CBLT-DT (channel 5) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada, serving as the
flagship station of the English-language service of
CBC Television. It is part of a
twinstick
A duopoly (or twinstick, referring to "stick" as jargon for a radio tower) is a situation in television and radio broadcasting in which two or more stations in the same city or community share common ownership.
United States
In the United States, ...
with
Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet
CBLFT-DT (channel 25). Both stations share studios at the
Canadian Broadcasting Centre
The Canadian Broadcasting Centre, also known as the CBC Toronto Broadcast Centre, is an office and studio complex located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It serves as the main broadcast and master control point for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp ...
on
Front Street West in
downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Str ...
, which is also shared with national cable news channel
CBC News Network
CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
and houses the studios for most of CBC's news and entertainment programs. CBLT-DT's transmitter is located atop the
CN Tower
The CN Tower (french: Tour CN) is a concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway c ...
.
History
![CBC logo 1940–1958](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/CBC_logo_1940%E2%80%931958.png)
The station first signed on the air on September 8, 1952, originally broadcasting on
VHF channel 9. It is the oldest television station in the province of Ontario, and the second oldest in Canada after Ici Radio-Canada Télé flagship station
CBFT
CBFT-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the French-language service of Ici Radio-Canada Télé. It is owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in Fren ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
. The station's first broadcast was prefaced by the inadvertent incorrect display of the CBC's national network logo; conflicting accounts say it was either displayed upside-down or backwards, due to the incorrect insertion of the slide. No such error was made two days earlier when CBFT signed on.
CBLT originally broadcast from a series of smaller studios with the main one on Mutual Street nicknamed unofficially as "The Barn" next to the
transmitter tower (the old management building, nicknamed "The Kremlin", is now part of the
National Ballet School
Canada's National Ballet School, also commonly known as the National Ballet School of Canada, is a classical ballet school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Along with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, it is a provider of professional ballet tr ...
on Jarvis Street). On January 19, 1953, a microwave link between
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
and Toronto was activated, allowing the live telecast of programs from the American television networks. A few months later, on May 14, 1953, CBC Television's stations in Montreal (CBFT) and
Ottawa (
CBOT) became the first connections within the
Trans-Canada Microwave
Trans Canada Microwave or Trans-Canada Skyway was a microwave relay system built in the 1950s to carry telephone and television signals from Canada's east coast to its west coast. Built across the nation, the towers ranged in height from nine metr ...
system.
In 1956, CBLT moved to VHF channel 6 and increased its
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would h ...
from 25 to 100 kW. The change in frequency was made to accommodate the eventual licensing of a second privately owned local station for Toronto, which eventually became
CFTO
CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 outlet CKVR-DT, channel 3 ...
(channel 9) when that station was licensed at the end of 1960. Then in 1972, CBLT relocated to channel 5 in order to allow two new stations – CKGN (now
CIII-DT
CIII-DT (channel 41) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, CIII-DT maintains studios at 81 Barber Gree ...
) in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and a repeater of Ottawa-based
CJOH
CJOH-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Pembroke-licensed CTV 2 outlet CHRO-TV (channel 5). Both stations share ...
in
Deseronto
Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located at the mouth of the Napanee River on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, on the northern side of Lake Ontario.
The town was named for Captain John Deseronto, a n ...
– to use channel 6.
CBLT moved its transmitter facilities to the
CN Tower
The CN Tower (french: Tour CN) is a concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway c ...
when it opened in 1976; its signal was transmitted from the tower for the first time on May 31, 1976. It moved its operations to the
Canadian Broadcasting Centre
The Canadian Broadcasting Centre, also known as the CBC Toronto Broadcast Centre, is an office and studio complex located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It serves as the main broadcast and master control point for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp ...
on
Front Street in 1992.
Branding
CBLT has used a variety of on-air brands since its inception. From 1957 to 1972, it was known as "Channel 6". Following its move to channel 5 in 1972, it rebranded as "CBLT Five", later simplifying it to "CBLT/5". In the late 1970s, the station was branded as "Toronto/5", with the then-new CBC logo substituting for one of the O's in "Toronto". During the 1980s, it was known mainly as CBLT-TV, although it used a "CBC 5" logo. Starting on January 1, 1986, the station was identified in print ads as "CBC Television Toronto/5", but the CBLT name was used for its local programs including its supper hour newscast ''CBLT Newshour''. By the 1990s, it was known simply as "CBC Toronto", although the CBLT calls were used from time to time in local programming, and on the CBC website. As with most Canadian television stations, the use of the analogue channel placement was phased out of the station's logo and advertising, as most cable placements did not match up with its VHF frequency.
News operation
CBLT-DT currently broadcasts 10 hours, 40 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with two hours each weekday, a half-hour on Saturdays and ten minutes on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the lowest local newscast output out of any English-language television station in the immediate Toronto market and the second lowest among the stations in the expanded Toronto–
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
–
Barrie
Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Although physically in Simcoe County, Barrie is politically ...
market as a whole (behind
CTV 2
CTV 2 is a Canadian English-language television system owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The system consists of four terrestrial owned-and-operated television stations (O&Os) in Ontario, one in British Columbia and two regional cab ...
owned-and-operated station
CKVR-DT
CKVR-DT (channel 3) is a television station in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Toronto-based CTV outlet CFTO-DT, channel 9 (although the two st ...
, which airs seven hours of newscasts each week). CBLT's newscasts have consistently faced very stiff competition in the Toronto market, consistently rating behind
CTV station CFTO since it surged to the number one spot in 1970, and behind
CITY-TV
CITY-DT (channel 57) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television outlets CFMT-DT (chan ...
(channel 57) since 1982.
On September 10, 1984, CBLT debuted one of the only locally produced morning television programs in Canada, ''CBLT Morning'', which aired weekdays from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. The program was co-hosted by
Dale Goldhawk and Leslie Jones, with news reported by Kevin Marsh. At the time of the program's cancellation on April 4, 1986, it was watched by 20,000 viewers, more than the Canadian viewership of
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
Good Morning America'', but less than that of CTV's ''
Canada AM
''Canada AM'' was a Canadian morning television news show that aired on CTV from 1972 to 2016. Its final hosts were Beverly Thomson and Marci Ien, with Jeff Hutcheson presenting the weather forecast and sports. The program aired on weekdays, an ...
''.
In the spring of 1995, according to
BBM Canada
Numeris (formerly the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, or BBM Canada) is a Canadian audience measurement organization. Established on May 11, 1944 as a division of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Numeris is the primary provider of viewers ...
, CBLT's evening newscast ''CBC Evening News'' had a total audience of 117,000 viewers in the Toronto-Hamilton market, putting it in fourth place behind ''
Global News
Global News is the news and current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as local news on its 21 owned- ...
'' on CIII at 141,000, CITY's ''
CityPulse
''CityNews'' (corporately styled City''News'') is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as ''CityPulse'' as a standalone loc ...
'' at 229,000, and CFTO's ''World Beat News'' at 409,000. Only
CHCH
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River ...
(channel 11), the only other station based in the Toronto-Hamilton market with a 6:00 p.m. newscast, had lower viewership at 77,000 viewers.
On October 15, 2011, CBLT debuted a half-hour 6:00 p.m. newscast on Saturdays; the station then launched a ten-minute news bulletin on Sundays at 11:00 p.m. the following day. A 30-minute newscast at 11:00 p.m. on weeknights was introduced on September 17, 2012. The additional local newscasts were part of a five-year strategic plan by the CBC called "2015: Everyone, Every Way", which will feature local service improvements across CBC's television, radio and internet platforms.
Notable current on-air staff
*
Dwight Drummond – weeknight anchor
Notable former on-air staff
*
Guido Basso
Guido Basso, (born 27 September 1937) is a Canadian jazz musician who was a member of Rob McConnell's Boss Brass big band. He is a trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer and conductor.
Life and career
Basso was born in Montreal, Quebec ...
–
music director (1963–1967)
*
Bill Cameron – news anchor (1992–1995)
*
Sharon Dunn – anchor of ''Newshour'' and ''Newsfinal''/host of ''
Reach for the Top
''Reach for the Top'' (also known simply as ''Reach'') is a Canadian academic quiz competition for high school students. In the past, it has also been a game show nationally broadcast on the CBC. Matches are currently aired online through Reach ...
'' (1979–1984)
*
Dale Goldhawk – co-host of ''CBLT Morning'' (1984–1986)
*
Bill Harrington – legislative reporter
*
Ross Hull
Ross Hull (born August 25, 1975) is a Canadian actor and television personality. He is known for his role as Chris Sheppard on Canadian sitcom ''Student Bodies'' and as Gary, the leader of the Midnight Society, on the television series ''Are Yo ...
– meteorologist (2013–2014)
*
Hilary Brown – anchor of ''Newshour'' (1984–1991)
*
Fraser Kelly – co-host of ''Newshour'' (1981–1986)
*
Jeffrey Kofman – anchor/reporter
*
Claire Martin – weeknights meteorologist
*
Anne-Marie Mediwake
Anne Marie Abeyesinghe Mediwake is a Canadian television news anchor. Formerly co-anchor of Global Toronto's 6 p.m. ''News Hour'', she was hired in September 2009 by the CBC News Network. In October 2010, she became co-anchor of CBC News Toront ...
– weeknights anchor (2010–2016)
*
Suhana Meharchand
Suhana Meharchand is a Canadian retired journalist who was most recently a CBC News Network anchor and host of '' CBC News Now''.
Early life
Meharchand was born in Durban, South Africa, and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Meharchand is a gra ...
– news anchor (1995–2022)
*
Steve Paikin – Queen's Park correspondent
*
Percy Saltzman
Percy Philip Saltzman, (March 15, 1915 – January 15, 2007) was a meteorologist and television personality best remembered for being the first weatherman in English-speaking Canadian television history.
As a pioneer in weather forecasting ...
– CBLT's first weather person (1952–1972)
*
Adam Vaughan
Adam G. Vaughan (born July 3, 1961) is a Canadian politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2014 until 2021. Vaughan represented the Toronto area riding of Spadina—Fort York as a member of the Liberal Party. He previously sat ...
– reporter (1994–2000)
Technical information
Subchannel
Analogue-to-digital conversion
On January 30, 2004, the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted CBLT permission to broadcast a digital signal on UHF channel 20; CBLT's began broadcasting programming in
high definition on March 5, 2005.
CBLT shut down its analogue signal, over VHF channel 5, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory
markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20.
[Digital Television – Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA)](_blank)
Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analogue channel 5.
Coverage
The station's signal from its CN Tower transmitter adequately covers the immediate
Greater Toronto Area, from
Oshawa in the east, out to
Halton Hills
)
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, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = CAN ON Halton#Canada Southern Ontario
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type ...
and
Georgetown in the west, and from Hamilton and
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...
in the south, to roughly
Bradford.
In addition, CBLT serves as the default CBC affiliate for cable and satellite subscribers in markets previously served over-the-air by CBLT's rebroadcast transmitters (see
below), as well as the
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
and
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
television markets, after
CKPR-DT
CKPR-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, affiliated with CTV. It is owned by locally based Dougall Media alongside Global affiliate CHFD-DT (channel 4). Both stations share studios on Hill and Van Norman Stre ...
in Thunder Bay disaffiliated from the network September 1, 2014 and
CHEX-DT
CHEX-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Monaghan Road (near Rose Avenue) in ...
in Peterborough and its sister station
CHEX-TV-2 in Oshawa both followed August 31, 2015, in both cases to become affiliates of the CTV Television Network.
The station is also carried on cable in several American communities, similar to sister stations
CBUT
CBUT-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of CBC Television. It is part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé station CBUFT-DT (channel 26). Both stations sh ...
in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
CBET in
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
and CBMT in Montreal.
In the Caribbean, CBLT is carried on cable providers in
Anguilla
Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The terr ...
,
Antigua and Barbuda,
St. Kitts and Nevis,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...
,
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, es ...
,
Cayman Islands,
Grenada,
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and n ...
and
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
.
Former transmitters
CBLT served much of Ontario through a network of over 35 rebroadcast transmitters, including all of
Northeastern Ontario
Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior.
Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiskami ...
and most of
Southwestern Ontario, with the exception of Windsor since CBET-DT serves the Windsor area. The station only served
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...
and a few rural
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...
communities until 2002, when it took over the CBC affiliates of the
MCTV twinstick
A duopoly (or twinstick, referring to "stick" as jargon for a radio tower) is a situation in television and radio broadcasting in which two or more stations in the same city or community share common ownership.
United States
In the United States, ...
. CBLGT in
Geraldton
Geraldton ( Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth.
At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...
and the CBLAT transmitters had operated since the early 1970s, while others were added as other CBC affiliates disaffiliated from the network or were bought by CBC.
On August 16, 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC permission to continue operating 22 analogue repeaters within mandatory markets, including those in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Kitchener. These analogue transmitters were given an extension until August 31, 2012 to continue in operation, by which time the transmitters had to be converted to digital or shut down. CBC did not seek an extension for its Barrie transmitter, which it shut down on August 31, 2011; however, the remaining satellite rebroadcast stations remained in operation.
Reportedly due to federal funding reductions to the CBC in April 2012, the CBC made substantial cuts to their transmitting budget, including shutting down CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analogue transmitters on July 31, 2012. This included shutting down all the remaining CBC and Radio-Canada's rebroadcasters that had been "held over" using analogue transmitters during 2011–12. All of them have been decommissioned by the CBC, leaving rural Canadians and U.S. border regions with no free over-the-air CBC coverage, and those viewers have been instructed to subscribe to a cable or satellite provider or have been directed to the website available through pay internet providers.
CBC-TV, TVO end analog transmission
/ref>
Rebroadcasters of CBLT
Rebroadcasters of CBLN-TV
The following is a list of transmitters that originally rebroadcast London, Ontario-based CBC outlet CBLN-TV. CBLN-TV first signed on in 1988 as a CBC outlet for southwestern Ontario outside of Windsor, broadcasting on UHF channel 40, replacing CFPL-TV
CFPL-DT (channel 10) is a television station in London, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV 2 system. It is owned and operated by Bell Media alongside Kitchener-based CTV station CKCO-DT, channel 13 (although the two stations maintain separate oper ...
as an affiliate. CBLN-TV carried local advertising and very few programming variations, but otherwise produced no programming of its own and was a ''de facto'' rebroadcaster of CBLT.
See also
* CBLFT-DT
*List of CBC television stations
CBC Television is a Canadian English language public television network made up of fourteen owned-and-operated stations. Some privately owned stations were formerly affiliated with the network until as late as August 2016. This is a table listing ...
References
External links
CBC Toronto official website
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cblt-Dt
BLT-DT
Television channels and stations established in 1952
1952 in Canadian television
BLT-DT
1952 establishments in Ontario