Dave Chudowsky Joins WKYC's Morning Show

Dave Chudowsky and Maureen Kyle goof off during a live March taping of WKYC Channel 3’s Morning Show. An unfazed Hollie Strano expertly delivers the 5:48 a.m. weather update in front of a nearby green screen. Commercials come, and Strano seamlessly joins the mock argument over the merits of Tim Hortons coffee. Chudowsky, ever the fresh perspective, is an iced tea guy.

Their on-screen playfulness isn’t an act, Kyle says. “It’s like we forget we’re on air sometimes.”

“Chud,” as he’s nicknamed, moved to the 4-7 a.m. slot in October after 11 years as weekend and nighttime sports reporter. Already, the three news amigos have created an off-screen mojo that oozes into each morning’s broadcast.

“We walk in here in PJs,” says Strano. “We get ready together, we laugh together, we go out together outside of work.”

When the 44-year-old Bay Village native replaced longtime anchor John Anderson, he injected the show with a healthy dose of fun and personality. During “Face Your Fears” week, he jumped off Cleveland State University’s Olympic-level high dive, and he once pushed Kyle to finally taste Taco Bell. Whether overlooking the city from the Terminal Tower with Governor Mike DeWine or triangle dancing with his co-hosts, he brings the same folksiness to the news that he did to coverage of the 2016 NBA Finals and World Series. 

“Every time I did a sportscast, I wanted someone at home to feel like, Man, I want to go have a beer with that guy,” says the father of two. “Now it’s, Hey, I want to have breakfast or a cup of coffee with that guy.”

Chudowsky cut his teeth as a sports reporter at WTVG in Toledo and an anchor at Ohio News Network in Columbus. But joining the WKYC team in 2007 alongside news anchor and sportscaster Jim Donovan helped him hone his craft.

“Watching Jim for 11 years made me better,” Chudowsky says. “You have to be on your game with him. When he would toss to me live, there are no scripts, you had to be ready for everything. That helps me be ready for anything now.”

The experience prepared Chudowsky for a job tryout — one he didn’t totally know about. When Adam Miller, WKYC’s director of content, came from Today in October, he scanned the station’s talent for the perfect mix of Morning Show personalities that could engage audiences and compete with other local stations as well as online. Night after night, Chudowsky drew him in.

“There’s a lot more to this guy than just sports,” Miller says. “He’s very, very smart. He can hold his own with any newsmaker in Cleveland.” Chudowsky’s skills might have made him the perfect man for the job, but his newsmaking family made the trasition seamless.

“They 100 percent welcomed me in,” he says.  “I feel like we’ve been doing this for years.”