Founded in 1985 by Malrite Communications and its chairman Milton Maltz, Cleveland 19 (WOIO) came into being to provide a new independent television option for Northeast Ohio. The idea sparked when Maltz, a local media pioneer, saw an opportunity to launch a station that would focus on movies and entertainment to compete with the three major networks that dominated the airwaves at the time. It quickly grew from a small independent channel into a major network affiliate. Today, the station is owned and operated by Gray Television. Today, Cleveland 19 is run by a large team of local journalists and meteorologists and is mainly focused on breaking local news, weather alerts, consumer investigations, and professional sports (covering the Browns, Guardians, and Cavaliers). They are based in Cleveland, Ohio, and serve as a primary news source for the Northeast Ohio region. One interesting fact: A unique fact about Cleveland 19 is its role in the historic "Great Affiliate Switch" of 1994. For its first decade, the station was actually a Fox affiliate, known for cartoons and sitcoms. However, in a massive business deal that shocked the TV industry, it suddenly swapped networks to become a CBS station, forcing viewers across the entire city to relearn their channel lineup overnight to find their favorite shows.