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Can you believe it's been 30 years?

V

vjm

Believe it or not, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the great network swap between WJW TV 8 and WOIO channel 19, where they flip-flopped CBS and Fox.

19 has been affiliated with CBS nearly 4 times as long as they were with Fox (30 years to 8).

Let's see...when the networks switched...

LeBron James, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, Joe Flacco, and Vivek Ramaswamy were in 4th grade
Mayor Justin Bibb was in 1st grade
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were in preschool
Myles Garrett wasn't even a twinkle in anybody's eye
The Modell era Browns were still playing at the old stadium
The Cavs had not yet played a game in the brand new Gund Arena
There were no such things as Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Jacksonville Jaguars or Carolina Panthers
There was no Rock Hall, Science Center, Casino, or Carl Stokes Federal Courthouse
Bill Clinton had not yet met Monica Lewinsky
Donald Trump was married to Marla Maples
Joe Biden was merely in his 4th term as a senator
"Friends" was just about to debut on NBC
The internet, iPhones, Uber, and Door Dash weren't things
AM 1100 was still 3WE (and some guy named Mike Trivisonno had just started)
Channel 23 was still an ABC affiliate as WAKC
WWE was still WWF
 
Just reminds me how much I miss. "Fox nineteen" and it being billed as "Your Summer Vacation Station".

Not to mention Channel 8 seemed like a more fitting CBS affiliate in the day. Especially with the more straight laced, "let's just tell the news, weather and sports" newscasts.

Times change. I remember wishing for a sixth local channel. (Pre WCLQ/Post WKBF). Now between cable, low power and digital sub-channels, there is actually much less to watch based on content.
 
vjm said:
Believe it or not, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the great network swap between WJW TV 8 and WOIO channel 19, where they flip-flopped CBS and Fox.

19 has been affiliated with CBS nearly 4 times as long as they were with Fox (30 years to 8).

Let's see...when the networks switched...

LeBron James, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga, Joe Flacco, and Vivek Ramaswamy were in 4th grade
Mayor Justin Bibb was in 1st grade
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were in preschool
Myles Garrett wasn't even a twinkle in anybody's eye
The Modell era Browns were still playing at the old stadium
The Cavs had not yet played a game in the brand new Gund Arena
There were no such things as Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Jacksonville Jaguars or Carolina Panthers
There was no Rock Hall, Science Center, Casino, or Carl Stokes Federal Courthouse
Bill Clinton had not yet met Monica Lewinsky
Donald Trump was married to Marla Maples
Joe Biden was merely in his 4th term as a senator
"Friends" was just about to debut on NBC
The internet, iPhones, Uber, and Door Dash weren't things
AM 1100 was still 3WE (and some guy named Mike Trivisonno had just started)
Channel 23 was still an ABC affiliate as WAKC
WWE was still WWF
Click to expand...
Wow! Those where some fun facts. I just started kindergarten when the switch occurred.
 
Evidently, CBS was not too thrilled with being bumped to UHF with channel 19, so they approached Channel 5 to switch to CBS. ABC got wind of it, and Channel 5 kept ABC in the end. Of course, the whole VHF/UHF thing does not matter anymore since the all-digital switch in 2009.
 
radiofollower said:
Evidently, CBS was not too thrilled with being bumped to UHF with channel 19, so they approached Channel 5 to switch to CBS. ABC got wind of it, and Channel 5 kept ABC in the end.
Click to expand...
Not only that, Scripps used the CBS talks (which also had CBS take a stake in HGTV) to pressure ABC to affiliate two of their soon-to-be Fox affiliates in Phoenix and Tampa with ABC, along with their NBC affiliate in Baltimore. That set off a massive domino effect that ultimately saw Westinghouse buy a decimated CBS.

WOIO largely got CBS because of the strength of Milton Maltz's presentation to the network brass. That Malrite was already deep in talks to take over WUAB by an LMA was almost coincidental.
radiofollower said:
Of course, the whole VHF/UHF thing does not matter anymore since the all-digital switch in 2009.
Click to expand...
Multiplexing also made it easier for one station to hold multiple Big Four affiliations. WLIO in Lima has all four networks and WHIZ in Zanesville now has NBC and Fox. Even KXGN in Glendive, Montana, has both CBS and NBC.
 
Right before the announcement of the switch to Fox, Wilma Smith, Lou Maglio and David Moss had all stated at WJW after spending years at WEWS. News of those three joining TV8 was the biggest of the year and in the market, especially with Smith. All three were a part of First Look, the revamped 5pm newscast on 8.

Maglio was also a part of Good Day Cleveland, which was the local replacement for CBS This Morning. Smith would soon co-anchor the 10pm newscast, which moves from 11pm due to the switch.

WEWS responded to Smith leaving by naming Lee Jordan as Live on Five co-anchor, and Lorna Barrett as 11pm co-anchor in addition to the 6pm newscast. Connie Dieken would leave WKYC to replace Jordan as Morning Exchange co-host. MX would soon move to 9am after years at 8am.

WOIO would get into the local news business after the switch to CBS, along with becoming sister stations with WUAB. 19 would hire Denise Dufala away from 8 to anchor the 6pm and 11pm newscasts. 43 would also get a lot of 19's stronger syndicated programming (43 was also managed by 19's owner Malrite). 43 would later affiliate with both the United Paramount Network (UPN) and the Warner Bros. Television Network (the WB).

While Fox primetime and Sports went to 8, Fox Kids went to WBNX, which became a real player soon after in Cleveland.

WEWS became #1 in the market right after the switch, WKYC became stronger in the ratings, WJW would struggle shortly afterwards for a while, and WOIO would become the new laughingstock in the market. WUAB ended up playing second fiddle to 8.
 
MediaLover said:
Right before the announcement of the switch to Fox, Wilma Smith, Lou Maglio and David Moss had all stated at WJW after spending years at WEWS. News of those three joining TV8 was the biggest of the year and in the market, especially with Smith. All three were a part of First Look, the revamped 5pm newscast on 8.
Click to expand...
Lou and Mossman are still there 30 years later, while Wilma ended her 19 year stint in 2013
MediaLover said:
WEWS responded to Smith leaving by naming Lee Jordan as Live on Five co-anchor, and Lorna Barrett as 11pm co-anchor in addition to the 6pm newscast. Connie Dieken would leave WKYC to replace Jordan as Morning Exchange co-host. MX would soon move to 9am after years at 8am.
Click to expand...
MX moved so TV 5 could finally air Good Morning America in full, and the move to a later time would soon be MX's undoing.
MediaLover said:
43 would also get a lot of 19's stronger syndicated programming (43 was also managed by 19's owner Malrite). 43 would later affiliate with both the United Paramount Network (UPN) and the Warner Bros. Television Network (the WB).

While Fox primetime and Sports went to 8, Fox Kids went to WBNX, which became a real player soon after in Cleveland.
Click to expand...
43 couldn't take everything, and 55 had all the room in the world to pick up the extra goodies, thus it helped them get their foot in the door to be viewed as a legit player in the market, eventually snagging the WB from channel 43 (when UPN and WB got too big for one station to have both) and overtaking them in the ratings, which helped them snag the CW when UPN ad WB merged, leaving 43 with the consolation prize of My Network TV (which is currently buried late nights on WOIO 19.2).

Of course the CW would eventually migrate over to WUAB, leaving TV 55 where they were when this whole thing started - as an independent.
 
vjm said:
Lou and Mossman are still there 30 years later, while Wilma ended her 19 year stint in 2013
Click to expand...
It's fascinating that David Moss has basically reinvented and asserted himself as a host in the mold of Fred Griffith with New Day Cleveland.
 
Well it was a New World Broadcasting deal with Fox that got WAGA, KDFW, KTSP/KSAZ, KTVI, WJBK, WDAF to all remove all of their other affiliations like CBS most notably and switch them to Fox and yes the biggest one at that time was the NFL deal that Fox signed at that time that made the network open their sports division.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Well it was a New World Broadcasting deal with Fox that got WAGA, KDFW, KTSP/KSAZ, KTVI, WJBK, WDAF to all remove all of their other affiliations like CBS most notably and switch them to Fox and yes the biggest one at that time was the NFL deal that Fox signed at that time that made the network open their sports division.
Click to expand...
It was the perfect storm of a deal. New World was a company that was bullish and bought the former Storer group (including WJW), just as bullish and aggressive as Fox was in trying to upgrade their affiliate base.
 
vjm said:
The internet...
Click to expand...
Al Gore had "invented" the Internet (sponsored the bill that opened it to the public) in 1992. Its predecessor, the ARPAnet (1968-1990) and other associated technologies were developed many years earlier.

Microsoft Windows was still a GUI that ran on top of MS-DOS. IIRC, Windows 3.1 was the latest and greatest at the time.
vjm said:
iPhones...
Click to expand...
Smartphones didn't exist yet, but cellphones and the sites that they connected to had been around commercially since the early '80s, and had been invented in 1973. But it took a very large shirt pocket to fit a 1994 cellphone inside. :LOL:
vjm said:
Uber, and Door Dash weren't things
Click to expand...
HDTV was still being developed, and wouldn't be tested on-air for another couple of years.
 
KeithE4 said:
Smartphones didn't exist yet, but cellphones and the sites that they connected to had been around commercially since the early '80s, and had been invented in 1973. But it took a very large shirt pocket to fit a 1994 cellphone inside. :LOL:
Click to expand...

You ever see a late 80s or early 90s TV show where someone had a cellphone?

Those things were bigger than bricks
 
skiwest said:
I should have bought a few thousand shares of Microsoft, Apple, Intel and a few other tech stocks back then.
Click to expand...
Given how unmoored Apple had become in the early 1990s, if anyone was told back then to invest in their stock, they'd have died of laughter.
 
CBS insisted that WOIO establish a full news department and news schedule when 19 got the affiliation.
Ironically, in Detroit when Fox bought WJBK, CBS bought WGPR 62 as an O&O to air its shows and didn't have any local news until recently.
I had one of those Motorola walkie talkie sized cell phones in 1995. I have the same cellular one phone number to this day.
 


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