the first promotions for the station; billboard advertisements placed across Cleveland promoting channel 43's pending debut read "September 15th. Our First Date". WUAB was the second commercial UHF station in the area; WKBF-TV (channel 61) had beaten it to the air by eight months. Its main studio was in a combination bowling alley kiddie's room and a trailer at the Parmatown shopping center in suburban Parma, with sales offices in downtown Cleveland. WUAB personalities in its early years included professional wrestling host/staff announcer Jack Reynolds, Linn Sheldon (host of the children's show "Barnaby"), Marty Sullivan (also known as Saturday afternoon movie host "Superhost"), and John Lanigan, who hosted the daily "Prize Movie".
Originally, WUAB's schedule consisted of cartoons, syndicated off-network sitcoms, movies (most notably the long-running afternoon "Prize Movie" and primetime "Star Movie" presentations), and religious programs. On September 7, 1970, WUAB opened a new studio facility on Day Drive in Parma. WUAB drew a lot of its early programming from its parent company, including pre-1950 Warner Bros. films and cartoons which UA acquired in 1958 after its merger with Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.), which also brought the theatrical "Popeye" cartoons (originally released by Paramount Pictures, a company which would factor somewhat in WUAB's later history) into the company fold. WUAB and WKBF struggled to be profitable, despite the deep pockets of the stations' owners (WKBF was owned by Kaiser Broadcasting). Both stations signed on every day at around 10:00 a.m. and went off the air by 1:00 a.m.
By September 2, 1974, WUAB had clearly established itself as the leading independent in Cleveland. Kaiser opted to shut down WKBF and purchase a percentage of WUAB on March 28, 1975, but United Artists kept majority control of the station. WUAB therefore acquired the programming rights to most of WKBF's stronger shows. WUAB expanded its broadcast hours around this time, signing on at 6:00 a.m. and signing off long after midnight.
On September 6, 1977, Field Communications bought the rest of Kaiser's share in its television outlets. On that date, United Artists/Transamerica and Kaiser announced it would instead sell WUAB to the Gaylord Broadcasting Company for $12.5 million. (Then-sister station KBSC in Los Angeles, which was also divested by Field in its takeover of Kaiser, was sold to National Subscription TV for $1.2 million.) Under Gaylord, WUAB continued as a broadcasting powerhouse, and cemented its status as one of the leading independent stations in the country. The station pulled off a major coup on September 2, 1979 by winning the broadcast rights to the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball's American League. The station broadcast Indians' games from the 1980 season through the 2001 season.
During this time as part of Gaylord's strategy of establishing regional superstations, it appeared on several cable systems in Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and the western part of the Canadian province of Ontario. The station was dropped from most cable providers outside Cleveland in the 1990s as those communities established UPN affiliates with market exclusivity, and is now no longer seen outside of the Cleveland market.
WUAB remained the Cleveland market's leading independent station into the 1980s. Cleveland Associates Co. returned channel 61 to the air as WCLQ (now Univision owned-and-operated station WQHS-DT) on March 3, 1981; however, that station made no real headway against WUAB in the ratings. WUAB gained a third independent competitor on May 19, 1985, when Channel 19 Inc. (a joint venture between Malrite Communications and locally based Cleveland Television Corp.) signed on WOIO (channel 19). WOIO and WUAB went head to head to achieve status as the strongest independent in Northeast Ohio, with WCLQ lagging behind; all three gained a competitor when the Winston Broadcasting Network (a for-profit group owned by Cuyahoga Falls-based evangelist Ernest Angley) signed on WBNX-TV (channel 55) as Cleveland's fourth independent station on December 1, 1985. WCLQ bowed out of the competition in 1986, after Channel Communications Inc. sold the station to the Home Shopping Network, which turned it into a full-time affiliate of that network as WQHS.
Because of its status as the strongest of Cleveland's three commercial independents, in the spring of 1986, WUAB was approached by News Corporation to become a charter affiliate of the fledgling Fox Broadcasting Company. Station management turned the offer down, one of the few long-established major-market independents to do so, mainly because most of the markets located within WUAB's large cable footprint had enough commercial television stations for Fox to maintain a local affiliate, making the prospect of using WUAB to serve as a sub-regional Fox affiliate unattractive to Gaylord. Fox eventually signed an agreement with WOIO, which became the network's Cleveland charter affiliate when the network launched on October 9, 1986; as a Fox affiliate, WOIO eventually overtook WUAB in the ratings.
On August 14, 1990, Gaylord sold WUAB to Cannell Broadcasting (headed by actor/writer/director Stephen J. Cannell) for $60 million. Though the station performed adequately in the ratings under Cannell ownership, the company was unable to overtake WOIO. On September 5, 1994, WOIO's owner Malrite Communications entered into a local marketing agreement with Cannell, which retained ownership of WUAB, though the station was now managed in tandem with WOIO. Both stations moved to a facility at downtown Cleveland's Reserve Square. During its waning years as an independent station, WUAB was the Cleveland home of the various "Star Trek" series (the syndicated "" was in production at the time) from Paramount Television, and also carried the Action Pack syndication block (which aired on WUAB from its syndication launch in 1994 until 1997) and the Prime Time Entertainment Network syndication service (which launched in January 1993).
Through a long-term affiliation agreement announced on May 23 of that year between News Corporation and New World Communications, in which 13 television stations (five that New World had already owned and eight that the company was in the process of acquiring through separate deals with Great American Communications and Argyle Television Holdings) switched to the Fox network, on September 3, 1994, WOIO took over the Cleveland market's CBS affiliation in a swap with WJW-TV (channel 8), which had been with CBS since March 1955 and assumed the Fox affiliation under the New World deal. As a consequence of the switch, on September 5, Channel 19 moved most of its sitcoms and syndicated cartoons to WUAB along with its Cleveland Cavaliers NBA telecasts; Channel 19 had originally acquired the local television rights to the Cavaliers from WUAB in 1988; however, because of its assumption of the CBS affiliation rights and its network-dominated program schedule, WOIO did not have enough room on its schedule to continue airing the broadcasts. (The Fox Kids block moved instead to WBNX-TV as WJW, like most of the New World stations affected by the Fox affiliation agreement, declined carriage of the block to focus on its news-intensive program schedule.)
Affiliations with UPN and The WB.
Upon that network's launch, on January 11, 1995, WUAB became a charter affiliate of The WB (a venture between Time Warner and Tribune Broadcasting); subsequently, when that network debuted six days later on January 16, it also became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) (a venture between Paramount Television/Viacom and Chris-Craft/United Television). This made Cleveland the largest market where UPN and The WB maintained a dual affiliation on a single station. During this period, WUAB's schedule also included some first-run syndicated shows and recent off-network sitcoms and drama series, movies in prime time and on weekends, and a blend of syndicated animated and live-action children's shows (which included The Disney Afternoon block on weekdays).
As the two networks offered prime time programs for only a few nights per week (UPN on Monday and Tuesdays, and The WB on Wednesdays) at launch, WUAB relegated its 8 p.m. feature film showcases to Thursday through Sunday evenings. After UPN Kids and Kids' WB were launched in September 1995, channel 43 only carried select programs from both network children's blocks (such as Kids' WB's "Animaniacs" and "That's Warner Bros.!") because of its existing syndication-dominant lineup of kid-oriented series. As both networks' prime time lineups started directly competing against each other in September 1996 with their respective expansions to additional nights, WUAB began to air The WB's Monday and Tuesday and UPN's Wednesday lineups on tape delay on nights when neither network offered programming.
On September 1, 1997, WBNX-TV took over as the Cleveland-area affiliate of The WB, leaving WUAB exclusively affiliated with UPN. On April 6, 1998, Montgomery, Alabama-based Raycom Media announced that it would acquire Malrite Communications for an undisclosed price; the LMA with WUAB was included in the deal. The sale was finalized six months later on September 17. WUAB changed its branding to "Hometeam 43" in September 1999, as part of a unified rebranding with WOIO (which concurrently began identifying as "Hometeam 19") to promote their local news and sports coverage.
On March 2, 2000, six months after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) relaxed its local ownership rules to allow common ownership of two commercially licensed television stations in the same media market, Raycom exercised an option to acquire the station outright from Cannell Communications; the sale was finalized two months later on May 10. With the loss of the Cleveland Indians broadcast contract for the 2002 season, that May, WUAB ditched its "Hometeam 43" branding, in favor of identifying as "43 The Block" (WOIO underwent a similar brand makeover under the general "CBS 19" brand and the renaming of WOIO and WUAB's newscasts under the "19 Action News" moniker). "The Block" identity was phased out in September 2005, when the station began identifying on-air as "UPN 43".
MyNetworkTV affiliation.
On January 24, 2006, UPN parent company CBS Corporation and WB network parent Time Warner announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create The CW, a joint network venture that initially featured a mix of original first-run series and programs that originated on The WB and UPN. Nearly one month after the CW launch announcement, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation subsidiaries Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a network created primarily to serve as a network programming option for UPN and WB stations that were left out of The CW's affiliation deals.
On March 1, in a joint announcement by CBS and the Winston Broadcast Network, WBNX-TV was confirmed as The CW's Cleveland affiliate. Since the network chose its charter stations based on which of them among The WB and UPN's respective affiliate bodies was the highest-rated in each market, WBNX was chosen to join The CW over WUAB as it had been the higher-rated of the two stations at the time of the agreement's signing. Six days later on March 7, as part of an affiliation agreement that included its Raycom-owned sister stations in Honolulu and Baton Rouge, WUAB was confirmed to be the market's MyNetworkTV affiliate. On July 14, 2006, WUAB began branding as "My 43, WUAB" in station promotions and legal identifications, and introduced a new on-air logo (which was based on MyNetworkTV's logo scheme) in anticipation of the launch of MyNetworkTV. Channel 43 officially joined MyNetworkTV when that network launched on September 5.
On August 24, 2015, as part of a universal rebranding of WOIO (which concurrently rebranded under the "Cleveland 19" brand) and WUAB to abandon Raycom's "tabloid" reputation in the Cleveland market, channel 43 changed its branding to "CLE 43" (with "C-L-E" spelled out audibly). The station also replaced its logo made up of the MyNetworkTV default imaging and "The Block"-era script-texted "43", with a wordmark combined with an abstract "play button" design and basic 43 numeral taking its place.
Sale to Gray Television and CW affiliation.
On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, and Gray's 93 television stations) under Gray's corporate umbrella, in a cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion. Following completion of the deal, WOIO/WUAB would become Gray's largest television stations by market size, a title currently held by the company's Knoxville, Tennessee duopoly of CBS affiliate WVLT-TV and CW affiliate WBXX-TV. The sale was approved on December 20, and was completed on January 2, 2019.
On July 11, 2018, Raycom and CBS Corporation announced that they had signed a long-term deal to affiliate WUAB with The CW, replacing WBNX as that network's Cleveland affiliate after 12 years. On July 13, WUAB changed its on-air branding to "CW 43" and unveiled a CW-standardized station logo in preparation for the pending switch. Channel 43 formally became a CW affiliate on July 16 (with a rerun of "The Robert Irvine Show" which aired that afternoon being the first CW network program to air on WUAB); the station retained MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliation, continuing to air the service's programming late nights. Due to the channel sharing arrangement with WOIO, WUAB's main channel remains in 720p, below The CW's default 1080i resolution.
On January 29, 2019, WUAB dropped MyNetworkTV, with the service moving to sister station WOIO's second digital subchannel, airing late nights.
Digital television.
Digital channels.
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Subchannels.
WUAB-DT2.
In 2005, WUAB began carrying The Tube Music Network on digital subchannel 43.2; the network ceased operations on October 1, 2007. On April 1, 2009, WUAB began carrying This TV on 43.2. On January 3, 2012, WUAB moved This TV over to a newly activated 43.3 subchannel, while Bounce TV began to be carried on 43.2. WUAB's affiliation contract with This TV expired on March 26, 2012, and the network moved to WBNX on that station's 55.3 subchannel. Digital channel 43.3 (after displaying a message explaining the situation to viewers for several days) was deactivated on March 30, 2012.
On January 1, 2020, WUAB-DT2 briefly replaced Bounce TV with the new Gray-owned country lifestyle network Circle. Bounce returned to 43.2 13 days later, with Circle then going to 43.3.
WUAB-DT3.
In August 2014, the male-focused Grit network debuted on WUAB-DT2. As of mid-April 2017, that affiliation was duplicated by WEWS-DT2, and became exclusive to that station on January 5, 2018, just prior to WUAB's spectrum merger with WOIO. (In any case with the parent of WEWS, E. W. Scripps Company purchasing Grit's parent company, it was likely to move from WUAB at the end of the current carriage agreement).
In late 2019, WUAB-DT3 was reactivated, briefly airing Bounce TV, and then becoming home to Circle on January 13, 2020.
Analog-to-digital transition and spectrum incentive auction.
WUAB began broadcasting in the 720p high definition format after the station switched its affiliation from UPN to MyNetworkTV in September 2006. The 10 p.m. newscast airing on WUAB is also broadcast in 720p, even though WOIO itself produces its newscasts in the 1080i format commonly used by CBS affiliates.
WUAB shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 43, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 28. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 43.
WUAB sold its channel spectrum in the FCC reverse auction that ended in March 2017 for spectrum reallocation. WUAB and WUAB-DT2 now share WOIO's spectrum. The transition to the WOIO spectrum on physical channel 10 took place on January 8, 2018 at 2:01 a.m.
Programming.
In addition to carrying CW programming, syndicated programs broadcast by WUAB include "Maury", "The People's Court", "Modern Family", "Black-ish", "The Drew Barrymore Show", and "2 Broke Girls". Occasionally, WUAB may air CBS network programs whenever sister station WOIO is unable to in the event of extended breaking news or severe weather coverage, special programming, or other scheduling conflicts.
Sports programming.
Current.
WUAB has been the longtime "free TV" home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which first aired on the station from October 1980 to April 1988, and again since October 1994. Under the current deal with Fox Sports Ohio, Channel 43 simulcasts five Cavaliers regular season games, as well as select playoff games per year with the regional sports network, which serves as the Cavs' main television partner.
Past.
WUAB broadcast Cleveland Indians games from 1980 to 2001. Perhaps its most famous Indians telecast was that of Len Barker's perfect game on May 15, 1981.
Channel 43 at various points throughout the years also carried Cleveland Barons, Cleveland Crusaders, Cleveland Lumberjacks, and Cleveland Monsters hockey, Cleveland Gladiators arena football, and Cleveland Force indoor soccer games.
WUAB also previously carried ESPN Plus coverage of Ohio State Buckeyes football and basketball, and in 2010, SEC football and basketball games via ESPN's SEC Network. Since 2011, it has served as an affiliate for the Raycom-owned ACC Network (which became a pay-TV channel in August 2019).
In 2018, WUAB carried Cleveland State Vikings men's basketball games.
Newscasts.
Under Gaylord ownership, WUAB formed a news department. The station debuted an hour-long late evening newscast, "The Ten O'Clock News", on January 4, 1988. It was the second attempt at a primetime newscast in the Cleveland market following WKBF-TV's two-year effort in 1968. The original WUAB news team consisted of anchors Romona Robinson and Bob Hetherington, meteorologist Frank Cariello, and sports director Gib Shanley. After WJW-TV switched to Fox in 1994, WUAB's newscast gained a competitor as channel 8 had moved its late evening newscast from 11:00 to 10:00 p.m., and reformatted it as an hour-long program. On February 6, 1995, WUAB began producing two daily newscasts (an hour-long program at 6:00 p.m. and a 35-minute broadcast at 11:00 p.m.) for WOIO, in addition to their own 10:00 p.m. newscast under the unified brand "Cleveland Television News" (however, WOIO's newscasts were separately titled "19 News", while WUAB's prime time newscast continued to be titled "The Ten O'Clock News"). Although WOIO was the senior partner in the LMA, it did not have a news department prior to affiliating with CBS, and originally did not plan to have one until CBS informed the station that it preferred that WOIO carry local news programming.
WOIO now manages WUAB's news department, and produces the nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast under the title "Cleveland 19 News on 43". WOIO began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on October 21, 2007; the prime time newscast on WUAB was included in the upgrade. On May 16, 2011, WUAB debuted an hour-long weekday morning newscast airing from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m., as an extension of WOIO's "Cleveland 19 News This Morning".
On September 21, 2015, WUAB expanded its evening newscasts on weekdays into a 90-minute block from 9:00 to 10:30 p.m., with the addition of an hour-long newscast in the former timeslot; the existing 10:00 p.m. newscast was also reduced to a half-hour, with "Sports Extra" concurrently being moved to the 9:00 p.m. newscast. As a result of the expansion of its evening news programming, the station shifted the MyNetworkTV programming lineup out of prime time, moving it to late night hours.
As a consequence of WUAB becoming a CW affiliate, channel 43's evening news block was truncated to make room for the network's prime time schedule; the 9:00 p.m. weeknight newscast was discontinued, while its traditional 10:00 p.m. broadcast expanded back to one hour. The 7:00 a.m. newscast was also discontinued as a result of CW necessitated lineup shuffling, but a half-hour long 7:30 p.m. weeknight newscast was added in September 2018.
On September 14, 2020, an 11 a.m. weekday hour-long newscast was added.
Coverage in Canada.
The station is available over-the-air in Kingsville, Leamington, and Pelee Island in southern Essex County, Ontario, and was once listed in the "TV Guide"s for those communities (and Windsor, Ontario; though the station's signal was not strong enough to reach Windsor and Detroit). Unlike WKYC-TV, WEWS-TV, and WJW, it was not one of the Cleveland stations that was carried on local cable providers in those three locations. WUAB has been carried on cable channel 20 in London, Ontario since 1976, and is the only Cleveland station carried in London to this day.
On October 16, 2009, the "Windsor Star" had notified readers that digital subchannels of the Detroit and Toledo stations would be added, while the Cleveland stations (such as WKYC) and some Toledo stations would have to be dropped from the listings to make room for them, starting with the next issue of the "TV Times", released the next day. As a result, WUAB is the only Cleveland area station whose listings remain in the Windsor-area "TV Times".