View source for WJW (TV)

{{Use American English|date=June 2023}}
{{Short description|TV station in Cleveland}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{for|the Cleveland radio station which identified as WJW from 1928 to 1985|WKNR}}
{{Infobox television station
| callsign = WJW
| logo = Fox 8 logo 2020.webp
| logo_size = 200px
| branding = Fox 8
| digital = 8 ([[VHF]])
| virtual = 8
| translators = '''''Application:''' WI9X3Y 31 (UHF) Cleveland''
| affiliations = {{ubl|'''8.1:''' [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]]|''for others, see {{section link||Subchannels}}''}}
| airdate = {{start date and age|1949|12|19|p=y|br=yes}}
| location = [[Cleveland, Ohio]]
| country = United States
| callsign_meaning = John F. Weimer, founder of [[WKNR|WJW radio]]<ref name="callsign-origin">{{cite news |url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=0EDF49D1370B857D&p_docnum=89&p_queryname=NaN&p_product=NewsBank&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=H67D5EHYMTE3OTE2OTQxNy44NjA4MDA6MToxMzoxOTIuMjMyLjMwLjgw |title=Mystery of WJW call letters solved: Grandfather's initials launched station, woman says |access-date=April 29, 2007 |author=Bob Dyer |newspaper=[[Akron Beacon Journal]] |page=B2 |date=August 7, 1988}}</ref>
| former_callsigns = {{ubl|WXEL (1949–1956)|WJW-TV (1956–1977; 1985–1998)|WJKW-TV (1977–1985)}}
| former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|'''Analog:''' 9 (VHF, 1949–1953), 8 (VHF, 1953–2009)|'''Digital:''' 31 ([[UHF]], 1998–2009)}}
| owner = [[Nexstar Media Group]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nexstar.tv/stations/wjw/|title=WJW}}</ref>
| licensee = [[Tribune Broadcasting|Tribune Broadcasting Company]] II, [[LLC]]
| former_affiliations = {{ubl|[[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]]/[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] (1949–1955)|[[CBS]] (1955–1994)|[[NTA Film Network|NTA]] (secondary, 1956–1961)}}
| erp = 11 [[Watt|kW]]
| haat = {{convert|342|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id = 73150
| coordinates = {{coord|41|21|48|N|81|42|57|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
| website = {{URL|https://fox8.com/}}
}}
'''WJW''' (channel 8) is a [[television station]] in [[Cleveland, Ohio]], United States, affiliated with the [[Fox Broadcasting Company|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]].
==History==
===As WXEL===
{{distinguish|text=[[WXEL-TV]] in West Palm Beach, Florida}}
The television station first signed on the air on December 19, 1949, as WXEL, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 9. It was founded by the Empire Coil Company, a [[World War II|wartime]] manufacturer of radio coils and transformers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://home.comcast.net/~kptv/History/history.htm |title=History of KPTV |access-date=August 23, 2007 |archive-date=August 24, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050824101736/http://home.comcast.net/~kptv/History/history.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>  The station was the third to sign on in Cleveland behind WNBK (then-channel 4, now [[WKYC]] channel 3), and [[WEWS-TV]] (channel 5), all of which signed on in a 13-month timeframe.
In its early years, WXEL was a primary [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] affiliate, and later became a secondary provider of [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] programs, sharing that affiliation with WEWS. WXEL also carried a number of CBS programs that WEWS declined to air. Some of the daytime shows originated at [[Cinécraft Productions]] on Franklin Boulevard in [[Ohio City, Cleveland|Ohio City]]. WXEL also carried an affiliation with the short-lived [[Paramount Television Network]], and in fact was one of that network's strongest affiliates. The station aired such Paramount Network programs as ''Hollywood Wrestling'',<ref name="TCT1953">{{cite news|title=Television|date=December 11, 1953|work=The Coshocton Tribune|page=14|location=Coshocton, OH}}</ref> ''Bandstand Revue'',<ref name="TCT1955b">{{cite news|title=Television|date=August 27, 1955|work=The Coshocton Tribune|page=4|location=Coshocton, OH}}</ref> and ''Time for Beany''.<ref name="NCN1950">{{cite news|date=June 8, 1950|title=New Castle News|page=30|location=New Castle, PA}}</ref> During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the [[NTA Film Network]].<ref name="Boxoffice7">{{Cite journal| title = Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films| journal = Boxoffice| page = 13| date = November 10, 1956| url = https://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1| access-date = April 16, 2020| archive-date = June 14, 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090614204506/http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1| url-status = dead}}</ref>
Following the 1952 release of the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC)'s ''Sixth Report and Order'', a realignment of VHF channels in the Midwest forced WXEL to move to channel 8 on December 10, 1953. Its former channel 9 allocation was moved to [[Steubenville]] and given to a new station, WSTV-TV (now [[WTOV]]); the switch took place only two weeks before WSTV-TV went on the air.
In 1954, Empire Coil sold two of its television interests—WXEL and [[KPTV]] in [[Portland, Oregon]], the United States' first [[UHF]] station—to [[Storer Broadcasting]]. George B. Storer, the company's founder and president, was a member of the board of directors of [[CBS]], and used his influence to take the CBS television affiliation from WEWS on March 1, 1955.<ref>"Westinghouse pays record to buy DuMont's WDTV (TV)." ''Broadcasting – Telecasting'', December 6, 1954, pp. 27–28. [http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-IDX/54-OCR/1954-12-06-BC-OCR-Page-0027.pdf][http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-IDX/54-OCR/1954-12-06-BC-OCR-Page-0028.pdf]</ref><ref>[http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-IDX/55-OCR/1955-01-10-BC-OCR-Page-0028.pdf "CBS-TV big switches."] {{Webarchive|url=https://www.webcitation.org/6b1NsuUGf?url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-IDX/55-OCR/1955-01-10-BC-OCR-Page-0028.pdf |date=August 24, 2015 }} ''[[Broadcasting and Cable|Broadcasting and Telecasting]]'', January 10, 1955, pg. 28.</ref> WEWS became an exclusive ABC affiliate (and remains so to this day), while the DuMont network shut down operations in 1955.  It took Cleveland under eight years for each station at the time to gain exclusive full-time network affiliations of their own.
===As WJW-TV (1956–1977)===
[[File:WJW-TV "ei8ht" logo (1966-77).jpg|thumb|right|190px|WJW-TV logo used from 1966 to 1977; it was introduced when the station began transmitting programs in color.<br />A regular dot replaced the CBS eye in the final years in which this logo was first used; that version would be revived after the station switched affiliations from CBS to Fox.]]
Storer changed channel 8's call letters to WJW-TV on April 15, 1956, to complement WJW radio (AM 850, now [[WKNR]], and FM 104.1, now [[WQAL]]), respectively. All three stations later moved to the former Esquire Theater building at 1630 [[Euclid Avenue (Cleveland)|Euclid Avenue]], near Playhouse Square.
On November 16, 1963, approximately 30 WJW radio and television personalities went on [[strike action|strike]], forcing both stations to use supervisory and production personnel in those roles, many from parent company Storer Broadcasting stations in Atlanta and Miami. The main bargaining point was Storer's attempt to institute a new, drastically reduced fee schedule for performers. On November 20, WJW-TV broadcast a taped panel segment that offered the striking performers the opportunity to state their case, since management had presented its side two nights earlier. After nearly reaching agreement on November 23 before talks collapsed, the two sides finally came to an agreement on November 27.
===As WJKW-TV, then back to WJW===
{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
| align = right
| width   = 190
| image1  = WJKW-TV logo (1977-85).png
| caption1 = The logo originally introduced by channel 8 following the call sign change to WJKW-TV in 1977.
| image2  = WJW-TV logo (1985-92).png
| caption2 = Modified version of the WJKW-era logo used from 1985 to 1992, following its reversion to WJW-TV.
| image3 = WJW mid 90s logo.png
| caption3 = 1992-1995 logo used by TV 8, bridging the final CBS years and early Fox years
}}
On November 2, 1975, the station moved to its present studios at 5800 South Marginal Road, which were built with a more modern approach than Storer's usual exterior studio design; the building features a number of columns framed by windows in the front, though the large front was not of the usual [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] or [[Colonial architecture|Colonial]] mansion-esque design common with WJW's sister stations. While WJW-FM was sold in the late 1960s, Storer kept the AM station until late 1976, when the group sold the radio station to Lake Erie Broadcasting. The AM station's new owners were allowed to keep the WJW call letters, forcing channel 8 to change theirs, per a since-repealed FCC rule that prohibited radio and television stations in the same city, but with different owners from sharing the same base call letters. As a result, channel 8 changed its callsign to WJKW-TV on February 3, 1977.<ref>[https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=86388&.pdf FCC History Cards for WJKW-TV (WJW)]. [[Federal Communications Commission]].</ref> (The added "K" did not stand for anything.)<ref name = "WJW history" />
On September 16, 1985, the station reacquired the WJW-TV callsign (eventually shortened to simply WJW), as {{nowrap|WJW (AM)}} had changed its callsign following the radio station's own transfer of ownership to Booth American Broadcasting (the aforementioned call letter rule was still in effect then).<ref name = "WJW history" /> After Storer Broadcasting was bought out by [[Kohlberg Kravis Roberts]] in 1985, the station underwent a series of ownership changes. KKR sold the stations to [[Gillett Communications]] in 1987; shortly thereafter, SCI Television was spun off from Gillett to take over the stations after Gillett's bankruptcy.
On February 17, 1993, one day after SCI purchased [[WTVT]] in [[Tampa]] from Gillett Holdings in a separate agreement for $163 million, [[New World Pictures]] purchased a 51% ownership stake in SCI Television from Gillett for $100 million and $63 million in newly issued debt; the film and television production company folded WJW and its six sister stations—fellow CBS affiliates WTVT, [[WAGA-TV]] in [[Atlanta]], [[WJBK-TV]] in [[Detroit]] and [[WITI-TV]] in [[Milwaukee]], NBC affiliate [[KNSD]] in [[San Diego]] and [[independent station]] [[WSBK-TV]] in [[Boston]]—into a new broadcasting subsidiary, [[New World Communications]].<ref>{{cite news|title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Perelman Agrees to Acquire Control of SCI Television|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/18/business/the-media-business-perelman-agrees-to-acquire-control-of-sci-television.html|author=Geraldine Fabrikant|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 18, 1993|access-date=December 23, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Entertainment: Tampa TV Station Sold|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-17-fi-131-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=February 17, 1993|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=SCI Television and New World Entertainment. (to be merged into New World Group)|url=https://business.highbeam.com/137332/article-1G1-14694589/sci-television-and-new-world-entertainment|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227134634/https://business.highbeam.com/137332/article-1G1-14694589/sci-television-and-new-world-entertainment|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 27, 2015|periodical=Mediaweek|date=November 29, 1993|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref>
===Switch to Fox===
{{Main|1994–1996 United States broadcast television realignment}}
On May 23, 1994, as part of an overall deal in which network parent [[News Corporation]] also purchased a 20% equity interest in the group, New World signed a long-term affiliation agreement with [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] to switch 13 television stations that it owned or was acquiring from one of the [[Big Three television networks|three major broadcast networks]] (CBS, ABC and NBC) to Fox once their existing affiliation contracts expired.<ref name=nytbusinessdigest>{{cite news|title=FOX WILL SIGN UP 12 NEW STATIONS; TAKES 8 FROM CBS|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/24/us/fox-will-sign-up-12-new-stations-takes-8-from-cbs.html?pagewanted=4|first=Bill|last=Carter|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 24, 1994|access-date=October 22, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Fox Gains 12 Stations in New World Deal|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4230288.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011163409/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4230288.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 11, 2013|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=[[Hollinger International]]|date=May 23, 1994|access-date=June 1, 2013}}</ref> The deal was motivated by the [[National Football League]] (NFL)'s awarding of the rights to the [[National Football Conference]] (NFC) television package to [[Fox NFL|Fox]] on December 18, 1993, in which the conference's broadcast television rights moved to the network effective with the [[1994 NFL season]], ending a 38-year relationship with [[NFL on CBS|CBS]].<ref>{{cite web|title=CBS, NBC Battle for AFC Rights // Fox Steals NFC Package|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4205316.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105135152/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4205316.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 5, 2012|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=Adler & Shaykin|date=December 18, 1993}}</ref>
At the time the agreement was signed, the affiliation contract of WJW-TV was set to expire on or shortly after September 1, 1994, giving CBS only five months to land another Cleveland affiliate. The agreement with New World concerned CBS executives, as New World planned to switch several of the network's stronger-performing affiliates in other markets to Fox, a move that often forced CBS to affiliate with either a former Fox affiliate or a lower-profile independent station. To prevent such a situation from happening in Cleveland, CBS approached [[E. W. Scripps Company|Scripps-Howard Broadcasting]] in an attempt to sign its WEWS as the network's new Cleveland affiliate.<ref>{{cite news|title=Counterstrike: CBS targets Scripps|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-15503685.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105135127/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-15503685.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 5, 2012|author=Steve McClellan|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|date=June 6, 1994|access-date=September 15, 2017}}</ref>
On June 16, however, Scripps-Howard signed a long-term deal with ABC that would keep WEWS as its Cleveland outlet; this deal also resulted in sister stations [[WMAR-TV]] in [[Baltimore]], [[KNXV-TV]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], and [[WFTS-TV]] in Tampa all switching their affiliations to that network.<ref>{{cite news|title=COMPANY NEWS; TV Stations Shift to ABC|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/17/business/company-news-tv-stations-shift-to-abc.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 17, 1994|access-date=October 21, 2012}}</ref><ref name="nyt-abcpreemptscbs">{{cite news|title=ABC pre-empts CBS in Cleveland, Detroit.|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1994/BC-1994-06-20.pdf|author=Geoffrey Foisie|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=Cahners Business Information|via=American Radio History|date=June 20, 1994|access-date=December 2, 2018}}</ref> CBS would reach an agreement with Malrite Communications to move its programming to Fox charter affiliate [[WOIO]] (channel 19). WJW switched to Fox on September 3, 1994, becoming the first New World station to switch to the network under the agreement. WOIO concurrently switched to CBS.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bostonradio.org/essays/1994-tv-affiliation-mess|title=The Archives @ BostonRadio.org: The 1994–1996 Network Television Affiliation Mess|website=www.bostonradio.org}}</ref>
[[Image:Wjw tower.JPG|thumb|right|245px|WJW transmission antenna in [[Parma, Ohio]].]]
On July 17, 1996, News Corporation announced that it would acquire New World in an all-stock transaction worth $2.48 billion, bringing its ten Fox affiliates under network ownership.<ref>{{cite news|title=New World Vision : Murdoch's News Corp. to Buy Broadcast Group|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-07-18-fi-25271-story.html|author=Brian Lowry|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=July 18, 1996|access-date=June 22, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Murdoch's News Corp. Buying New World|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/18/business/the-media-business-murdoch-s-news-corp-buying-new-world.html|agency=[[Reuters]]|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 18, 1996|access-date=October 9, 2015}}</ref> Under Fox ownership, WJW added stronger first-run syndicated shows as well as stronger off-network sitcoms to the programming mix. It was the only fully network owned-and-operated station among the "Big Four" network outlets in the Cleveland area, and was the only Fox-owned station to carry a [[List of three-letter broadcast call signs in the United States#Television stations|historic 1920s three-letter]] [[call signs in North America|call sign]]. It remains the only Fox television affiliate to utilize a three-letter call sign.
On December 22, 2007, Fox sold WJW-TV and seven other owned-and-operated stations to [[Local TV LLC|Local TV]] for $1.1 billion; the sale was finalized on July 14, 2008.<ref>{{cite press release|title=The New York Times Company Announces Plan to Sell Its Broadcast Media Group|url=http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=904561|publisher=The New York Times Company|date=September 12, 2006|access-date=July 23, 2008|archive-date=January 9, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109123708/http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=904561|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=News Corp. to Sell U.S. TV Stations for $1.1 Billion|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3tNrZzvfKiM|author=Nancy Kercheval|agency=[[Bloomberg, L.P.]]|date=December 27, 2007|access-date=June 22, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Oak Hill Capital Partners Completes Acquisition of 8 TV Station sales|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Oak+Hill+Capital+Partners+Completes+Acquisition+of+Eight+Television...-a0181319563|publisher=Oak Hill Capital Partners|via=The Free Library|date=July 14, 2008|access-date=August 17, 2014}}</ref> On July 1, 2013, the [[Tribune Company]] acquired the Local TV stations for $2.75 billion;<ref>{{cite web|title=Acquisition to make Tribune Co. largest U.S. TV station operator|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-tribune-buying-local-tv-20130701,0,3402241.story|author=Robert Channick|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]]|date=July 1, 2013|access-date=July 1, 2013}}</ref> the sale was completed on December 27.<ref>{{cite news|title=Company Completes Final Steps of Transaction Announced in July|url=http://corporate.tribune.com/pressroom/?p=6470|publisher=Tribune Company|date=December 27, 2013|access-date=December 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228101139/http://corporate.tribune.com/pressroom/?p=6470|archive-date=December 28, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Tribune Closes Local TV Holdings Purchase|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/72966/tribune-closes-local-tv-holdings-purchase|website=TVNewsCheck|publisher=NewsCheck Media|date=December 27, 2013}}</ref>
===Aborted sale to Sinclair; sale to Nexstar===
{{Further|Attempted acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group}}
[[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] announced that it would acquire Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sinclair Broadcast to buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, giving it control over 215 local TV stations|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/05/08/sinclair-broadcast-to-buy-tribune-media-for-3-9-billion-creating-nations-largest-tv-station-group/|author=Todd Frankel|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|publisher=[[Jeff Bezos|Nash Holdings, LLC]]|date=May 8, 2017|access-date=June 6, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Tribune Media, owner of WJW Ch. 8, being bought by Sinclair for $3.9 billion|url=http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/05/sinclair_tribune_media.html|author=Joey Morona|newspaper=The Plain Dealer|publisher=Advanced Publications|date=May 8, 2017|access-date=June 13, 2017}}</ref> In order to meet regulatory compliance for the merger, WJW was subsequently identified as one of 23 stations that would be divested<ref name="cpd-wjwnosinclair">{{cite news|last1=Dawidziak|first1=Mark|title=Channel 8 will not be sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group|url=https://articles.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2018/04/channel_8_will_not_be_sold_to_sinclair_broadcast_group.amp|access-date=April 25, 2018|work=[[Cleveland Plain Dealer]]|date=April 24, 2018|language=en}}</ref> with Fox Television Stations agreeing to repurchase the station as part of a $910-million deal with Sinclair.<ref name="foxsinclairdeal2">{{cite web|title=21st Century Fox Buys Seven Local TV Stations From Sinclair For $910 Million|url=https://deadline.com/2018/05/21st-century-fox-buys-seven-local-tv-stations-from-sinclair-for-910-million-1202386066/|last=Hayes|first=Dade|work=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|publisher=[[Penske Media Corporation]]|date=May 9, 2018|access-date=May 9, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Sinclair purchase of WJW Fox 8 triggers concerns about local news content|url=http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2017/07/sinclair_purchase_of_channel_8_triggers_concerns_about_local_news_content.html|work=Cleveland.com|date=July 30, 2017|access-date=December 19, 2017}}</ref> Both transactions were nullified on August 9, 2018, following Tribune's move to terminate their merger with Sinclair<ref>{{cite news|title=Sinclair and Tribune Fall as FCC Slams TV Station Sale Plan|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-16/fcc-rejects-sinclair-plan-for-tv-station-sales-in-tribune-deal-jjof6bcs|author=Todd Shields|agency=[[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg News]]|date=July 16, 2018|access-date=July 19, 2018}}</ref> and lead FCC commissioner [[Ajit Pai]]'s public rejection of the deal,<ref>{{cite news|title=FCC chair rejects Sinclair-Tribune merger|url=https://thehill.com/policy/technology/397194-fcc-chairman-rejects-sinclair-tribune-merger/|author=Harper Neidig|newspaper=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|publisher=Capitol Hill Publishing Corp.|date=July 16, 2018|access-date=August 9, 2018}}</ref> with Tribune filing a [[breach of contract]] lawsuit against Sinclair in the process.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tribune Ends Deal with Sinclair, Files Breach of Contract Suit|url=https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/tribune-ends-deal-with-sinclair-files-breach-of-contract-suit|author=Jon Lafayette|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=NewBay Media|date=August 9, 2018}}</ref>
Following the collapse of the Sinclair merger, Tribune Media agreed to be acquired by [[Nexstar Media Group]] on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nexstar Confirms $4.1B Tribune Media Acquisition To Become Leading Local TV Station Owner|url=https://deadline.com/2018/12/nexstar-tribune-media-acquisition-1202512653/|author=Peter White|author2=Dade Hayes|website=Deadline Hollywood|publisher=Penske Media Corporation|date=December 3, 2018}}</ref> The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16, 2019, and completed three days later; Fox declined to reacquire WJW after the sale closed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2019/09/wjw-channel-8-appears-to-be-staying-in-the-nexstar-nation-of-stations.html|title = WJW Channel 8 appears to be staying in the Nexstar nation of stations|date = September 19, 2019}}</ref>
On October 28, 2024, Nexstar announced plans to acquire [[Akron]]-licensed [[WBNX-TV]] (channel 55). Upon approval, the deal would create a duopoly with WJW, and lead to the return of CW network programming on September 1, 2025.<ref name="wbnxsold">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Mark K. |date=October 28, 2024 |title=Nexstar Media Group Buys WBNX Cleveland |url=https://tvnewscheck.com/business/article/nexstar-media-group-buys-wnnx-cleveland/ |access-date=October 28, 2024 |website=TV News Check |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Programming==
===Syndicated programming===
''[[The Dr. Oz Show]]'' (hosted by Cleveland native [[Dr. Mehmet Oz]]) had been on a local hiatus as of December 1, 2021, due to [[equal-time rule]]s related to Oz's 2022 campaign for [[2022 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania|U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania]] as WJW's fringe signal is able to be accessed in parts of northwestern Pennsylvania; the show ended its 13-season run on January 14, 2022, with its spin-off ''The Good Dish'' (featuring Oz's daughter [[Daphne Oz|Daphne]]) taking over the 11&nbsp;a.m. timeslot three days later.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fox8.com/news/dont-see-dr-oz-on-fox-8-heres-why-and-what-will-air-instead/|title=Don't see Dr. Oz on FOX 8? Here's why and what will air instead|website=Fox8.com|publisher=[[Nexstar Media Group]]|date=December 1, 2021|accessdate=December 2, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/dr-oz-show-ending-january-pennsylvania-senate-1235132077/|title='Dr. Oz Show' to End in January as Host Pursues Pennsylvania Senate Run|first=Joe|last=Otterson|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=December 13, 2021|access-date=December 13, 2021}}</ref>
===Past program preemptions and deferrals===
Since it joined the network in September 1994, channel 8 has only aired Fox's [[prime time]], late night, news and [[Fox Sports (United States)|sports]] programming, with the only content it has aired involving Fox's children's programming having been of fall preview specials and network promotions for those blocks that aired within the network's prime time lineup for the final twelve years that Fox carried programming aimed at that demographic. The only notable program preemption outside of the network's children's blocks has been that of the secondary Sunday morning NFL [[pre-game show]] ''[[Fox NFL Kickoff]]'', of which WJW has declined carriage on the station's main channel since the program moved to Fox from [[Fox Sports 1]] in [[2015 NFL season|September 2015]]; WJW instead airs a local [[Cleveland Browns]] focused pre-game show in the program's network-recommended time slot during football season, deferring ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' to the station's second digital subchannel.
Like most of its sister stations, channel 8 preempted portions of the CBS schedule, usually the late morning daytime shows. In the 1990s, WJW-TV and its fellow New World stations prepared to launch their own morning newscasts, and as a result, channel 8 began to preempt ''[[CBS This Morning]]'' as well. The station also gained notoriety in September 1993 by being one of the few CBS affiliates that chose to air the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' on a half-hour [[broadcast delay|tape delay]], in favor of airing ''[[Murphy Brown]]'' reruns immediately following its 11&nbsp;p.m. newscast. Despite the preemptions, CBS was generally satisfied with WJW, which was one of the network's strongest affiliates.
As with most of its sister stations under its former New World ownership (with the subverted exception of St. Louis sister station KTVI), WJW has always declined carriage of Fox's children's programming; it opted not to run the [[Fox Kids]] weekday and Saturday blocks when it affiliated with the network, airing children's programs acquired via syndication on Saturday mornings instead (the preemptions of Fox Kids by the New World stations led the network to change its carriage policies to allow Fox stations uninterested in carrying the block the [[right of first refusal]] to transfer the local rights to another station, restructuring Fox Kids as a network-syndicated program package; by 2001, affiliates were no longer required to run the Fox Kids lineup even if Fox had not secured a substitute carrier). WBNX-TV (now an independent station) carried Fox Kids – along with its successor blocks [[4Kids TV|FoxBox and 4Kids TV]] – from the September 1994 switch until Fox ceased supplying children's programming within the network's schedule on December 28, 2008.<ref>{{cite news|title=Longform ads replace kid fare on Fox|url=https://variety.com/2008/scene/markets-festivals/longform-ads-replace-kid-fare-on-fox-1117996360/|author=Michael Schenider|periodical=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|publisher=[[Reed Business Information]]|date=November 23, 2008|access-date=September 24, 2015}}</ref> On September 13, 2014, WJW began carrying ''[[Xploration Station]]'', a live-action educational program block distributed by [[Steve Rotfeld Productions]] that is syndicated primarily to Fox stations, on Saturday mornings through an agreement involving Tribune's Fox-affiliated stations.<ref>{{cite web|title=06/18/14: Fox to launch STEM-focused kids block; Jim Davis Q&A; return of The Powerpuff Girls; Saban launches Emojiville brand|url=http://www.cynopsis.com/061814-fox-launch-stem-focused-kids-block-jim-davis-q-return-powerpuff-girls-saban-launches-emojiville-brand/|website=Cynopsis Kids|publisher=Cynopsis Media|date=June 18, 2014|access-date=June 19, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release|title=Steve Rotfield Clears New Science and Technology Two Hour E/I Block With FOX Station Group|url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/12/18/steve-rotfield-clears-new-science-and-technology-two-hour-ei-block-with-fox-station-group/223509/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131222140946/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/12/18/steve-rotfield-clears-new-science-and-technology-two-hour-ei-block-with-fox-station-group/223509/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 22, 2013|website=[[TV by the Numbers]]|publisher=Tribune Digital Ventures|date=December 18, 2013|access-date=June 19, 2014}}</ref>
===Local programming===
In its early years, the station lagged behind its competitors in producing local programming, perhaps because its studio was located at the transmitter in Parma, while the other stations had studios downtown. A young [[Alan Freed]], previously at [[WAKR]] radio in Akron, worked for WXEL starting in 1949. Freed hosted an afternoon movie and performed live commercials for several years before he became the self-titled ''[[father of]] "[[rock and roll]]"'' while as an evening host on WJW radio, before moving on to radio jobs in [[New York City]]. [[Soupy Sales]], then known as Soupy Hines, had a weekday variety program called ''Soup's On'' where he started his pie-in-the-face routines. In [[1961 Cleveland Indians season|1961]], WJW-TV became the broadcast rights holder of the Cleveland Indians (now the [[Cleveland Guardians]]). Channel 8's partnership with the team continued through [[1979 Cleveland Indians season|1979]], when the Indians moved to then-independent station [[WUAB]] (channel 43). WJW also carried Indians games that were part of the [[Major League Baseball on CBS|CBS]], and later, [[Major League Baseball on Fox|Fox]] network packages of [[Major League Baseball]] games.
One of the most memorable programs produced by WJW-TV was the Friday late night [[horror movie]] hosted by "[[Ghoulardi]]", a character created by [[Ernie Anderson]].<ref name = "WJW history"/> Wearing a bad fright [[wig]] and phony beard and a pair of sunglasses with only one lens, he interacted with the movies and created an ongoing patter and rehearsed skits during the movie breaks. The program began on January 11, 1963, as ''Shock Theater'' and created a generation of fans who could recite catch phrases such as "Turn Blue", "Stay Sick", "Camera Four" and "Ova Dey." Before Ghoulardi, Anderson had a weekday morning program on channel 8 starting in 1961 called ''Ernie's Place'' with sidekick [[Tim Conway]] (then credited as "Tom Conway"), that included live skits reminiscent of [[Bob and Ray]].<ref name = "WJW movie hosts">{{cite web|url=http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/4021/northeast-ohios-horror-movie-hosts|title=Northeast Ohio's Horror Movie Hosts – Retro Junk Article|website=www.retrojunk.com}}</ref>
When Anderson left for lucrative voice-over work in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] in September 1966, the Friday night movie slot was succeeded by ''The Hoolihan and Big&nbsp;Chuck Show''—cohosted by [[Bob "Hoolihan" Wells]], who did the station weather forecasts as "Hoolihan the Weatherman"; and [[Big Chuck and Lil' John|Charles "Big&nbsp;Chuck" Schodowski]], a station engineer who had risen to director and had appeared in some of Ghoulardi's skits. After Bob Wells departed channel 8 in September 1979, his position was filled by local jeweler and [[dwarfism|little person]] "Lil' John" Rinaldi, who had also previously performed in skits on the show. The program was renamed ''The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show'', and it continued airing on Friday nights before moving to Saturday nights in the early 1990s. The show ended its run on June 16, 2007, as Chuck Schodowski retired after a 47-year career at channel 8. At the time of its conclusion, ''The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show'' was the last remaining locally produced television show in the Cleveland market that was primarily entertainment; that is, not news or informational (Big Chuck and Lil' John made a comeback of sorts when they began hosting a new half-hour, weekly program featuring their classic skits that WJW premiered on September 10, 2011).<ref name = "WJW movie hosts" />
===Sports programming===
WJW-TV has long history of broadcasting Cleveland sports teams, whether it is produced in-house or broadcast through [[CBS Sports|CBS]] or Fox.
Channel 8 was one of two stations involved in the deal between Fox and New World which was located in a market served by an NFL franchise that is not a member of the National Football Conference (NFC); the [[Cleveland Browns]]—whose games had occasionally aired on the station dating back to its tenure with CBS—are part of the [[American Football Conference]] (AFC), which at the time of the switch, had most of their over-the-air game telecasts carried on WKYC-TV by way of [[NFL on NBC|NBC's broadcast rights]] to the AFC (WDAF-TV, located in the home market of the AFC's [[Kansas City Chiefs]], was the only other New World station in a non-NFC market that switched to Fox). Channel 8 first broadcast Browns games in 1956, when CBS (which WJW-TV was affiliated with then), gained the TV broadcast rights to the pre-merger NFL; all Browns games would air exclusively on channel 8 until 1969. Since 1970 (with the completion of the AFL/NFL merger, and the Browns' subsequent move to the newly formed AFC, and with exception of the team's [[Cleveland Browns relocation controversy|three-year operational hiatus that began in 1996]]), channel 8 has carried at least two Browns games per year, usually consisting of interconference games in which the team plays host to an NFC team at [[Cleveland Browns Stadium]]; in addition, with the institution of the league's "cross-flex" broadcast rules in 2014, any games that are arbitrarily moved from WOIO will be shown on WJW if Fox acquires the regional telecasting rights.
Channel 8 was also the home station for the [[NBA]]'s [[Cleveland Cavaliers]] from [[1976–77 Cleveland Cavaliers season|1976]] to [[1979–80 Cleveland Cavaliers season|1980]]; it also aired Cavaliers games aired via [[NBA on CBS|CBS' NBA broadcast contract]] from 1973 to 1990.
In addition, the station has aired Cleveland Guardians (known as the Indians until 2022) games via CBS' MLB coverage from [[1990 Cleveland Indians season|1990]] to [[1993 Cleveland Indians season|1993]], and since [[1996 Cleveland Indians season|1996]], through [[Fox Major League Baseball|Fox's broadcast rights]], notably including the team's appearance in the [[2016 World Series]].
===News operation===
WJW presently broadcasts 68 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with {{frac|11|1|2}} hours each weekday, five hours on Saturdays and {{frac|5|1|2}} hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local newscast output among any station in the state of Ohio, and one of the highest weekly newscast totals of any television station in the United States.
====News department history====
During its early years of operation, channel 8 broadcast a popular and unique 11&nbsp;p.m. newscast, ''The [[Sohio]] Reporter'', featuring a [[Western Reserve University]] speech professor named Warren Guthrie who delivered the entire newscast from memory, speaking directly into the camera long before the days of the [[teleprompter]].<ref name = "WJW history">{{cite web|url=http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=W6|title=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: WJW-TV (Channel 8)|website=ech.case.edu|date=May 12, 2018}}</ref> In September 1963, WJW-TV was one of the first stations to employ a two-man news anchor team, [[Joel Daly]] and [[Doug Adair]], in the studio together. The station retitled its evening newscasts as ''City Camera News'', in a format which had reporters equipped with [[Instant camera|Polaroid cameras]] to photograph news events, so that pictures could be quickly broadcast when they returned to the studio.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.retrojunk.com/commercial/show/3914/wjwtv-city-camera-news|title=WJW-TV – City Camera News – Retro Junk Commercial|website=www.retrojunk.com}}</ref> Station programming also featured ''Adventure Road'', hosted by Jim Doney, which presented filmed travelogues narrated by the filmmakers.
[[Dick Goddard]] came to channel 8 as its chief weatherman in 1966, following a prior five-year tenure at WKYC-TV (Goddard went along with nearly all of Westinghouse's former Cleveland staffers following a reversal of a 1956 station swap with NBC that saw [[Westinghouse Broadcasting]] reacquire WRCV-TV in [[Philadelphia]] and move the [[KYW-TV]] calls there, but returned to Cleveland after only a few months). Goddard said that the incentive for joining WJW-TV was the fact that CBS carried Cleveland Browns games through its contract with the National Football League (the rights to which were ironically lost to WKYC in 1970 upon the team's move to the AFC). Goddard later became the team's [[statistician]], a position he held until 2011. Goddard—who was honored for his 50 years of broadcasting in the Cleveland market, with the renaming of the stretch of South Marginal Road that runs in front of the WJW studios as "Dick Goddard Way" in May 2011—remained with WJW until his retirement on November 22, 2016.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dick Goddard says tearful goodbye to 55-year career as a Cleveland weather forecaster|url=http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2016/11/dick_goddard_says_tearful_goodbye_to_55-year_career_as_a_cleveland_weather_forecaster.html|author=Mark Dawidziak|newspaper=[[The Plain Dealer]]|publisher=[[Advance Publications]]|date=November 23, 2016|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref> Goddard died on August 4, 2020, at the age of 89.
Daly and Adair reigned as Cleveland's top news team until June 1967, when Daly was hired away by ABC-owned WBKB (now [[WLS-TV]]) in Chicago. Adair remained at channel 8 through July 1970, when he joined WKYC, which was then owned by NBC. Later in 1964, WJW-TV was the first full CBS affiliate in Ohio, and the first Cleveland TV station, to start local color broadcasts. Following Daly's departure, Martin Ross became Adair's on-air news partner for the next three years, then teamed with Murray Stewart when Adair left. The duo worked together until Ross's death from cancer in April 1973. Jeff Maynor had filled in when Ross was undergoing treatment, and continued in that role for the next four months until Jim Hale teamed with Stewart beginning on September 11, 1973. Just over a year later, Stewart asked to be taken off the broadcast, citing health problems, and was later reassigned to the noon news, with Maynor taking his place on the nightly broadcast. Stewart committed suicide on August 3, 1976, overdosing on [[Nembutal]] in a suburban Cleveland motel.
Shortly after the callsign change to WJKW, the station hired former WKYC-TV and NBC Radio news anchor Virgil Dominic as its news and public affairs director (a position which he held until 1983 when he became the general manager for WJKW/WJW until his retirement in 1995), and also began to pump considerable money into its news operation. The name of the newscasts even underwent a transition as well, going from ''City Camera News'' to ''Newscenter 8'' around the summer of 1977. Within a year, channel 8 had overtaken longtime leader WEWS as the highest-rated news station in Cleveland – a lead it kept for almost 20 years. [[Tim Taylor (newscaster)|Tim Taylor]] joined WJW-TV as consumer reporter in the summer of 1977, having been hired away from WEWS, where he held a similar role. The following year, Taylor became [[Judd Hambrick]]'s partner on the station's 6 and 11&nbsp;p.m. weeknight newscasts. For much of Taylor's 27-year run as an anchor at WJW (the second longest in Cleveland television history, behind [[Ted Henry]], who worked at WEWS for 37 years from 1972 to 2009), he served alongside several female anchors (including Tana Carli, [[Denise D'Ascenzo]], [[Robin Swoboda]], Denise Dufala and Wilma Smith). Taylor retired from broadcasting on December 23, 2005, after which he was replaced by fellow longtime Cleveland TV newsman Lou Maglio; one month prior, Taylor and Goddard were reunited with Swoboda and former sports anchor [[Casey Coleman]] in a special segment during ''Fox 8 News in the Morning''. The foursome has been quoted as one of "Cleveland's most successful news teams" during the 1980s, and helped lead ''Newscenter 8'' to number one in the Cleveland market during that decade.
In 1991, WJW implemented the "24-Hour News Source" concept that was originally developed the year prior by rival WEWS, positioning itself as "Cleveland's Own 24 Hour Newsroom". At that time, the station began producing news updates of 30 seconds in length during local commercial break inserts within syndicated and CBS network programs at or near the top of each hour in time periods when the station was not carrying regularly scheduled, long-form newscasts or the half-hourly updates it aired during ''CBS This Morning''. After WJW became a Fox affiliate on September 3, 1994, the station underwent a major shift in its programming philosophy that more heavily emphasized its local news programming. The station initially expanded its news production to over 40 hours a week, and through the years continued expanding, eventually reaching 65{{frac|1|2}} hours per week by 2015.
In October 1995, WJW retired the "''Newscenter 8''" branding and the "24-Hour News Source" concept, and adopted a hard-hitting format that saw the implementation of the phrase ''"ei<sub><big>8</big></sub>ht is News"'' as the title of its newscasts (the ''"ei<sub><big>8</big></sub>ht"'' logo was itself based on a logo used by WJW from 1966 to 1977 that was first used to herald the station's switch to [[color television|color]] broadcasts). Consequently, the station used ''"Fox is ei<sub><big>8</big></sub>ht"'' as a generalized branding to promote the station's non-news programming, in particular, those offered through its new Fox affiliation (thereby, becoming one of the first New World outlets to fully include network references in its branding). This accompanied a change in format for harder-edged news; viewers did not respond positively to either the format changes, or the constant branding reinforcement (to the point that a story in the ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'' began with the lede "WJW Channel 8's constant repetition of its ubiquitous 'EI8HT Is News' slogan has some viewers squawking that Eight Is Enough, Already" <ref>{{cite news|title=TV-8 Chief is all News, News, News|page=5E|author=Tom Feran|newspaper=The Plain Dealer|publisher=Advanced Publications|date=February 15, 1996}}</ref>). They instead turned to the more traditional WEWS; WKYC was likewise busy trying to find an audience after years of being used as NBC's '[[Farm team|farm]]' station. The "''ei<sub><big>8</big></sub>ht is News''" branding ended upon Fox's purchase of the station, after which it was replaced by "''Fox 8 News''", which remains in use to this day as the station's news branding.
One triumph for WJW was its weekday morning newscast, as, without a national morning news program supplied by Fox, WJW could produce an all-local, {{frac|3|1|2}}-hour-long program to fill part of the time period. Many Cleveland viewers preferred the local show over the national broadcasts aired on WKYC, WEWS and WOIO. This was especially true since WEWS' long-running local show ''[[The Morning Exchange]]'' was moved to 9&nbsp;a.m. around the time of the Fox/CBS switch. With the exception of a brief period from late 1994 through late 1995 when it was titled ''Good Day Cleveland'', ''Fox 8 News in the Morning'' has constantly been Cleveland's top rated morning newscast since the time of its debut. Another advantage of the affiliation switch was the shift of the late newscast from 11&nbsp;p.m. to 10 p.m., which also resulted in the program's expansion into a one-hour-long broadcast; with conversion of the news department launched six years earlier by WUAB to serve as a joint operation with newly minted CBS outlet WOIO and the balancing act of managing both stations, along with the unproven lead-in of WUAB's new [[UPN]] and [[The WB|WB]] network programming, WJW quickly overtook WUAB's longer-established prime time newscast at 10&nbsp;p.m. without much issue.
In news programming, the station retook the top position from WEWS in 2001. By mid-2002, all of WJW's newscasts placed first. This continued until January 2004, when viewers began turning away from WJW's hard-hitting style to the more traditional WKYC-TV. Even ''Fox 8 in the Morning'' lost its top spot to WKYC's morning newscast for about two months. As a result of the overall decline, WJW replaced longtime 6 and 10&nbsp;p.m. lead anchors Wilma Smith and Tim Taylor, with Bill Martin and Stacey Bell at 10&nbsp;p.m., hoping the two would attract a younger audience to the program. The change paid off for channel 8, and today its newscasts frequently rank number-one in the ratings.
=====Notable current personalities=====
* [[Miss Ohio|Mackenzie Bart]] – evening meteorologist
* [[Amanda Marie Berry|Amanda Berry]] – contributor (missing persons updates)
* [[Kristi Capel]] – anchor
* [[Wayne Dawson]] – anchor
* [[Carl Monday]] – I-Team contributor
=====Notable alumni=====
[[file:Dick Goddard at Humane Society Event.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Dick Goddard]] - who served as chief meteorologist at WJW from 1966 to 2016.  Both the section of South Marginal Road where the station's building is located ("Dick Goddard Way") and the station's weather desk ("Dick Goddard Weather Center") were named in his honor.]]
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Doug Adair]]
* [[Ernie Anderson]]
* [[André Bernier (meteorologist)|André Bernier]]
* [[Vince Cellini]]
* [[Casey Coleman]]
* [[Tim Conway]]
* [[Dan Coughlin (sportscaster)|Dan Coughlin]]
* [[Joel Daly]]
* [[Denise D'Ascenzo]]
* [[Bob Franken]]
* [[Alan Freed]]
* [[Dick Goddard]]
* [[Judd Hambrick]]
* [[Allie LaForce]]
* [[Fred McLeod (sportscaster)|Fred McLeod]]
* [[Robin Meade]]
* [[Tom Merriman (journalist)]]
* [[Bob Neal (Cleveland sportscaster)|Bob Neal]]
* [[Kelly O'Donnell]]
* [[Soupy Sales]]
* [[Martin Savidge]]
* [[Wilma Smith (newscaster)|Wilma Smith]]
* [[Mark Spain]]
* [[Robin Swoboda]]
* [[Tim Taylor (newscaster)|Tim Taylor]]
* [[Mark Thomas]]
* [[Bob "Hoolihan" Wells]]
* [[Neil Zurcher]]
{{div col end}}
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's signal is [[Multiplex (TV)|multiplexed]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Subchannels of WJW<ref>[http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WJW#station RabbitEars TV Query for WJW]</ref>
|-
! scope = "col" | [[Digital subchannel#United States|Channel]]
! scope = "col" | [[Display resolution|Res.]]
! scope = "col" | [[Aspect ratio (image)|Aspect]]
! scope = "col" | Short name
! scope = "col" | Programming
|-
! scope = "row" | 8.1
| [[720p]] || rowspan="4" | [[16:9]] || FOX || Main WJW programming / [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 8.2
| rowspan="3" | [[480i]] || ANTENNA || [[Antenna TV]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 8.3
| COMET || [[Comet (TV network)|Comet]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 8.4
| CHARGE || [[Charge! (TV network)|Charge!]]
|}
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
WJW shut down its analog signal, over [[VHF]] channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States [[Digital television transition in the United States|transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts]] under federal mandate.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fox8.com/about/dtv/ |title= Digital TV Switch - WJW|website=www.fox8.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207032724/http://www.fox8.com/about/dtv/ |archive-date=February 7, 2009}}</ref> The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition [[UHF]] channel 31 to VHF channel 8.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 29, 2013 |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds |access-date=March 24, 2012 }}</ref>
====ATSC 3.0====
The former temporary channel 31 transmitter has remained in a functional, though dormant state since the transition; Tribune Broadcasting donated the transmitter to the [[National Association of Broadcasters]], which it used to conduct a six-month test of the "Futurecast" [[Advanced Television Systems Committee standards#ATSC 3.0|ATSC 3.0]] standard advanced by [[LG Electronics]] and [[GatesAir]] beginning in May 2015, as WI9X3Y.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/84220/cleveland-to-be-site-of-nextgen-test-station|title=Cleveland To Be Site Of Next-Gen Test Station|last=Jessell|first=Henry|publisher=TVNewsCheck|access-date=April 2, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.tvtechnology.com/broadcast-engineering/0029/a-look-inside-the-cleveland-futurecasts-atsc-30-transmission-test/|title=A Look Inside the Cleveland Futurecast's ATSC 3.0 Transmission Test|last=Kovacs|first=Bob|publisher=TVTechnology|access-date=August 12, 2015}}</ref> The transmitter remained active for the duration of the 2016 World Series (which the Indians played in), broadcasting in [[4K resolution|4K]] [[Ultra-high-definition television|UHD]] to the Cleveland area using the ATSC 3.0 standard with [[Dolby AC-4]] Audio (though the audio standard has not been completely finalized yet, with AC-4 and competitor [[MPEG-H]] as the remaining options for audio).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tvtechnology.com/atsc3/0031/world-series-gets-atsc-30-broadcast-in-cleveland/279729|title=World Series Gets ATSC 3.0 Broadcast in Cleveland|last=TvTechnology|date=October 26, 2016}}</ref> This station also broadcasts brief, intermittent ATSC 1.0-compatible signals during parts of the day for reception comparisons under the callsign of WI9XJY.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forums.wtfda.org/showthread.php?9631-ATSC-3-0-Tests/page2|title=ATSC 3.0 Tests – Page 2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fccbulletin.com/callsign/?q=WI9XJY |title=FCC licensed call sign "WI9XJY" |access-date=November 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115133226/http://www.fccbulletin.com/callsign/?q=WI9XJY |archive-date=November 15, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
==Further reading==
* Coughlin, Dan (2010). ''Crazy, With the Papers to Prove It''. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-59851-068-3}}
* Feran, Tom and Heldenfels, Rich (1997). ''Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride''. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-886228-18-4}}
* Schodowski, Chuck (2008). ''Big Chuck: My Favorite Stories from 47 Years on Cleveland TV''. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-59851-052-2}}
* Zurcher, Neil (2010). ''Tales from the Road: Memoirs from a Lifetime of Ohio Travel, Television, and More.'' Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-59851-064-5}}
==External links==
* {{Official website|fox8.com}}
{{Cleveland TV}}
{{Fox Ohio}}
{{NXST TV}}
[[Category:Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates]]
[[Category:Antenna TV affiliates]]
[[Category:Comet (TV network) affiliates]]
[[Category:Charge! (TV network) affiliates]]
[[Category:Television channels and stations established in 1949]]
[[Category:Television stations in Cleveland|JW (TV)]]
[[Category:Nexstar Media Group]]
[[Category:New World Communications television stations]]
[[Category:1949 establishments in Ohio]]
[[Category:Former News Corporation subsidiaries]]