The Morning Exchange (referred to as MX in shorthand) is an American morning television program that aired on WEWS-TV (channel 5) in Cleveland, Ohio from 1972 to 1999. A highly rated and influential program, it was commonplace that on a typical day in the 1970s, over two-thirds of all television sets in the Cleveland market were tuned to The Morning Exchange. In 1975, ABC (of which WEWS is an affiliate) recognized the show's success and used MX as a template for their (then new) national morning show – creating Good Morning America. History The Morning Exchange incorporated many elements that would be used in morning television programs of the present day. It was the first morning show to use a "living room" set and establish the now familiar concept of news and weather segments at the top and bottom of the hour. The remainder of the program time was used to discuss 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 [the show's format] went on to become [the standard for all of today's network morning shows.]" Fred Griffith, the program's longtime host, talked about the groundbreaking format in another 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 [at the time] we were pioneers." The show, originally called The Alan Douglas Morning Exchange and premiering 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 hosted by Alan Douglas, when the show debuted, a traditional news desk set was used. Don Webster served as the announcer and did some of the show's interviews and Joel Rose read the news. In March 1972, Don Webster briefly left WEWS and was replaced by Liz Richards, who became a co-host and the weather presenter. In July of that year, Douglas left the station and was replaced by Griffith, who had been a member of the station's news department since 1966. The choice of Griffith as