History of sports on tv in Cleveland

In December 1947  WEWS went on the air in  Cleveland .It was the first station on the air in the city. Cleveland at the time had two major sports franchises, The Browns who had formed in 1946,They were part of the AAFC a rival league to the NFL. The Indians were in the American league and trying to win there first World series since 1920. The timing was perfect when the Indians were about to challenge for the World Series in 1948. As the Indians season began to take shape. WEWS announced on May 14 1948 starting on the next day all future home games would be broadcast for that season. At the time 74 home games remained to be played.

This was the start of a pennant winning team in Cleveland. The Indians clinched the American league pennant after they beat the Boston Red Sox in a one game playoff on October 3. It was the first playoff game in American league history.  The teams had been tied after the 154 game schedule. When the World Series began on October 6 1948 in Boston there was a problem with showing the game in Cleveland. The Midwest network that Cleveland was in was not connected with the East Coast network. There was no way to show the first or 2nd game in Cleveland. When the sixth game was played in Boston a work around was tried .A plane was sent up in the air over Pittsburgh and would set up a relay system to get the signal from Boston and try to send it to the Midwest tv network. It seemed to work only with minimal success. The Midwest network was connected to the East Coast network  the next year. The Indians went on to win game 6 and on the World Series. It was the first since 1920.

In 1950 the Cleveland Browns decided to put the away games on tv in Cleveland. The Browns had been in town since 1946.After the Rams left for Los Angeles the Browns were formed and started in the AAFC. This was a rival league to the NFL at the time. The Browns entered the NFL in 1950 along with the San Francisco 49ers. The games were on WERE radio but had not been on television yet .In September 1950 the Browns announced 5 away games would be on WXEL television in Cleveland. The station WXEL  channel 9 would later be changed to WJW and moved to channel 8 because of the FCC.

The games were sponsored by Carling Brewery and would be announced by Bob Neal  and simulcast on radio and tv.

     

In 1950 the NFL owners were concerned that showing home games  on tv would hurt attendance and drop revenue for the clubs. The Los Angeles Rams showed all there home games in 1950 and suffered a big attendance drop. This  convinced all the other owners to stop showing all home games. It led to league wide rules that no home game could be shown within 75 miles of any home team. Some teams also wanted radio blackouts for home games. This resulted in lawsuits and in 1953 a federal judge ruled on television and home games in the NFL .He ruled  for the NFL that games could be blacked out at home within 75 miles. He then ruled that teams could have no radio blackouts and all away games had to be shown in the home market. The NCAA also put in rules in the mid 1950's that College football  were limited to one or 2 games per week on television. This was overruled by the Supreme Court in the early 1980's.

In 1949 WEWS  televised all 77 Indians home games. with Bob Neal as the announcer and Hall of Famer Tris Speaker as analyst. In 1950 WXEL televised the 77 Indians home games. The announcers  were Jack Graney and Jimmy Dudley. From 1951 to 1953 all home games were carried along with a small number of road games, Starting in 1954 all 77 road games were televised. The following year 1955 only 25 road games would be carried. Harry Marshall Cleveland  Councilman called for an investigation into why so few games would be televised in 1955.It ended up they showed only 27 games that year. In 1956 the games were moved backed to channel 5.The Carling Brewery would sponsor 60 weekend games . The games were split between home and away. From 1957-1959 between 56 and 60 games  were televised. In 1960 the games moved  back to channel; 8 were 56 would be shown .Between 1961-1962 the number to be televised stood at 56. The announcers in 1962 were Ken Coleman and Bob Neal. In 1965 they showed 52 games on Channel 8.It was mostly weekend games.

1966   - Channel 8      48  games  20 home 28 road 

1967     Channel 8      46 games   19 home 27 road

1968     Channel 8      48 games

1969     Channel 8      48 games

1970     Channel 8      48 games

1971     Channel 8      48 games

1972     Channel 8      48 games

1973     Channel 8      33 games      all away games

1974     Channel 8      40 games      25 home 15 away

1975     Channel 8      40 games     25 Home  15 away

1976     Channel 8      40 games

1977     Channel 8      40 game

1978     Channel 8      40 game

1979    Channel 8       40 games

1980    Channel 43     70 games

Channel 43 would continue to broadcast Indians games from 1980 through the 1990's.Ted Stepien  owner of the Cavs in 1981 showed some games on his ten tv cable network. The games moved to cable during the 1990's and are all shown on Sports Time Ohio and now Bally Sports unless shown on national cable.

In 1961 Wide World of Sports began on the ABC television network.It was carried locally on WEWS  Channel 5.Sports were shown such as the Penn Relays Track and Field.Many other sports inside of the United States were live but WEWS would delay this coverage for one week.So viewers in Cleveland would miss out on Live coverage.Finally on January 16, 1971 it was shown live for the first time.