ohio branding cle 43 general 1 cleveland 19 news newscasts slogan cleveland s go to place for everything general cleveland s news center newscasts channels digital 28 uhf virtual 43 psip affiliations .1 mynetworktv .2 bounce tv .3 grit owner raycom media inc. woio license subsidiary llc first air date september 15 1968 ; 48 years ago 1968 09 15 call letters meaning united artists broadcasting founding owner sister station s woio former channel number s analog 43 uhf 1968 2009 former affiliations dt1 independent 1968 1995 pten 1993 1995 upn the wb 1995 1997 upn 1997 2006 dt2 the tube 2005 2007 this tv 2009 2012 dt3 this tv 2012 transmitter power 200 kw height 337 m facility id 8532 transmitter coordinates 41 22 45 n 81 43 12 w 41.37917 n 81.72000 w 41.37917 ; 81.72000 coordinates 41 22 45 n 81 43 12 w 41.37917 n 81.72000 w 41.37917 ; 81.72000 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.cle43.com wuab virtual channel 43 uhf digital channel 28 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station serving cleveland and akron ohio united states that is licensed to lorain . the station is owned by raycom media as part of a duopoly with cbs affiliate woio channel 19 . the two stations share studio facilities located on east 12th street in downtown cleveland wuab s transmitter is located in suburban parma . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 independent years 1.2 upn affiliation 1.3 the block 1.4 mynetworktv affiliation 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 subchannels 2.3 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 3.1.1 current 3.1.2 past 4 newscasts 5 notable alumni 6 coverage in canada 7 references 8 external links history edit independent years edit the station first signed on the air on september 15 1968 ; wuab was originally owned by united artists broadcasting owned by the studio of the same name then a transamerica property . eddie manheim of marcus advertising handled the first promotions for the station ; billboard advertisements placed across cleveland promoting channel 43 s pending debut read september 15th . our first date . wuab was the second commercial uhf station in the area ; wkbf tv channel 61 had beaten it to the air by eight months . its main studio was in a combination bowling alley kiddie s room and a trailer at the parmatown shopping center in suburban parma with sales offices in downtown cleveland . wuab personalities in its early years included professional wrestling host staff announcer jack reynolds 3 linn sheldon host of the children s show barnaby marty sullivan also known as saturday afternoon movie host superhost and john lanigan who hosted the daily prize movie . originally wuab s schedule consisted of cartoons syndicated off network sitcoms movies most notably the long running afternoon prize movie and primetime star movie presentations and religious programs . on september 7 1970 wuab opened a new studio facility on day drive in parma . 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 released by paramount pictures a company which would factor somewhat in wuab s later history into the company fold . wuab and wkbf struggled to be profitable despite the deep pockets of the stations owners wkbf was owned by kaiser broadcasting . both stations 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 as 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 of the station . wuab therefore acquired the programming rights to most of wkbf s stronger shows . wuab expanded its broadcast hours around this time signing on at 6 a.m. and signing 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 major league baseball s american league . the station broadcast indians games from the 1980 season through the 2001 season . 4 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 the western part of the canadian province of ontario . the station was dropped from most cable providers outside cleveland in the 1990s as those communities established upn affiliates with market exclusivity and is now no longer seen outside of columbus erie and youngstown . 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 as an independent station . woio and wuab went head to head with wclq lagging behind with wbnx tv channel 55 becoming the fourth cleveland independent station upon its december 1 1985 sign on . wclq bowed out of the competition in 1986 to become full time home shopping network affiliate wqhs . wuab turned down an affiliation with fox making it one of the few long established major market independents to do so . this was mainly because most of the markets in wuab s large cable footprint had enough stations to provide local fox affiliates making the prospect of wuab as a multi market fox affiliate unattractive to gaylord . woio then signed on with fox becoming a charter affiliate when the network launched on october 9 1986 and eventually overtook wuab in the ratings . on august 14 1990 gaylord sold wuab to cannell broadcasting headed by actor writer 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 woio s owner malrite communications entered into a local marketing agreement with cannell which retained ownership of wuab though the station was now managed in tandem with woio . both stations moved to a facility at downtown cleveland s reserve square . 5 during its waning years as an independent station wuab was the cleveland home of the various star trek series deep space nine was in production then from paramount television and also carried the action pack which aired on wuab from 1994 until 1997 and prime time entertainment network . upn affiliation edit on september 3 1994 woio became the market s cbs station after an affiliation swap with the area s longtime cbs affiliate wjw tv channel 8 which become an area s new fox affiliate due to as part of multi affiliation deal with new world communications . 6 on september 5 of that year channel 19 moved most of its sitcoms and syndicated cartoons to wuab with fox kids moving to wbnx tv . woio also moved its cleveland cavaliers telecasts over to channel 43 as well channel 19 had originally signed the cavaliers away from wuab in 1988 but no longer had time to air the broadcasts because of the acquired cbs affiliation and its network schedule . in january 1995 wuab became a dual affiliate of upn co owned by paramount by that point a division of viacom and the wb television network co owned by time warner and tribune broadcasting ; both networks debuted within a week of each other the wb on january 11 and upn on january 16 . 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 . the block edit with the loss of the cleveland indians broadcast contract for the spring of 2002 wuab rebranded itself from its previous branding as hometeam 43 a brand shared with woio to promote their local news and sports coverage to 43 the block while woio underwent a similar makeover from hometeam 19 to become cbs 19 . the block was phased out in 2005 for upn 43 and later my 43 . mynetworktv affiliation edit wuab logo used from september 5 2006 to august 23 2015 . on january 24 2006 the warner bros. unit of time warner and cbs corporation announced that the two companies would shut down the wb and upn and combine the networks respective programming to create a new fifth network called the cw which would launch on september 18 2006 . 7 8 nearly one month after the cw launch announcement on february 22 2006 news corporation announced the launch of a new sixth network called mynetworktv to affiliate with stations left out of the cw s affiliation deals . 9 10 on march 7 2006 six days after competitor wbnx signed a deal to affiliate with the cw wuab was announced as an affiliate of mynetworktv along with two other raycom media owned stations . 11 on july 14 2006 wuab began using its new on air logo which was based on mynetworktv s logo scheme and began branding as my 43 wuab in its promos and legal identifications in anticipation of the launch of mynetworktv . on august 24 2015 as part of a universal rebranding of woio and wuab to abandon raycom s tabloid reputation in the cleveland market channel 43 changed its branding to cle 43 with c l e spelled out audibly woio similarly rebranded under the cleveland 19 brand . the station also replaced its logo made up of the mynetworktv default imaging and the block era script texted 43 with a wordmark combined with an abstract play button design and basic 43 numeral taking its place . 1 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 12 43.1 720p 16 9 wuab dt main wuab programming mynetworktv 43.2 480i 4 3 bounce bounce tv 43.3 16 9 grit grit wuab began broadcasting in the 720p high definition format after the station switched its affiliation from upn to mynetworktv in september 2006 . the 10 p.m. newscast airing on wuab is also broadcast in 720p even though woio itself produces its newscasts in the 1080i format commonly used by cbs affiliates . subchannels edit in 2005 wuab began carrying the tube music network on digital subchannel 43.2 ; the network ceased operations on october 1 2007 . on april 1 2009 wuab began carrying this tv on 43.2 . on january 3 2012 wuab moved this tv over to a newly activated 43.3 subchannel while bounce tv began to be carried on 43.2 . 13 wuab s affiliation contract with this tv expired on march 26 2012 and the network moved to wbnx on that station s 55.3 subchannel . digital channel 43.3 after displaying a message explaining the situation to viewers for several days was deactivated on march 30 2012 . in august 2014 43.3 was reactivated running the new male focused grit network . 14 analog to digital conversion edit wuab shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 43 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states