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|---|---|
| City | Shaker Heights, Ohio |
| Channels | |
| Branding | 19 WOIO; 19 News |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | May 19, 1985 |
Former channel number(s) | Analog: 19 (UHF, 1985–2009) |
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Call sign meaning | "Ohio"[2] |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 39746 |
| ERP | 30 kW |
| HAAT | 333 m (1,093 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°22′45″N 81°43′11″W / 41.37917°N 81.71972°W |
| Translator(s) | see § Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
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 Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTCL-LD (channel 6) and Lorain-licensed CW affiliate WUAB (channel 43), the latter station transmitting over WOIO's full-power spectrum via a channel sharing agreement.[1] WOIO, WUAB and WTCL-LD share studios on the ground floor of the Reserve Square building in Downtown Cleveland, with WOIO and WUAB sharing 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 program inventory of long-established reruns that appealed to a younger audience. A charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company 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".
The May 1994 groupwide affiliation pact between WJW-TV owner New World Communications and Fox, along with the complex realignment of network affiliations that followed, resulted in WOIO becoming the market's new CBS affiliate, replacing WJW-TV in the role despite WOIO not having a news department. A local marketing agreement (LMA) between Malrite and WUAB owner Cannell Communications saw Malrite assume control of WUAB and using that station's existing news operation as the basis for newscasts on WOIO. 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.
Purchased by Raycom Media in 1998, 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 has revived some of the elements of Action News while repositioning the station's news department for non-linear over-the-top and mobile streaming. A third station in the Gray Cleveland cluster, WTCL-LD, was added in 2022, expanding WOIO's operations to a Spanish-language audience.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NewsJo19830610p38was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Facility Technical Data for WOIO". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.