User:Nathan Obral/WJW

WJW (channel 8) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, WJW maintains studios on Dick Goddard Way (named for the station's late longtime weatherman—previously known as South Marginal Road) just northeast of downtown Cleveland near the shore of Lake Erie, and its transmitter is located in the Cleveland suburb of Parma, Ohio.

WJW was the third television station to sign on in Cleveland as WXEL on channel 9, the first station to be built by Herbert F. Mayer, founder of the Empire Coil Company. WXEL's debut took place on December 17, 1949, two years to the date of WEWS-TV's sign-on. Initially a DuMont affiliate with select ABC and CBS programs, WXEL placed an emphasis on locally-produced programming, originally from their studios and transmitter site in Parma, then at a renovated former movie theatre in Playhouse Square. Mayer's attempt to build UHF stations in Portland, Oregon, and Kansas City succeeded in the former and failed in the latter, prompting the sale of Empire Coil—including WXEL—to Storer Broadcasting in January 1954, weeks after WXEL moved to channel 8. Storer purchased WJW radio later in 1954, then secured the CBS affiliation for WXEL in March 1955. After WXEL's downtown studios were renovated into a colonial-style building for radio and television, WXEL was renamed WJW-TV.

The station was an early career stepping stone for announcer Ernie Anderson and comedian Tim Conway, who co-hosted the late-morning movie in late 1961, only to end after Conway's discovery by Rose Marie. From 1963 to 1966, Anderson portrayed horror host Ghoulardi, arguably the most popular program in the station's history with a lasting cultural influence.

Following the privatization of Storer Broadcasting in 1985, WJW has had a succession of owners. After a failed sale to Lorimar-Telepictures, businessman George N. Gillett Jr. bought the Storer chain, but lost the stations in a bankruptcy brought on by soured junk bond investments. New World Communications, headed by Ronald Perelman, purchased WJW and the Gillett group amidst a flurry of purchases across the country. New World then announced a group-wide affiliation pact with Fox on May 23, 1994, after the network invested $500 million into the company; WJW was the first of these stations to switch to Fox. While initially struggling to adjust to the new Fox affiliation, WJW's ratings recovered substantially, particularly after the network bought WJW and the other New World stations in late 1996. Since Fox sold the station in 2008, WJW has been owned by Local TV LLC, Tribune Broadcasting and Nexstar.

Signing on at WXEL, channel 9
A practicing lawyer in New York City, Herbert F. Mayer became intrigued by television and left the profession in 1944 to establish the Empire Coil Company in New Rochelle, New York, making coils for the war effort. As World War II ended, the company's factory was converted to manufacture transformers and RF coils for television sets. Seeking to expand into broadcasting, Empire Coil applied with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a television station on channel 9 in Cleveland on September 27, 1947. Empire's channel 9 application was one of two additional channels proposed for Cleveland, joining Scripps-Howard's WEWS-TV (channel 5) and NBC-owned WNBK (channel 4); five applicants sought the other channel, including the DuMont Television Network and radio stations WHK, WJW and WGAR. The FCC granted the construction permit for Empire on October 30, 1947; land for the station's studios and transmitter site were secured on a knoll on Pleasant Valley Road in Parma, 617 ft above sea level and thought to be among the highest elevations in Cuyahoga County.

The FCC implemented a "freeze" on issuing any additional television licenses in September 1948 that consequently delayed WXEL's launch by several months. While it was hoped WXEL could transmit test patterns by May 1949, the channel number was now in doubt: Cleveland was originally allocated channels on 2, 4, 5, 7 and 9, but earlier in 1948, FCC and Canadian regulators proposed moving channel 7 to Akron in exchange for channel 11, and moving channel 9 to Canton, Ohio. By April 1949, this was altered to have channel 9 moved to Canada. WXEL thus was unable to complete installation of equipment with their channel number being in limbo. The FCC revised the allotment table by July 1949, adding two additional UHF channels to Cleveland. WXEL remained on channel 9.

WXEL initially had not decided on a primary affiliation and considered having links to multiple networks, similar to how WEWS carried shows from DuMont, CBS and ABC. Russell F. Spiers, one of Herbert Mayer's former professors at Colgate University, was hired as WXEL's program director and had living quarters at the station's Parma facilities. By October, WXEL set a tentative launch date for December 17, and signed up as a primary DuMont affiliate along with ABC and CBS shows WEWS did not carry and shows from the Paramount Television Network. Regular programming actually began during their testing phase on November 28, 1949, when engineers screened DuMont's Captain Video and His Video Rangers on a nightly basis at 7 p.m. The first night of programming on December 17, 1947, was mostly impromptu with DuMont star Morey Amsterdam serving as emcee; during his remarks, Amsterdam repeatedly transposed the call sign by accident as "WEXL".

A phased expansion of WXEL's facilities was launched under Empire in 1951: the Pleasant Valley Road studio/transmitter building was first quadrupled in size, followed by a long-term lease signed with the Esquire Theatre building on Euclid Avenue, a former movie theater in the city's Playhouse Square district that closed earlier in the year due to competition from television. While the renovated Esquire was regarded as "Studio D", this facility became WXEL's main studio, supplanting the Parma plant.

Changes to channel 8, Storer and CBS as WJW-TV
In the span of 2 years, 4 months, 7 days, every aspect of the station—the channel number, ownership, network affiliation and the call sign—changed. The first change occurred at midnight on December 10, 1953, when WXEL moved from channel 9 to 8. The switchover was dictated by the FCC in their 1952 Sixth Report and Order and also affected WNBK, which needed to move to channel 3. WXEL's move was necessary in order for WSTV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio, to sign on at channel 9, and enabled WXEL to construct a taller tower with an increase in power.

Empire began to expand after the FCC's "freeze" was lifted. KPTV (channel 27) in Portland, Oregon, debuted in 1952 as the first commercial UHF station authorized by the agency. An additional station, KCTY (channel 25) in Kansas City, Missouri, signed on the following year, and Empire sought UHF permits in Indianapolis and Denver. KCTY's existence was short as two VHF competitors took to the air several months later, leaving KCTY as a sole DuMont affiliate. This, plus a reluctance by the Kansas City market to purchase UHF converters, resulted in a nearly $750,000 loss for Empire. On December 31, 1953, Empire sold KCTY to DuMont for $1: the low sale price reflected Mayer's wishes to dispose of the station but reluctance to take it dark. Days later, Empire Coil was sold to Storer Broadcasting for $8.5 million, including WXEL, KPTV and the New Rochelle factory; the sale was attributed to KCTY's financial failure and a decline in Empire's coil manufacturing business.

Approval was contingent on Storer selling off KGBS and KGBS-TV, along with the FCC revising ownership limits so a company could own seven television stations, five on VHF; the latter took place in late September. Prior to consummation, Storer purchased WJW for $330,000 on October 8, 1954. This paired WJW with a television station. After the FCC removed Cleveland's fourth VHF allocation, WJW filed for a UHF license on channel 19, but withdrew after determining it was not economically viable. Company president George B. Storer regarded Cleveland as "such a swell market" when explaining the two purchases, but family ties to the city also existed: a street in the city was named after his great-grandfather, and an ancestor was the first child born in the Connecticut Western Reserve.

Storer's entry into Cleveland immediately set off speculation over a new network affiliation for WXEL, which was now primarily an ABC affiliate with select DuMont programs. Indeed, an affiliation swap was announced between WXEL and WEWS in early December 1954, with WXEL becoming a primary CBS station; in what was regarded as an industry surprise, WGAR renewed their CBS contract, and WJW remained with ABC. WXEL joined CBS on March 2, 1955.

WXEL's Euclid Avenue studios were tagged for renovation under Storer in a combined facility for it and WJW. A colonial design was chosen as it contrasted significantly from the buildings that surrounded it. The interior evoked 1770-era Georgian architecture, accommodating up to 40 different studios for both radio and television. A cupola added to the top drew comparison to Independence Hall, and a greenhouse was built facing the general manager's office. The grand opening for the facility coincided with WXEL's renaming to WJW-TV on April 15, 1956; the call sign change and building's dedication was telecast live, including a flyover by the Ohio Air National Guard and Cleveland mayor Anthony Celebrezze proclaiming "WJW Week" for the city. Mayer intended to reuse the WXEL call sign for a planned UHF station in Boston. The colonial architecture and façade would soon be implemented at other Storer stations including WGBS in Miami and WJBK-TV's studio building in Detroit.

Ernie Anderson and Ghoulardi
A former announcer at WHK and KYW-TV, Ernie Anderson joined WJW-TV on July 17, 1961, as host of Ernie's Place, a late-morning movie interlaced with comedy skits. Tom Conway, a former KYW copywriter, personality, and collaborator with Anderson on commercials, was named as co-host. Conway was hired at WJW on recommendation from Anderson, who falsely claimed he had television director experience; Charles Schodowski, another former KYW staffer now at WJW, was asked by Anderson to do Conway's job. The program ended after Rose Marie, who visited the station as part of a CBS promotional junket among the affiliates, sent tapes of the duo's material to Steve Allen, who hired Conway for his talk show. When cast in McHale's Navy, Tom Conway assumed the stage name Tim. Still under contract at WJW, Anderson focused on voiceover duties, becoming a pitchman for Millbrook Bread and Ohio Bell.

When WJW acquired the local rights to the Shock Theater library, Anderson was tabbed as host of Ghoulardi under the belief an offbeat gimmick would make people overlook the poor quality of the movies. Debuting on January 18, 1963, Anderson's portrayal of Ghoulardi—wearing a white fright wig, fake Van Dyke beard and lab coat with a beatnik dialect and anarchist demeanor—attracted largely negative critical reviews  but quickly became a ratings success and cult favorite, particularly among young children despite the late-night timeslot. At its peak, the show commanded 70 percent of the late-night audience, and the Cleveland Police Department reported a 35 percent decrease in juvenile crime. Anderson started to utilize Schodowski in comedy skits, including a controversial spoof of Peyton Place called Parma Place that played to stereotypes in the suburb's Polish American community. A traveling intramural sports team, the "Ghoulardi All-Stars", was organized that frequently played against area professional athletes, first responders and talent from rival stations, all for charity. In addition to the Ghoulardi persona, Anderson hosted weather reports during WJW's early-evening newscasts. Anderson starred in a half-hour comedy special in October 1965 that drew praise from Plain Dealer critic James Flanigan, who also said it was "in spite" of Ghoulardi.

After nearly four years portraying Ghoulardi, Anderson resigned from the station in mid-November 1966. Anderson had earlier taken a leave of absence from regular tapings to guest in Rango, also starring Conway, and grew tired of the character amid overtures from Conway and Jack Riley to move to Hollywood. Anderson later gave former fanatic-turned-gofer Ron Sweed permission to portray the character as spiritual successor The Ghoul. Rock bands Pere Ubu, Devo and The Cramps, along with singer Chrissie Hynde, comedian Drew Carey and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, have all cited Ghoulardi as a direct inspiration.

Dick Goddard
Dick Goddard began his on-air meteorological career in May 1961 at KYW-TV. A complicated FCC order in June 1965 had KYW-TV become WKYC due to a voided 1956 asset swap between NBC and Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) for stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia; this resulted in Goddard, under contract to Group W, relocating to Philadelphia and joining the renamed KYW-TV there. Unhappy in Philadelphia, Goddard left Group W after several weeks and was courted by WKYC, WEWS and WJW. Goddard chose WJW as it carried Browns games thanks to CBS's NFL contract; Goddard was the statistician for Browns radio broadcasts from 1966 to 2011. Ernie Anderson famously claimed he helped lure Goddard to WJW on an "athletic scholarship" for the "Ghoulardi All-Stars", which Goddard also played for. While signing a contract on September 3, 1965, Goddard did not debut until March 28, 1966, due to a non-compete clause with Group W. Goddard also did weather reports for WJW radio.

Goddard remained the station's chief meteorologist until retiring on November 22, 2016. His retirement came several months after Goddard's Law, which increased the severity of penalties for animal abuse and cruelty, passed the Ohio General Assembly and was signed into law by Ohio governor John Kasich; Goddard publicly advocated for animal welfare throughout his career and frequently spotlighted pets at animal shelters that needed adoption during his weather forecasts. WJW's weather center was renamed for Goddard upon his retirement, as was the street facing the station's current studios. His 51-year tenure at the station (including the interregnum between his contract signing and on-air debut) has been recognized as a Guinness World Record.

In 1973, Goddard started the Woollybear Festival, a day-long festival and parade in Birmingham, Ohio, devoted to the woolly bear caterpillar and traditional weather folklore. The festival grew in size and eventually overwhelmed the town by the early 1980s, when it moved to Vermilion, which hosts up to 100,000 in attendance every year. WJW continues to be the title sponsor for the Woollybear Festival into the present day.

Hoolihan, Big Chuck and Lil' John
After Ernie Anderson's resignation from the station, channel 8 conducted an open audition for the Friday night horror host role. Bob Wells, known as "Hoolihan the Weatherman", tried out for the role with Charles Schodowski's involvement; management paired them as a team to be Ghoulardi's successors, Hoolihan and Big Chuck, in December 1966. Schodowski, who was convinced the pairing was a mistake,

Originally retaining the prior show's format of lighting off fireworks, comedy skits and mock music videos to novelty songs, the duo began focusing on comedy slapstick skits. The show had multiple time slot changes: originally on Friday late nights, it was moved to Saturday afternoons, then back to Friday, then to late afternoons when CBS launched The Merv Griffin Show in late night. After WJW moved Merv Griffin to late afternoons—being one of several CBS affiliates to do so—Wells and Schodowski were moved back to Friday nights.

Wells became a Born again in 1976, and joined WSUM—an area Christian radio station—as general manager, but downplayed his involvement as a horror host, telling the Plain Dealer, "[t]he TV program is intended to be entertainment ... I don't believe having fun is anti-Christian." When Wells left the show in August 1979 to become program director and talk show host at WCLF, an upstart Christian TV station in Clearwater, Florida; Schodowski selected "Lil' John" Rinaldi, involved with the show since 1972 in skits and known for his short stature, as Wells's successor. Relaunched on September 2, 1979, as Big Chuck and Lil' John, the program ran for another 28 years over channel 8 until Schodowski's 2007 retirement, best remembered for the duo's working-class sensibilities and relatable, low-budget humor.

Since 2011, the station has aired half-hour Big Chuck and Lil' John skit compilations shows on the weekends.

KKR buyout, attempted sale to Lorimar
Storer Communications was taken private in a $1.6 billion leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), a merchant banker. Completed in December 1985, the buyout was engineered to thwart a hostile takeover by Comcast and an attempted liquidation by dissatisfied shareholders. KKR purchased Wometco Enterprises the previous year after succession plan was found following the death of chairman Mitchell Wolfson, and began the process of dismantling the conglomerate. Wometco already owned several television stations in markets where Storer owned cable systems including WTVJ in Miami, and owned a cable system in Atlanta where Storer owned WAGA-TV; the FCC's approval was conditional on KKR divesting in these overlapping markets.

KKR originally planned to sell WTVJ but soon entertained offers for some of the Storer stations. On May 21, 1986, Lorimar-Telepictures, producer of Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest for CBS, agreed to purchase WTVJ, Storer's stations, production company, advertising sales division and Washington news bureau for $1.85 billion, with WTVJ commanding $405 million. This deal collapsed by late October 1986 when Lorimar asked to exclude WTVJ from the deal, initially attributed to issues financing the deal and reduced cash flow estimates for WTVJ that would have made it impossible to cover interest serviced on $2 billion in high-yield bonds raised by Adelson. It was later revealed that CBS president Laurence Tisch threatened to disaffiliate all of the CBS affiliates, including WJW, after objecting to Lorimar purchasing a significant portion of the affiliate base. WTVJ was put up for sale again separately by KKR, and was instead sold to NBC on January 16, 1987.

George Gillett ownership and bankruptcy
In 1987, George N. Gillett Jr. acquired the Storer stations using KKR junk bonds after the FCC lifted restrictions on ownership. Gillett's existing station group was subsequently spun off to Busse Broadcasting, a company formed by Gillett employees. Gillett's broadcasting division, then known as GCI Broadcast Services, Inc., restructured into SCI Television in 1991 after defaulting on some of its financing agreements. The renamed SCI ran into severe financial problems and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 1992.

Sale to New World Communications
On February 17, 1993, investor Ronald Perelman purchased SCI Television from Gillett, including WJW-TV; WTVT in Tampa, also held by Gillett, was included in the transaction. SCI was folded into Perelman's New World Entertainment. After purchasing a stake in Genesis Entertainment via Four Star Television and directly purchasing infomercial producer Guthy-Renker, the company was renamed New World Communications.

New World and the switch to Fox
On May 23, 1994, Fox parent News Corporation announced the purchase of a 20 percent stake in New World Communications, an investment of $500 million. The deal included a groupwide multi-year affiliation agreement that had the majority of stations owned by—or in the process of being acquired by—New World, switch network affiliations to Fox after existing contracts expired per-station. News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch called the agreement "the largest network affiliation realignment in television history" and said it would "forever change the competitive landscape of network television". WJW's inclusion in the deal meant that their CBS affiliation would end after 39 years. This came after Fox outbid CBS for broadcast rights to the National Football Conference several months earlier, and sought to upgrade their affiliate base.

Dominic was notified of the deal days in advance and sworn to secrecy; he later told the Plain Dealer, "My mouth fell to my knees. There was five or six seconds of absolute silence after [New World stations president Bob Selwyn] told me. It really was a shock." WJW was the first of these stations to switch to Fox on September 3, 1994, with outgoing Fox affiliate WOIO joining CBS; Fox Kids went from WOIO to WBNX-TV. With the switch, WJW-TV hired multiple personnel and added a local morning show, giving it the largest news staff and news output of any Ohio television station, but notably eschewed directly marketing their incoming Fox affiliation, something Dominic publicly resisted the idea of. WJW's switch came with three months notice and altered more than 20 hours of programming per day, or 87 percent of the schedule. Ratings declined in all time slots but especially fell by half for the late-evening news after moving from 11 p.m.—a time slot WJW had won in since 1981—to 10 p.m., but still topped WUAB's newscast. WJW's morning show also failed to retain the audience of its lead-in 6 a.m. news.

Dominic retired in May 1995: while highly regarded for his stewardship of WJW, he was also seen as "avuncular" as the station struggled to maintain their prior news presentation more befitting of a CBS affiliation, a problem encountered by the rest of the New World stations. Selwyn later said WJW "had the farthest to fall" because it had been so closely tied to CBS. Fox Entertainment president John Matoian said the network was looking at broadening their programming beyond their original target 18–34 demographic, prompted largely by the reluctance of newer affiliates like WJW to identify with Fox. Dominic was replaced by KNXV general manager Bob Rowe; under Rowe, the station rebranded to "Fox is Ei8ht" / "Ei8ht is News" in November 1995, a slogan derided among viewers for its continuous on-air repetition. The morning newscasts were retooled into a three-hour program and had its audience double year-over-year during the first month, while WJW saw ratings increases in several dayparts.

Fox ownership
Fox's purchase of New World resulted in WJW rebranding as "Fox 8" in August 1996. By 1998, WJW was beating WUAB at 10 p.m. by a 2–1 margin and in 2000 was ranked first sign-on to sign-off in multiple key demographics, besting WEWS.

Local TV, Tribune and Nexstar ownership
On December 22, 2007, Fox sold WJW and seven other stations to Local TV for $1.1 billion; the sale was finalized on July 14, 2008. During Local TV ownership, WJW's analog signal was shut down on June 12, 2009, as part of the transition from analog to digital television; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 31 to VHF channel 8. Swoboda left the station in January 2011 after disagreeing over the inclusion of sponsored segments; The Robin Swoboda Show was replaced with New Day Cleveland, an infotainment program hosted by David Moss, and has remained on the lineup into the present day. Tribune Broadcasting acquired Local TV on July 1, 2013, for $2.75 billion. News expansion furthered under Local TV and Tribune, including weekend morning news in 2011 and a 4 p.m. newscast in 2013. After being rescued from years of captivity by Ariel Castro in 2013, Amanda Berry joined WJW in 2017 to host regular missing person segments.

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced a $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Broadcasting on May 8, 2017. The deal raised concerns over the future of WJW's newscasts due to Sinclair's track record of undermining editorial independence at the station level. Sinclair agreed to sell WJW back to Fox Television Stations as part of a seven-station, $910 million deal, contingent on the Sinclair-Tribune deal closing, but this was nullified when Tribune terminated the merger on August 9, 2018,  following a rejection of the deal by lead FCC commissioner Ajit Pai.

Following the Sinclair-Tribune merger collapse, Tribune agreed to be purchased by Nexstar Media Group on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion. After the sale closed on September 16, 2019, Fox declined to reacquire WJW despite "high-stakes negotiations" between the two groups.

As of 2021, WJW produces up to $12 1⁄2$ hours of local programming on weekdays.

Current staff

 * Kristi Capel – anchor
 * Mackenzie Bart – evening meteorologist
 * Wayne Dawson – anchor
 * Carl Monday – I-Team contributor

Former staff

 * Doug Adair
 * André Bernier
 * Vince Cellini
 * Casey Coleman
 * Joel Daly
 * Denise D'Ascenzo
 * Bob Franken
 * Alan Freed
 * Judd Hambrick
 * Allie LaForce
 * Fred McLeod
 * Robin Meade
 * Bob Neal
 * Kelly O'Donnell
 * Soupy Sales
 * Martin Savidge
 * Wilma Smith
 * Mark Spain
 * Robin Swoboda
 * Tim Taylor
 * Mark Thomas
 * Bob "Hoolihan" Wells
 * Neil Zurcher

Subchannels
The station's signal is multiplexed: