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WOIO and constant technical difficulties


Vidifont

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The technical difficulties are to the point where you can't keep tabs. The place is a mess. Anchors don't know what day it is, reporters

are doing the best. Sports at 6 is the same at 11. It's a repack house. 

 

Producers are so lame, Thursday at 6, towards the end of the broadcast they ran a CBS Norah O'Donnell custom with

Tiffany intro at 27:00 in the hour. So the viewer gets the nauseating headlines that we will see 3 minutes from now, AGAIN! The station is a waste

case and the CBS Television Network should find a new station if possible. The worst television news I have ever seen, pandemic or not, WOIO sucks!

Edited by 24994J
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I wonder how long WOIO/WUAB is locked into their home in Downtown Cleveland.   Any idea why they moved there in the first place?  It seems the WUAB building in Parma could have worked, but at the time, the area around it was booming and it gave way to an OfficeMax store, and it was "cool" to be in downtown Cleveland.

 

Flash forward to now, and Parmatown is a ghost town, and there are plenty of former big boxes that could be the new home for WOIO and WUAB.  A little breathing room could help their issues, as it seems they are packed like sardines (amongst the rats) in the basement of Reserve Square.   Gray has built new homes for their stations like the showplace for WRDW/WAGT in Augusta, but I doubt Gray would do such a thing for WOIO/WUAB.

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18 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I wonder how long WOIO/WUAB is locked into their home in Downtown Cleveland.   Any idea why they moved there in the first place?  It seems the WUAB building in Parma could have worked, but at the time, the area around it was booming and it gave way to an OfficeMax store, and it was "cool" to be in downtown Cleveland.

 

Flash forward to now, and Parmatown is a ghost town, and there are plenty of former big boxes that could be the new home for WOIO and WUAB.  A little breathing room could help their issues, as it seems they are packed like sardines (amongst the rats) in the basement of Reserve Square.   Gray has built new homes for their stations like the showplace for WRDW/WAGT in Augusta, but I doubt Gray would do such a thing for WOIO/WUAB.

They just installed a new set at Reserve Square, so I suspect they’re locked in down there for a bit...  I do agree that more space would do then make good.  
 

They had a really decent team then let them all go... 

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21 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I wonder how long WOIO/WUAB is locked into their home in Downtown Cleveland.   Any idea why they moved there in the first place?  It seems the WUAB building in Parma could have worked, but at the time, the area around it was booming and it gave way to an OfficeMax store, and it was "cool" to be in downtown Cleveland.

The Reserve Square space was formerly a twinned theater, and it was probably like all the other suddenly new CBS affiliates in 1995 which had no new building capital but the requirements to build out news; just find a huge empty space and make the most of it you could at the time (which is how WDJT ended up in a former industrial building where they could build what they needed to in its shell). I don't know what WUAB's building age/situation was at the time so I don't know if staying there was right at the time, but since their competitors were in downtown/thereabouts, it made more sense to be there than southeast in an area where expressway access was farther away.

 

And WOIO isn't optimum...but at least they are far away from the continuing disaster that is WGCL.

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As for WOIO.. the new look is solid. Fresh, clean, bold, no longer “cheap”.

 

The anchors however are horrible, and yeah the technical issues. Not just technical, but execution. The anchors screwing up reads etc, awkward camera shots. Trying too much without the ability. 
 

Ten years ago, it was a kick ass newscast with David Whitman, Sharon Reed etc. Looked like a Top 15. What happened?


Finally, as for the facility.. they just remodeled the newsroom, in addition to the studio. Why would they move?

 

Edited by newsman123
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7 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

The Reserve Square space was formerly a twinned theater, and it was probably like all the other suddenly new CBS affiliates in 1995 which had no new building capital but the requirements to build out news; just find a huge empty space and make the most of it you could at the time (which is how WDJT ended up in a former industrial building where they could build what they needed to in its shell). I don't know what WUAB's building age/situation was at the time so I don't know if staying there was right at the time, but since their competitors were in downtown/thereabouts, it made more sense to be there than southeast in an area where expressway access was farther away.

 

And WOIO isn't optimum...but at least they are far away from the continuing disaster that is WGCL.

The move to Reserve was probably three-fold....

1. They needed a little more space for all of the WOIO folks moving in with them (even with the number of layoffs between the two stations at the time).  WOIO's facility in Shaker Heights was even smaller and is now a Goodwill store.

2. A developer made WUAB an offer they couldn't refuse.   Parmatown was a thriving mall at the time across the street and WUAB was surrounded by a growing number of big box stores on Day Drive.  OfficeMax was still locally owned and wanted to put a store where WUAB was.   Soon after, South Park mall was built over in Strongsville and slowly sucked the life out of the area.  Parmatown was eventually de-malled as the stores left and the big boxes left too (OfficeMax is now a Planet Fitness.)  But there's a nice vacant Toys "R" us next door, and lots of space around town for a station to work with.

3. Downtown was/is the place to be.  WEWS and WJW were firmly entrenched in their spaces on Euclid and South Marginal.  WKYC eventually moved out of the East Ohio Gas building on 6th street to their sparkling new digital broadcast center on Lakeside in 2001.  Even WVIZ, the PBS station moved downtown and merged with local NPR station WCPN.  I think WQHS is still in Parma close to their transmitter, and it may be the same facility that Kaiser-owned WKBF used until they went off the air in the 70s.

 

WOIO would have to be leasing that space downtown.  Usually, stations own their own facilities.  Another Gray station that leases their space is WTVY in Dothan, who is in the former Houston Hotel (The Woods Building) in downtown Dothan.  The building itself is owned by the Woods Family, who used to own WTVY before Charles Woods sold the station, and it was sold again to Benedek.   The former facility in Webb is still there, but has been rapidly deteriorating over the years.   They even considered buying a former REX TV store on the main drag (Ross Clark Circle) a decade ago to move to, but have stayed downtown.

Edited by tyrannical bastard
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2 hours ago, newsman123 said:

Ten years ago, it was a kick ass newscast with David Whitman, Sharon Reed etc. Looked like a Top 15. What happened?


Romona Robinson was the first step in removing any “Action” from “19 Action News.”  They dropped Reed, Lynna Lai, Danielle Serino and many others once Romona arrived.  Imagine that team with the current look and energy - IMO it would rival Fox 8 for the best newscast in town, especially since WKYC is a mess and WEWS is a shell of its former self.  (And yes, it’s ironic many of those folks ended up at Channel 3, but neither Lai or Serino are being utilized to their potential.  Choosing Betsy Kling to anchor over Lynna Lai wasn’t a great idea. But I digress...)

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WOIO/WUAB has been a mess for quite some time now.  The revolving door is the worst, especially with on-air talent.  Any of the attempts to replace some of the longtime personnel has not worked out too well, and some new hires have come and gone.  One reporter from Detroit was let go after only two months.  Another from Florida left after nine months.  The weather and sports teams have been a lot more stable than the news anchor and reporting teams.

 

What is funny is that the management behind the "Cleveland 19" fiasco wanted Jeff Tanchak gone, but gave up on that idea when got out on that plan and his fans got upset.  Yet, that didn't stop others like David Wittman, Denise Dufala, Catherine Bosley, Beth McLeod and many more from leaving after that (botched) makeover was launched, which ended up not working (along with the Romona Robinson-Mark Nolan reunion).  Plus, some of the hires during that period didn't pan out and that management ended up getting the boot.

 

Now, the stations are trying to go back to the "Action News" glory days with actually using that name, but only portions of it and some of the talent from that period.

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The peak was definitely during the Applegate/Action News era.  While it tested the limits of what was considered journalism.  It definitely brought WOIO to a new level of success, along with WKYC rising out of the doldrums for the first time.

Romona's return was probably the last major investment, and this was after WKYC couldn't afford her anymore.  The same had happened two years before with Tim White.

 

As the Applegate era was drawing to a close, so was the growth of Raycom and eventual merger with Gray.  The "Cleveland 19" era was a mistake, it softened the newscasts too much and Raycom began to treat WOIO like another middle-market station.  They had made the same mistake in their first go-around as "Hometeam 19/43" as the stations were indistinguishable from their cohorts across the country.

 

Yes, the "19 News" was the oomph that WOIO needed, but it's too little too late given all of the slashing and burning that took place. They literally stacked the deck during the "Cleveland 19" relaunch with way too many poached anchors in the same place, and virtually all of them were gone within a short while.

 

Meanwhile, WUAB was left to wither and die under Raycom, being overtaken by WBNX soon after, and WUAB only got the CW as a result of all of the Ernest Angley foreclosure drama.....and CBS's desire to put it on a major-grouped station.

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5 hours ago, CLETVFan said:

WOIO/WUAB has been a mess for quite some time now.  The revolving door is the worst, especially with on-air talent.  Any of the attempts to replace some of the longtime personnel has not worked out too well, and some new hires have come and gone.  One reporter from Detroit was let go after only two months.  Another from Florida left after nine months.  The weather and sports teams have been a lot more stable than the news anchor and reporting teams.

 

What is funny is that the management behind the "Cleveland 19" fiasco wanted Jeff Tanchak gone, but gave up on that idea when got out on that plan and his fans got upset.  Yet, that didn't stop others like David Wittman, Denise Dufala, Catherine Bosley, Beth McLeod and many more from leaving after that (botched) makeover was launched, which ended up not working (along with the Romona Robinson-Mark Nolan reunion).  Plus, some of the hires during that period didn't pan out and that management ended up getting the boot.

 

Now, the stations are trying to go back to the "Action News" glory days with actually using that name, but only portions of it and some of the talent from that period.

 

WTOL, which used to be a sister to WOIO under Raycom, is the same way with anchors and reporters leaving after a short time. Their main competitor, WTVG, doesn't really have this problem.

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On 10/12/2020 at 10:34 AM, mrschimpf said:

The Reserve Square space was formerly a twinned theater, and it was probably like all the other suddenly new CBS affiliates in 1995 which had no new building capital but the requirements to build out news; just find a huge empty space and make the most of it you could at the time (which is how WDJT ended up in a former industrial building where they could build what they needed to in its shell). I don't know what WUAB's building age/situation was at the time so I don't know if staying there was right at the time, but since their competitors were in downtown/thereabouts, it made more sense to be there than southeast in an area where expressway access was farther away.

 

And WOIO isn't optimum...but at least they are far away from the continuing disaster that is WGCL.

WOIO's original studios on Shaker Square were clearly not big enough to support a news department, so they *had* to move anyway.

 

What I’ve never totally understood is why WUAB abandoned their longtime home on Day Drive in the process. My impression was that it seen as more important to put 19/43 downtown alongside WKYC (then still at the old East Ohio Gas Building) and WEWS (at Euclid and East 30th) but Day Drive could have housed both stations accordingly. Maybe Steven J. Cannell wanted to simply sell the land? Parma did redevelop that area and the former Parmatown Mall nearby.

 

Fun note: from 1975 up to 1990, Reserve Square housed studios for WWWE 1100 and WDOK 102.1, I want to say in the same area 19/43 calls home now.

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On 10/14/2020 at 11:41 AM, Myron Falwell said:

WOIO's original studios on Shaker Square were clearly not big enough to support a news department, so they *had* to move anyway.

 

What I’ve never totally understood is why WUAB abandoned their longtime home on Day Drive in the process. My impression was that it seen as more important to put 19/43 downtown alongside WKYC (then still at the old East Ohio Gas Building) and WEWS (at Euclid and East 30th) but Day Drive could have housed both stations accordingly. Maybe Steven J. Cannell wanted to simply sell the land? Parma did redevelop that area and the former Parmatown Mall nearby.

 

Fun note: from 1975 up to 1990, Reserve Square housed studios for WWWE 1100 and WDOK 102.1, I want to say in the same area 19/43 calls home now.

It seems with the efforts that WUAB put out from their studios on Day Drive, they had ample room for all of their productions (Superhost, Prize Movie, 43 Kidsland, Barnaby, etc...) As well as housing operations for The Ten O'Clock News.

 

But on a positive note for WUAB, they are launching a horror movie franchise on Saturday nights.

 

https://marketshare.tvnewscheck.com/2020/10/15/wuabs-new-program-will-make-cleveland-viewers-scream/

 

Kudos to them, this is probably their biggest programming push ever since their "43 the Block" vignettes.   Plus, it's a well known genre of programming going all the way back to Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson, and all of his spin-off and revived characters over the years.   To this day, WJW still airs a half hour compilation of Big Chuck and Lil John skits on Sunday nights.

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12 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

I'm actually pretty happy to see them do something with WUAB on the weekends, but their repo of the Gaylord-era 43 logo kinda hits the uncanny valley, ngl

image.thumb.jpeg.3f15e088d43602347d2ce184f9b2aff1.jpeg

Ewww!

 

On a more serious note, it’s replacing 4 episodes of Family Feud, so WUAB isn’t losing much.

 

And that’s another thing! What is it with ex-Raycom stations and crappy syndication lineups?!?

Edited by NEOMatrix
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Back to WOIO’s woes. From relegating Jeff Tanchak to mornings, to firing or forcing out almost every anchor and reporter worth a damn, WOIO is definitely a shell of its former self, all because Raycom wanted to “borg” WOIO into one of its stations, which itself isn’t bad. The problem is that the product was so dumbed down that WOIO now feels bush-league compared to the others. The set is nice and the graphics are nice, but WOIO doesn’t have the “faces” to be competitive, with Chris Tanaka needing a Red Bull and Tiffani Tucker STILL trying to be “Great Value Romona Robinson”.

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At least things are looking up for WUAB.  You have to give the station effort putting more into its programming from the CW affiliation to the new monster movie show.  Even the syndicated daytime lineup today is better than several years ago on 43.  I will add that Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune has added some stability for WOIO after the 7-8pm slot saw a revolving door of shows come and go for ten years between 2002 and '12.

 

What both stations need are stronger anchor teams for its newscasts with a stronger set of reporters to boot, and not the ones that will leave in dramatic fashion that will end up in both Newsblues and FTVLive.  The Action era set the bar very high, it will be hard to match that, but I think with a better ND, it could happen.

 

6 minutes ago, NEOMatrix said:

Back to WOIO’s woes. From relegating Jeff Tanchak to mornings, to firing or forcing out almost every anchor and reporter worth a damn, WOIO is definitely a shell of its former self, all because Raycom wanted to “borg” WOIO into one of its stations, which itself isn’t bad. The problem is that the product was so dumbed down that WOIO now feels bush-league compared to the others. The set is nice and the graphics are nice, but WOIO doesn’t have the “faces” to be competitive, with Chris Tanaka needing a Red Bull and Tiffani Tucker STILL trying to be “Great Value Romona Robinson”.

 

Tanchak was originally supposed to be axed from WOIO/WUAB when Dominic Mancuso and Fred D'Ambrosi were running the stations and starting the "Cleveland 19" franchise.  Then it was decided for Tanchak to stay, but to no longer be the Chief Meteorologist.  The stations hired Jason Nicholas from WEWS with Tanchak tag-teaming him.  Then, it was when the switch with Samantha Roberts came.

 

A lot of the anchors and reporters started leaving even before "19 Action News" became "Cleveland 19 News" when Ed Gallek went to WJW and Dawn Kendrick went to WKYC.

 

On 10/12/2020 at 8:09 PM, ttvn2000 said:


Romona Robinson was the first step in removing any “Action” from “19 Action News.”  They dropped Reed, Lynna Lai, Danielle Serino and many others once Romona arrived.  Imagine that team with the current look and energy - IMO it would rival Fox 8 for the best newscast in town, especially since WKYC is a mess and WEWS is a shell of its former self.  (And yes, it’s ironic many of those folks ended up at Channel 3, but neither Lai or Serino are being utilized to their potential.  Choosing Betsy Kling to anchor over Lynna Lai wasn’t a great idea. But I digress...)

 

Lynna and Danielle both deserve better over and WKYC.  A lot of good reporters who got passed over while a lot of hires were made for anchor positions that were created made absolutely no sense.

Edited by CLETVFan
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The three main anchors are second tier. The male is a lightweight, and the main female cant speak without marbles in her mouth. 

 

They need two top notch major market elegant leads, and some veteran investigative reporters.

 

The look is solid now. Now they need to people. 
 

 

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1 hour ago, NEOMatrix said:

Back to WOIO’s woes. From relegating Jeff Tanchak to mornings, to firing or forcing out almost every anchor and reporter worth a damn, WOIO is definitely a shell of its former self, all because Raycom wanted to “borg” WOIO into one of its stations, which itself isn’t bad. The problem is that the product was so dumbed down that WOIO now feels bush-league compared to the others. The set is nice and the graphics are nice, but WOIO doesn’t have the “faces” to be competitive, with Chris Tanaka needing a Red Bull and Tiffani Tucker STILL trying to be “Great Value Romona Robinson”.

 

Those at WOIO were probably excited when Raycom went away, since they were terrible for them.

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11 hours ago, NEOMatrix said:

Ewww!

 

On a more serious note, it’s replacing 4 episodes of Family Feud, so WUAB isn’t losing much.

 

And that’s another thing! What is it with ex-Raycom stations and crappy syndication lineups?!?

Between WOIO's lone syndication strips being WoF and J! and WUAB having a ghastly amount of paid programming on the weekends (not like WOIO is any better, but at least THEY have CBS fare) it's truly sad.

 

 

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12 hours ago, NEOMatrix said:

And that’s another thing! What is it with ex-Raycom stations and crappy syndication lineups?!?

I'd say blame it on the people in charge of the Raycom stations, they'd rather be lazy than get quality programming.

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14 hours ago, newsman123 said:

The three main anchors are second tier. The male is a lightweight, and the main female cant speak without marbles in her mouth. 

 

They need two top notch major market elegant leads, and some veteran investigative reporters.

 

The look is solid now. Now they need to people. 
 

 

 

WOIO/WUAB tried adding at least one veteran investigative reporter after Carl Monday left, but it didn't work out too well.  First came Alan Cohn from Sarasota, then he quit to try running for office in Florida, yet didn't make a good impression in the newsroom.  Then Ronnie Dahl from Detroit was brought in, but was shown the door after only two months.  The two stations have not brought in anyone on the same level as those two as of right now.

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11 hours ago, dman748 said:

I'd say blame it on the people in charge of the Raycom stations, they'd rather be lazy than get quality programming.

Losing the Indians was another blow back in 2001.  Back in the 90s WUAB had the highest game ratings in the country when the Indians were good.

By letting WBNX and other stations get the better syndicated shows, they overtook them in the ratings and cost them the CW initially.

Plus at the time, WUAB was one of the few netlet stations that Raycom had at the time, so they had little experience to draw upon.

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/11/2020 at 10:41 AM, Vidifont said:

The technical difficulties are to the point where you can't keep tabs. The place is a mess. Anchors don't know what day it is, reporters

are doing the best. Sports at 6 is the same at 11. It's a repack house. 

 

Producers are so lame, Thursday at 6, towards the end of the broadcast they ran a CBS Norah O'Donnell custom with

Tiffany intro at 27:00 in the hour. So the viewer gets the nauseating headlines that we will see 3 minutes from now, AGAIN! The station is a waste

case and the CBS Television Network should find a new station if possible. The worst television news I have ever seen, pandemic or not, WOIO sucks!

Unless CBS wants to Buy WOIO/WUAB and make it better or WKYC switches from NBC to CBS (Tegna is the largest operator of CBS stations in terms of overall market reach, owning 15 CBS-affiliated stations  that reach 8.9% of the country.) there is not much CBS can do to get out of the spot they are in for Cleveland. We know Gray won't be able to compete with either WJW or WEWS. If WOIO/WUAB becomes a CBS/CW O&O. It could be run similar to KDKA/WPCW and do pretty well.

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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  • 24994J changed the title to WOIO and constant technical difficulties

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