prime time on Sundays beginning in the fall of 1996, WUAB management suggested WB could become "a weekend network". Increasingly unable to accommodate programming from both networks and Indians and Cavaliers telecasts, WUAB dropped The WB, with WBNX-TV taking the affiliation on September 1, 1997. Montgomery, Alabama-based Raycom Media purchased Malrite Communications on April 6, 1998, for an undisclosed price; the LMA with WUAB was included in the deal. The sale was finalized six months later on September 17. Under Raycom ownership, WUAB and WOIO began identifying as "Hometeam 19" and "Hometeam 43" for both newscasts and entertainment programming. On March 11, 2000, after the FCC relaxed rules allowing common ownership of two commercially licensed television stations in the same market, Raycom acquired WUAB outright. Raycom struggled to turn a profit with WOIO and WUAB and admitted to overpaying for them during collective bargaining agreement negotiations for unionized behind-the-scenes personnel in 2000, exacerbated by WOIO's newscasts failing to find viewership amid continuous on-air and management turnover. The biggest change for WUAB came on October 18, 2001, when the Cleveland Indians signed an exclusive cable-only deal with Fox Sports Ohio for the 2002 season, removing over-the-air telecasts entirely. Bill Applegate, who became general manager for the two stations earlier in the year, publicly hinted at such a deal weeks beforehand as a way for the Indians to increase revenue in a way WUAB could not provide. In a bid to revamp the station's image without the Indians games, WUAB rebranded as "43 The Block" on March 4, 2002, with locally produced comedy skits in between the early-evening lineup. After a casting call, the station selected four "regular Joe" comics that included future How to Boil Water host Jack Hourigan. Mike Polk, a member of the station's promotions department, began contributing to "The Block" segments with his Last Call Cleveland troupe. MyNetworkTV affiliation On January 24, 2006, UPN parent CBS Corporation (formed after a split of the original Viacom) and Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment division announced that they would dissolve UPN and The WB, moving some of their programming to a newly created network, The CW. WBNX-TV signed up as one of The CW's first outside charter affiliates not owned by either CBS or Tribune Broadcasting. To serve former affiliates of either network not selected for The CW—namely its own—News Corporation announced the creation of MyNetworkTV on February 22, 2006. WUAB