CBWFT-DT (channel 3) is an

Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...

station in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, Canada, serving the province's

Franco-Manitoban Franco-Manitobans (french: Franco-Manitobains) are French Canadians or Canadian francophones living in the province of Manitoba. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 40,975 residents of the province stated that French was their mother tongue. In ...

population. It has common ownership with

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

station

CBWT-DT CBWT-DT (channel 6) is a CBC Television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It has common ownership with Ici Radio-Canada Télé station CBWFT-DT (channel 3). Both stations share studios on Portage Avenue and Young Street in Downtown Winnipeg ...

(channel 6). Both stations share studios on Portage Avenue and Young Street in

Downtown Winnipeg Downtown Winnipeg is an area of Winnipeg located near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It is the oldest urban area in Winnipeg, and is home to the city's commercial core, city hall, the seat of Manitoba's provincial government, a ...

, while CBWFT-DT's transmitter is located atop the Richardson Building.

History

The CBC announced on February 17, 1959 that they would appear before the BBG (predecessor to the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

) in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

on March 18 to apply for a license to extend Radio-Canada's television signal into the Winnipeg area. CBWFT first signed on at 3 p.m. on April 24, 1960, using channel 6 with an EIRP of 2,800 watts. At the same time two VTRs, worth $75,000 each were installed at the station. It was the first francophone television station west of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. Its opening broadcast was a ceremony held at the Notre Dame Auditorium in

St. Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

. Dignitaries included in attendance were

Lieutenant-Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

Errick Willis Errick French Willis (March 21, 1896 – January 9, 1967) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as leader of the province's Conservative Party between 1936 and 1954, and was responsible for beginning and ending the party's allia ...

;

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Duff Roblin Dufferin "Duff" Roblin, (June 17, 1917 – May 30, 2010) was a Canadian businessman and politician. He served as the 14th premier of Manitoba from 1958 to 1967. Roblin was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Prime Minister Pierr ...

; CBC President

Alphonse Ouimet Joseph-Alphonse Ouimet, (June 12, 1908 – December 20, 1988) was a Canadian television pioneer and president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1958 to 1967 Born in Montreal, he received a degree in electrical engineering fr ...

; Marcel Ouimet, general manager of Radio-Canada; J. R. Finlay, CBC Prairie Region Director; and Leo Remillard, CBWFT's program director. At first, CBWFT's broadcast day ran between 6 and 12 hours, with a longer programming day on weekends. Over the years, this was extended to encompass most of the day. Initially, Radio-Canada's microwave link did not reach as far as Winnipeg. Instead,

videotapes Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette ...

and films were "bicycled" from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and delayed by one week, except for news and live events like ''

La Soirée du hockey ''La Soirée du hockey'' (literally translated to ''The Night of Hockey'') was a Canadian ice hockey television show. It was the French language Radio-Canada equivalent of the English Canadian CBC show ''Hockey Night in Canada''. The show used "T ...

''. On November 15, 1964, it swapped frequencies with CBWT and a higher-powered transmitter was installed at the new site near Starbuck. From 1964 till the early 1980s, it referred to itself simply as "CBWFT canal 3 Winnipeg". During the early 1980s, CBWFT was known as "CBWFT 3/10", signifying its position on Channel 3, Cable 10 in Winnipeg. On January 1, 1986, it became known as "Radio-Canada Manitoba". By October 31, 1966, CBWFT was connected to the Radio-Canada microwave signal, allowing the live feed of ''

Le Téléjournal ''Le Téléjournal'' is the umbrella title used for the television newscasts aired on the Ici Radio-Canada Télé broadcast network. ''Le Téléjournal'' (by itself) has been used since 1954 as the title of the network's flagship newscast, orig ...

'' at 6 p.m. Prior to this the newscast consisted of Radio-Canada's radio news with locally inserted images. Several months after the first Anik A satellite was launched in 1972, CBWFT switched to the satellite feed of Radio-Canada and dropped the microwave feed, except to distribute its signal within its coverage area, Manitoba and

Northwestern Ontario Northwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the ...

, and part of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. In 1976, a

rebroadcaster A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

of CBWFT programming in Regina became CBKFT. In 1985, CBKFT was issued a separate license to broadcast its own ''Ce Soir'' regional news program.

News operation

In 2005, the long-running ''Ce Soir'' news program was renamed to ''Le Téléjournal'', which is the same name of the French national news program on Radio-Canada. The ''Téléjournal'' local edition is normally 30 minutes in length, however the Wednesday edition is 60 minutes. The program is also rebroadcast at 11 p.m.

Technical information

Subchannel

Analogue-to-digital conversion

CBWFT switched from analogue to

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

broadcasting on December 9, 2011, from its Winnipeg transmitter atop the

Richardson Building Richardson Building may refer to: ;in Canada: * Richardson Building (Winnipeg) ;in New Zealand: *Richardson Building, a building of the University of Otago in Dunedin which houses the University of Otago Faculty of Law ;in the United States: *Ric ...

, after several delays, due to an "unforeseen delay that is outside of the Corporation's control," involving antenna erection. CBWFT's digital signal operates on

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 51. 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 A ...

, digital television receivers will display CBWFT'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 3.1.Digital Television - Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA)

Transmitters

CBWFT operated 11 analogue television retransmitters in Manitoba (e.g.

Brandon Brandon may refer to: Names and people *Brandon (given name), a male given name * Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins Places Australia *Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales *Brandon, Q ...

) and Northwestern Ontario (in the parts of that region which fall in the

Central Time Zone The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...

, e.g.

Kenora Kenora (), previously named Rat Portage (french: Portage-aux-Rats), is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, close to the Manitoba boundary, and about east of Winnipeg by road. It is the seat of Kenora District. The his ...

). Due to federal funding reductions to the CBC, in April 2012, the CBC responded with substantial budget cuts, which included shutting down CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012.Speaking notes for Hubert T. Lacroix regarding measures announced in the context of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan
/ref> None of CBC or Radio-Canada's television rebroadcasters were converted to digital.

Manitoba

Northwest Ontario

References

External links

ICI Manitoba
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbwft BWFT-DT BWFT-DT Television channels and stations established in 1960 Franco-Manitoban culture 1960 establishments in Manitoba