The Morning Exchange - History

History

The Morning Exchange changed the face of morning television. It was the first morning show to use a "living room" set and establish the now familiar concept of news and weather at the top and bottom of the hour. The remainder of the time was used for discussing general interest/entertainment topics. In a 2006 interview, Ken Lowe, the CEO of Scripps-Howard Broadcasting said, "The Morning Exchange was a huge risk that Don Perris took at the time. A lot of people thought that he was out of his mind when he suggested a morning show of that nature. Of course, we all know that went on to become " Fred Griffith, the program's longtime host, talked about the ground-breaking format in a 2006 interview saying, "We talked about death, sexuality, dealing with career choices, how to establish long lasting relationships, we talked about all those kinds of things that are just routine now, but we were pioneers."

The show, originally called The Alan Douglas Morning Exchange and first aired on January 3, 1972, was created by Donald L. Perris and William F. Baker as an alternative to the solely news-based morning shows at the time. Originally, when the show debuted, a traditional news desk set was used and the show was hosted by Alan Douglas. Don Webster was the announcer and did some of the show's interviews and Joel Rose read the news. In March 1972, Don Webster briefly left the station and he was replaced by Liz Richards, who became a co-host and the weather presenter. In July, Douglas left the station and was replaced by Fred Griffith, a member of the station's news department since 1966. The choice of Griffith as a co-host of the show was only meant to be temporary, but Griffith remained a co-host throughout the remainder of the program's history.

In August 1972, a decision was made to replace the news desk set with a set that resembled a suburban living room and Griffith, Richards, and Rose would instead recline on couches. Producers felt that this would make viewers feel more relaxed and comfortable. This idea seemed to work, as the format became more relaxed as the hosts developed chemistry on screen. As a result, many viewers felt that the TV set was an extension of their own living room and that the personalities were a part of their families. MX quickly became extremely popular, with an average of 67% of television viewers tuning in each day.

The format was so successful that ABC used The Morning Exchange as the pilot for the nationally broadcast Good Morning America, replacing the struggling A.M. America. The format quickly caught on and soon GMA topped The Today Show on NBC. Soon thereafter, both NBC and CBS adopted the format for their morning shows.

On March 16, 1979 in an emotional episode, a tearful Richards left the show in order to care for her children. She was replaced by Jan Jones. Jones became a consultant for WEWS in 1983 and left the show. In 1984, Rose left WEWS-TV to devote himself full-time to his radio talk show on WJW (AM), and Randi Hall became the new co-host of the show for a year and a half. Rose would return to the show in 1986 and remain until 1990. The news segment updates were now delivered by either Jenny Crimm or Lou Maglio. Unlike Rose, however, Crimm and Maglio simply read the news and were not co-hosts. In 1987, Lee Jordan became the new co-host, filling the void left by Hall's earlier departure.

From 1976–1982 and then again from 1988 through the show's end, Lynda Hirsch provided recaps and previews of television soap operas. She developed such a reputation on the show that she was given her own national syndicated newspaper column.

David Moss (now with Cleveland Fox TV affiliate WJW (TV)) served as entertainment reporter from 1985–1993. In 1990 Jon Loufman (now with Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO channel 19) joined the show and provided weather reports and a number of live shots. In 1993, both Maglio and Moss left the show for new positions at WJW, while Loufman left for WKYC (and later, WJW). Loufman was replaced by Mark Johnson. Later in 1993, Lee Jordan moved from MX co-host to WEWS evening co-anchor (to replace the departing Wilma Smith). Jordan was replaced by former WKYC anchor Connie Dieken. Liz Claman was also an anchor of Morning Exchange, she is now on the Fox Business Network. Claman's stint was from 1991-95.