CFCL-TV was a television station in

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

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 ...

, Canada. The station was in operation from 1956 to 2002 as a private affiliate of

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 ...

History

The station was established on June 21, 1956 by

J. Conrad Lavigne J. Conrad Lavigne, CM, O.Ont (November 2, 1916 – April 16, 2003) was a pioneering Canadian media proprietor. Born in Chénéville, Quebec, Lavigne was raised in Cochrane, Ontario. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1942 and fought in World War ...

. It was originally established as a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

private affiliate of the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and French television networks. It aired on channel 6. The station added a rebroadcast transmitter in

Kapuskasing Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railw ...

in 1957. Lavigne subsequently added rebroadcasters in several communities in

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 Provi ...

and Western

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

; by 1965, CFCL had the largest privately owned

microwave transmission Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally limi ...

network in the world. CFCL remained a dual affiliate until the mid-1960s, when CBOFT added a transmitter in Timmins, CBFOT (later becoming CBLFT-3). In 1971, Lavigne opened new CBC stations in Sudbury ( CKNC) and North Bay ( CHNB). The existing CBC stations in those cities became CTV affiliates; their owner also extended its Sudbury signal to Timmins via transmitter CKSO-TV-2, later standalone station

CITO Cito may refer to: * Cito Culver (born 1992), American professional baseball shortstop in the New York Yankees organization * Cito Gaston (born 1944), former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager * Claus Cito (1882 – 1965), Luxembourgian s ...

. Until 1980, CFCL and CKSO-2 aggressively competed with each other for advertising dollars, leaving both in a precarious financial position due to the Timmins market's relatively small size. In 1980, the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission 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 ...

approved the merger of the two stations, along with their co-owned stations in North Bay and Sudbury, into 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, ...

. In 1990, the MCTV stations were acquired by

Baton Broadcasting Bell Media Inc. ( French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

, which became the sole corporate owner of CTV in 1997.

End of operations

CTV subsequently sold its four CBC affiliates in Northern Ontario, CFCL, CHNB in North Bay, CJIC in Sault Ste. Marie and CKNC in Sudbury directly to the CBC in 2002. All four ceased to exist as separate stations on October 27, 2002, becoming rebroadcasters of

Toronto 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 ...

CBLT CBLT-DT (channel 5) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the English-language service of CBC Television. It is part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet CBLFT-DT (channel 25). B ...

, with CFCL's call sign changed to CBLT-7. These translators would close on July 31, 2012, due to budget cuts affecting the CBC.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2012-384, July 17, 2012.
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Transmitters

References

External links

license renewal for all MCTV stations. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cfcl-Tv FCL FCL FCL Television channels and stations established in 1956 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2002 1956 establishments in Ontario 2002 disestablishments in Ontario FCL-TV