WJW-TV history

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.

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.

On November 16, 1963, approximately 30 WJW radio and television personalities went on strike, forcing both stations to use supervisory and production personnel in those roles, many from parent company Storer Broadcasting stations in Atlanta and Miami.

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. As a result, channel 8 changed its callsign to WJKW-TV on April 22, 1977. (The added "K" did not stand for anything.)

The station switched network affiliation from ABC to CBS and simultaneously moved to Channel 8 in 1955, following its purchase by the Storer Broadcasting Co. of Miami, FL, which occupied a seat on the CBS board. It was purchased in 1987 by the Gillett Group, which sold it 6 years later to New World Communications, Inc.

In May 1994 WJW was part of an epochal deal in which New World switched 12 of its VHF television stations to the fledgling Fox network.

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.

On July 1, 2013, the Tribune Company acquired the Local TV stations for $2.75 billion; the sale was completed on December 27.

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.

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.