WOIO (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States, serving the Cleveland area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside WUAB (channel 43)—an independent station with MyNetworkTV—and two low-power stations: Telemundo affiliate WTCL-LD (channel 6) and WOHZ-CD (channel 22), both of which also serve as translators for WOIO. All four stations have studios on the ground floor of the Reserve Square building in Downtown Cleveland. WOIO shares full-power spectrum with WUAB via a channel sharing agreement; both stations have transmitter facilities in suburban Parma.
Established in 1985, WOIO's entry into the Cleveland market was the culmination of multiple failed attempts to sign on a station on channel 19 over the course of 34 years, four different construction permits and multiple contested bids. Owned initially by a consortium controlled by Hubert B. Payne, the first Black executive at a Cleveland television station, WOIO was sold to Malrite Communications, one of the partners in the consortium, in 1986 for a capital infusion. With studios at Shaker Square, WOIO operated with a minimum of local output but boasted a unique "nineteen" identity and irreverent on-air persona, along with a lineup of long-established reruns that appealed to a younger audience. A charter affiliate of Fox and the over-the-air home of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball and Cleveland Browns preseason games, WOIO thrived in competition against the market's established independent WUAB despite ongoing perceptions of being a "video jukebox". When WJW-TV owner New World Communications agreed to affiliate their station group with Fox in 1994, WOIO became the market's CBS affiliate, replacing WJW. Prior to the switch, Malrite took over WUAB via a local marketing agreement and used WUAB's news operation to develop local newscasts for WOIO, which launched in February 1995.
Despite lofty expectations by station management, WOIO's newscasts—rebranded several times and with frequent on- and off-air turnover—remained mired in last place in nearly every timeslot into the 2000s. The station was purchased by Raycom Media in 1998, and veteran executive Bill Applegate was named as WOIO-WUAB's general manager in 2001. Under Applegate, WOIO's news department was relaunched as 19 Action News, featuring a populist-leaning tabloid style with multiple controversial on-air talent hires and rating stunts. While 19 Action News proved successful in some timeslots, Applegate's immediate successors dropped the tabloid motif in 2015 in favor of the more traditional Cleveland 19 News. Following Gray Television's merger with Raycom, WOIO revived some elements of Action News while repositioning their news department for non-linear over-the-top and mobile streaming. In recent years, Gray has added WTCL, expanding WOIO's newscasts to a Spanish-language audience, and Rock Entertainment Sports Network, a joint venture between Gray and Rock Entertainment Group.
Previous applicants for channel 19 in Cleveland While WOIO's first broadcast occurred on May 19, 1985, channel 19 in Cleveland was one of several ultra high frequency (UHF) allotments created by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1952 following a complex realignment of future channel allocations, a process that took nearly five years. The combined Cleveland–Akron–Canton market already had three very high frequency (VHF) stations: WNBK, WEWS-TV and WXEL, as well as future UHF outlet WAKR-TV in Akron. Prior to the 1952 allotment table's release, the FCC designated channel 19 as Cleveland's lone UHF allotment, which WGAR, WERE, WHK and WJW—all radio stations that unsuccessfully filed for a VHF license—jointly protested against.
WHK owner United Broadcasting Company (the autonomous broadcast arm of the Forest City Publishing Company, parent of The Plain Dealer and the Cleveland News) applied with the FCC to construct a station on channel 19 on May 29, 1951, that would transmit in all-color; station president Harry K. Carpenter called the application a "new era" for WHK, the first commercially licensed radio station in Ohio. WJW also filed a bid for channel 19 but withdrew after determining it would not be economically feasible; WJW owner William O'Neill remarked, "I think I'd rather stay in the radio business and make a little money than go bankrupt with radio and TV". A construction permit was awarded to WHK on December 3, 1953, six months after WERE owner Cleveland Broadcasting was awarded a permit for a station on channel 65. WHK management aimed to sign on WHK-TV from their Euclid Ave. facilities, converted from a movie theater with the intent of housing a TV station, by August 1954. The proposed WHK-TV remained a permit, however, and when WHK and WHK-FM (100.7) were sold to DuMont Broadcasting in 1958, a deadline extension request for WHK-TV necessitated a hearing for the transaction by the FCC. Ultimately unbuilt, the permits for WHK-TV and WERE-TV were two of seven unbuilt UHFs in Ohio, and two of 54 nationwide, that the FCC cancelled on February 19, 1960.
Following the failure of the WHK permit, The Plain Dealer itself filed for an application on July 17, 1962, spurred by passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act, but withdrew their bid by that September, with publisher Thomas V. H. Vail citing the economic uncertainty of UHF. Community Telecasters of Cleveland Inc., led by attorney Charles W. Steadman, was the next to file on April 19, 1963, and was soon being joined by another attempt from Cleveland Broadcasting and WERE. Cleveland Broadcasting was awarded the permit on November 12, 1964, with president Ray T. Miller teasing the idea of their station as the flagship of a 40-station regional UHF network, and WERE host Bill Gordon was considered for a nightly talk show. Construction was delayed after Community Telecasters appealed the permit, which Cleveland Broadcasting eventually gave up in part due to Miller's 1966 death and the eventual sale of the company itself. Community Telecasters was awarded a permit of their own on May 22, 1968, dismissing a competing bid from WIXY-WDOK owner Westchester Corp. While the permit was assigned the call sign WCTF-TV, the construction process stalled with no indication of any potential sign-on date; by comparison, Kaiser Broadcasting signed on WKBF-TV and United Artists signed on WUAB within months of their respective permits being granted. Moreover, both stations were well-financed with existing program inventories whereas Community Telecasters was a local group with limited funds.
Joseph T. Zingale, a former partner in Westchester Corp., offered to purchase the channel 19 permit on August 23, 1972, for $300,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Zingale was an investor in several syndicates tied to his cousin Nick Mileti, including the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Crusaders, but Zingale said, "...that doesn't necessarily mean anything." He also held ownership stakes in the Richfield Coliseum and WWWE-WWWM parent Ohio Communications, both through Mileti, held a 2.36 percent stake in Westchester's successor, Globetrotter Communications and owned the World TeamTennis franchise Cleveland Nets. United Artists protested the sale, citing these varied ownership interests in multiple professional sports teams, four radio stations and a television station as "a dangerous concentration of power", which Zingale called "a delaying tactic". Retrospectively, Zingale later disclosed he intended on channel 19 being "a sports-oriented station". The FCC rejected United Artists' claims and approved the transfer on October 26, 1973, with Zingale planning to launch the station under the WZIN-TV calls "in about a year". Zingale rescinded the purchase in February 1974 due to a price dispute.
United Artists then offered to purchase the existing WCTF-TV permit for $250,000 (equivalent to $ in ) and concurrently applied to change WUAB's dial position from channel 43 to 19, both on January 7, 1975; WUAB manager Jack Moffitt claimed channel 19 would allow for upgraded reception in neighboring places like Lorain, Ohio, WUAB's city of license. By April, United Artists purchased WKBF-TV's non-license assets from Kaiser, which shut down that station after years of mounting financial losses. Zingale, however, renewed his intentions to secure the permit and filed a protest against the permit sale. An FCC review board refused to extend WCTF-TV's permit deadline in April 1976, effectively taking it away. Community Telecasters then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, which upheld the decision in May 1978.
History Application and construction
The failure to get the WCTF-TV permit built resulted in another bidding process. Cleveland Television Corp. (CTC) filed the initial bid on November 18, 1977; CTC was led by Augustus L. Harper of the Greater Cleveland Growth Organization, along with Aben E. Johnson Jr. and Clifford Beresh, president and sales manager for WXON in Detroit. Zingale told The Plain Dealer four days later, "at the appropriate time, Zingale Broadcasting Co. will file for and aggressively seek Channel 19." WUAB, now owned by Gaylord Broadcasting, also filed a bid, which if granted would result in their existing channel 43 license being returned to the FCC. A third applicant, Channel 19 Inc. was a joint venture of three broadcast groups: Diamond Broadcasting, led by Hubert B. Payne and William Derrick; Malrite Communications executives Milton Maltz, Carl Hirsch and John Wilson; and Metroplex Communications, headed by Norman Wain and Robert Weiss. Malrite purchased WHK and WMMS in 1971, Wain and Weiss had previously been partners with Zingale in Westchester Corp., while Hubert B. Payne was the sales manager for WKYC-TV, the first African-American executive for a local network affiliate.
All three groups submitted their bids prior to the FCC's deadline of July 6, 1978, but Zingale ultimately declined to file a bid. Citing changes to his personal life and changing conditions in the Cleveland market, Zingale said, "I wish my ex-partners (Wain and Weiss) luck—they'll need it." The structure of the bid had Malrite's Maltz, Hirsch and Wilson directly owning preferred non-voting stock and supplying one-third of the capital equity; voting interest was evenly split between Metroplex and Diamond under an FCC waiver for broadcasters that provided substantial financing for a minority-controlled station. Channel 19 Inc.'s application requested the city of license be assigned to Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, while Gaylord and CTC requested the station be licensed to Cleveland. An administrative law judge recommended the permit be given to Channel 19 Inc. over CTC on April 12, 1982. The FCC's legal review board upheld the judge's decision on October 15, noting Channel 19 Inc. planned to put all common stock owners in management unlike CTC. After a further round of appeals by CTC, the FCC unanimously awarded the permit and license to Channel 19 Inc. in May 1983. Even as the group still needed to secure a transmitter tower and studios, the station planned to bear the WOIO call sign, standing for "Ohio". Along with Payne becoming the first Black to own and manage a Cleveland television station, it was also the first television station owned by people who were either lifelong residents of the region or, in Payne's words, "adopted the city as their home".