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WUAB, identified on-air as "My43 The Block, WUAB", is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. The station is licensed to the suburb of Lorain, and it shares a studio in downtown Cleveland with sister station WOIO, Cleveland's CBS affiliate. Its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio. The station also serves as the default MNTV affiliate for Erie, Pennsylvania, and is available on most cable systems in northwest Pennsylvania (although WUAB is presently absent from Time Warner's City of Erie lineup).

Prior to 1995, WUAB was one of the leading independent stations in the country; it was Cleveland's UPN affiliate from 1995 to 2006. The station, along with WOIO, is currently owned by Raycom Media and are the largest stations in that group.

History[link]

Independent years[link]

WUAB had the humblest of beginnings. United Artists Broadcasting (owned by the studio with the same name, then a Transamerica property) was its original owner, bringing the station to life on September 15, 1968. Eddie Manheim of Marcus Advertising handled the first promotions for the station and the Cleveland billboards read "September 15th. Our First Date". It was the second commercial UHF station in the area; WKBF-TV had beaten it to the air by eight months. Its main studio was in a combination bowling alley kiddie's room and a trailer in a shopping center (Parmatown) in Parma, with sales offices in downtown Cleveland. WUAB quickly overcame a shaky start to become one of the country's top independent stations. The station's talents, such as Linn Sheldon (aka children's show host "Barnaby") and Marty Sullivan (aka Saturday afternoon movie host "Superhost"), had been polished TV personalities with experience on Cleveland's network affiliates, which gave the fledging station some early credibility.

Originally, WUAB's slogan was Channel 43 plays favorites. Most of these favorites were cartoons, syndicated off-network sitcoms, movies (most notably the long running afternoon Prize Movie and primetime Star Movie), and religious shows. WUAB broadcast these shows out of a new facility on Day Drive in suburban Parma, which opened on September 7, 1970. 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 from Paramount Pictures, a company which would figure somewhat in WUAB's later history) into the company fold. Both WUAB and WKBF struggled to be profitable, despite the deep pockets of both stations' owners (WKBF was owned by Kaiser Broadcasting). Both signed on every day at around 10 a.m. and went off the air by 1 a.m.

By September 2, 1974, WUAB had clearly established itself at 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. WUAB therefore acquired the programming rights to most of WKBF's stronger shows. WUAB now signed on at 6 a.m. and signed off long after midnight.

On September 6, 1977, Field Communications bought the rest of Kaiser's share in its television outlets. WUAB and KBSC in Los Angeles were not included in the sale. KBSC was sold to National Subscription TV while WUAB was sold (by both United Artists/Transamerica and Kaiser) to the Gaylord Broadcasting Company on September 6, 1977. 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 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 Western Ontario. The station disappeared from most cable systems outside Cleveland in the 1990s and is now no longer seen outside of Columbus, Erie, and Youngstown. In more recent times, the station was seen on cable as far south as New Castle, Pennsylvania (which is part of the Pittsburgh television market despite being considerably closer to Youngstown), and was the only such station from Cleveland in the city. This was the case until early 2008 when Comcast, which had acquired the handful of former Adelphia cable systems in the Pittsburgh market (including New Castle) to go along with its already-dominating presence in the area, removed it from their channel lineup after the station's local contract with Comcast expired. The station's former spot on Comcast channel 7 has yet to be replaced, though it is likely to be filled with either WYFX, WBCB, or MY-YTV (all from Youngstown), since none of them are currently on the channel lineups in the city.

WUAB remained Cleveland's leading independent station into the 1980s. Channel 61 returned to the air as WCLQ on March 3, 1981, but made no real headway against WUAB. On May 19, 1985, WOIO Channel 19 signed on with an entertainment format as well. WOIO and WUAB went head to head, with WCLQ lagging behind, and WBNX-TV 55 joining the competition on December 1, 1985. WCLQ bowed out of the competition in 1986 to become full time Home Shopping Network affiliate WQHS. WUAB turned down an affiliation with Fox on October 9, 1986, making it one of the few long-established major-market independents to do so. WOIO then signed on with Fox, and eventually overtook WUAB in the ratings.

On August 14, 1990, Gaylord sold WUAB to Cannell Broadcasting, headed by actor/director Stephen J. Cannell. Though the station performed adequately in the ratings under Cannell ownership, the company was unable to overtake WOIO. On September 5, 1994, Malrite Communications, owner of WOIO, signed a local marketing agreement with Cannell, and as a result, WOIO and WUAB became sister stations. WUAB was still technically owned by Cannell, but the station was now managed in tandem with WOIO. Both stations moved to a location at downtown Cleveland's Reserve Square.

By the time its days as an independent were coming to an end, WUAB was the Cleveland home of the various Star Trek series (Deep Space Nine was in production then) from Paramount Television, as well as an affiliate of the Action Pack (which aired on WUAB from 1994 until 1997) and Prime Time Entertainment Networks (which ended at the time WUAB dropped the WB).

UPN affiliation[link]

In 1994, WOIO became the market's CBS station after an affiliation swap with the area's longtime CBS affiliate, WJW, On September 5 of that year, Channel 19 moved most of its sitcoms and syndicated cartoons to WUAB, with Fox Kids moving to WBNX. WOIO also moved it's Cleveland Cavaliers telecasts over to channel 43 as well (channel 19 had originally signed the Cavs away from WUAB in 1987, but could no longer air the games due their new CBS affiliation).

Channel 43 ended its long run as an independent on January 14, 1995, when it became the market's affiliate for both the UPN and WB networks, with UPN - co-owned by Paramount (through its parent Viacom) which as mentioned above produced the Star Trek series - as the primary affiliation (UPN's first program was Star Trek: Voyager). At the time, Cleveland was one of the largest markets not to have separate WB and UPN affiliates. The dual-affiliation did not cause channel 43 any problems at first, as both networks only programmed a couple of nights a week. Current owner Raycom purchased Malrite in 1996.

On September 1, 1997, WUAB became solely affiliated with UPN, after The WB signed an affiliation deal with WBNX. When the Federal Communications Commission began allowing television duopolies in 2000, Raycom purchased channel 43 outright on May 10 of that year. WUAB dropped the bulk of its children's programming (beyond the FCC-required 3 hours of E/I-compliant programming) to carry more infomercials in 2003. As of 2010, WUAB offers advertisers more infomercials time slots than any other Cleveland area broadcaster; an average of 60 half hour infomercials per week. This fills a large part of WUAB's weekend dayparts and overnight schedules.

The Block[link]

With the loss of the Cleveland Indians broadcast contract for the spring of 2002, WUAB rebranded itself as "43 The Block". A local and national casting call for on air talent, as well as a hand drawn logo, helped define The Block as fun, new, accessable and irreverent. As a nod to a long history of fun local TV hosts ( such as Big Chuck and Little John ), The Block used hyper local topical humor to promote the station, syndicated programming and Cleveland. An aggressive schedule of interstitial video segments, starring local comedians, would draw viewers to second and third run syndicated comedies and talk shows. ( The very first "Block" segment consisted of the newly hired Block Hosts delivering a fruit basket to the Cleveland Indians Management to thank them for their roles in getting them a job. ) Cleveland comedian Mike Polk was among the first Block Hosts that contributed segment ideas and content.

In a major announcement, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced on January 24, 2006, that they would close their respective UPN and WB networks and jointly launch the CW Network on September 19, 2006. Shortly after the announcement of the CW Network, News Corporation announced that it would launch My Network TV for stations left out of the merger.

MyNetworkTV affiliation[link]

On March 7, 2006, six days after competitor WBNX gained the CW affiliation, WUAB was announced as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV, along with two other Raycom Media-owned stations.^[1] On July 14, 2006, WUAB began showing off its new logo "My 43" on air, as well as identifying as "My 43, WUAB" in its promos and legal ID. The station also temporarily shut down their webpage in anticipation of the launch of My Network TV. Occasionally as time now permits, WUAB may now carry CBS network programs should they be preempted by WOIO in the event of a special, a breaking news story or any other emergency.

In addition, it aired Game 4 of the 2008 National League Championship Series that aired on Fox nationwide. The reason was that local Fox affiliate WJW (which swapped affiliations with WOIO, as mentioned before, in 1994) aired a simulcast from ESPN's Monday Night Football game between the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants (the NFL's contract with ESPN requires coverage on a terrestrial television station in the media markets of the participating teams, usually, but not always, the affiliate of ESPN sister channel ABC, whose Cleveland affiliate is WEWS-TV).^[2] It was WUAB's first MLB telecast of any kind since losing the rights to the Indians. MyNetworkTV is under common ownership with the Fox network. On March 27, 2011, WUAB brought back the block branding and introduced a new programming schedule for the non-My Network TV hours.

On September 12, 2011, channel 43 carried live CBS coverage of the men's final of the 2011 U.S. Open tennis tournament. The match had been delayed one day due to inclement weather, and WOIO chose to slide the coverage over to WUAB due to the debut of Anderson Cooper's new daily syndicated talk show at 3 p.m., as well as their regularly scheduled 4 p.m. newscast.

Digital Television[link]

WUAB began broadcasting in the 720p format after their switch from UPN to My Network TV in September 2006. The newscast on WUAB is also 720p, even though the news on WOIO is 1080i. Up until October 1, 2007, The Tube Music Network was carried on DT-43.2. On that same day, the network ceased operations. On April 1, 2009, WUAB began airing This TV on 43.2.

On January 3, 2012, WUAB began airing Bounce TV on 43.2, sliding This TV over to the newly activated 43.3. WUAB's subchannels are not currently carried on all NE Ohio cable systems, and are available over-the-air. On March 26, 2012, WUAB's affiliation contract with This TV expired, and was acquired by WBNX (55.3). Channel 43.3 (after displaying a message explaining the situation to viewers for several days) was deactivated on March 30, 2012.

Sports programming[link]

Current[link]

WUAB has been the longtime "free TV" home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. which aired from October 1973 to April 1987, 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 FS Ohio, which is the Cavs' main TV partner. Beginning in 2008, WUAB became the over-the-air TV home of the Lake Erie Monsters hockey team, televising several contests per year. In 2011, WUAB began airing ACC football and men's basketball via the Raycom owned ACC Network.

Past[link]

As stated above, WUAB broadcast Cleveland Indians' games from 1980 through 2001. Perhaps its most famous Indians telecast was of that of Len Barker's perfect game on May 15, 1981. Channel 43 also at various points throughout the years carried Cleveland Barons hockey, Cleveland Crusaders hockey, Cleveland Lumberjacks hockey, and Cleveland Force indoor soccer. WUAB also previously carried ESPN Plus coverage of Ohio State football and basketball, and in 2010 carried SEC football and basketball via ESPN's SEC Network.

Newscasts[link]

WOIO & WUAB's studios in Downtown Cleveland.

WUAB debuted the "10 O'Clock News" on January 4, 1988. It was the second attempt at a prime time newscast in Cleveland following WKBF (channel 61)'s effort in 1968. The original WUAB news team consisted of anchors Romona Robinson and Bob Hetherington, Frank Cariello, and Gib Shanley. After WJW-TV switched to Fox in 1994, WUAB's newscast gained a competitor as WJW had started its own 10 p.m. newscast. On February 6, 1995, WUAB began producing two daily newscasts to be aired on WOIO in addition to their own 10 p.m. newscast under the moniker Cleveland Television News. Although WOIO was the senior partner in the LMA, it had no news department before becoming a CBS station.

WOIO now manages WUAB's news division, and produces the nightly 10 p.m. newscast under the title of 19 Action News at 10 HD. The newscast on WUAB began broadcasting in high definition on October 21, 2007. On May 16, 2011, WUAB debuted a morning newscast airing weekdays from 7-8 a.m. as an extension of 19 Action News This Morning on WOIO. All totaled, WUAB airs 12 hours a week of local newscasts (two hours each Monday-Friday, and one hour each on Saturday and Sunday)

News/Station presentation[link]

Newscast titles[link]

• The Ten O'Clock News (1988–1999)^[3]
• Cleveland Television News (1996–1999)^[4]
• Hometeam 43 News (1999–2002)^[5]
• 19 Action News (2002–present; was briefly 43 Action News)^[6]

Station slogans[link]

• "Channel 43 Plays Favorites" (late 1970s–1980)
• "The Gang's All Here on Channel 43" (1980–1986)
• "We've Got Your Fun!" (1997–1999)
• "Cleveland's Hometeam" (1999–2002)
• "Cleveland's Go-To Place for Everything" (2006–present)

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News team[link]

Current on-air staff[link]

The primary news anchors of WUAB's newcasts include Catherine Bosley and Brian Duffy weekday mornings, David Wittman and Tiffani Tucker weeknights, and Lydia Esparra weekends.^[7]

The station's weather team features Jason Handman weekday mornings, chief meteorologist Jeff Tancheck weeknights, Jon Loufman on Saturdays and Jenn Harcher on Sundays.

The sports team includes sports director Tony Zarella weeknights and Mark Schwab weekends.

For the complete news team, see the article for sister station WOIO.

Coverage in Canada[link]

The station is readily available over-the-air to Kingsville, Leamington, and Pelee Island in southern Essex County, Ontario, and was once listed in the TV Guides for those communities (and Windsor, Ontario; though the station's signal wasn't strong enough to reach Windsor and Detroit). Unlike WKYC-TV, WEWS-TV, and WJW, it was not one of the stations from Cleveland carried on local cable in those three locations. WUAB has been on cable channel 20 in London, Ontario since 1976. It is the only Cleveland station carried in London today.

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. The only Cleveland local station remaining in the Windsor-area TV Times is WUAB.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WUAB
• Bounce Cleveland