CIII-DT (channel 41) 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
Global Television Network.
Owned and operated
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by network parent
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Onta ...
, CIII-DT maintains studios at 81 Barber Greene Road (near Leslie Street) in the
Don Mills
Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed to be a self-supporting "new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper. In 1998, North York, including the Don Mills com ...
district of Toronto, and its 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 ...
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 ...
.
The station reaches much of the population of Ontario through a network of 12 transmitters across primarily the southern and central portions of the province (as a result, it is the ''de facto'' Global outlet for the capital city of
Ottawa through repeater CIII-DT-6). Since August 29, 2022, CIII-DT serves as the
master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as sw ...
hub for all 15 Global owned-and-operated stations across Canada.
History
Ken Soble
Kenneth David Soble (June 12, 1911 "Ken Soble: He Favored Anything that Worked." ''Toronto Star'', December 17, 1966, p. 17. - December 16, 1966) was a Canadian broadcasting executive, who became the owner of radio station CHML and was one of the ...
, the founder of
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT (channel 11) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Channel Zero (company), Channel Zero, the station maintains studios on Innovation Drive in the west end of Ham ...
in
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 ...
, envisioned a national "
superstation" of 96 satellite-fed transmitters with CHCH as its flagship. In 1966, he filed the first application with the
Board of Broadcast Governors
The Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) was an arms-length Government of Canada agency. It was created in 1958 by amending the ''Broadcast Act'' to regulate television and radio broadcasting, originally taking over that function from the CBC.
...
for a network to be branded as NTV — however, the application faced various regulatory hurdles and underwent numerous revisions over the next number of years. The
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) eventually decided to go ahead with the publicly owned
Anik satellite system instead of relying on private communications companies to build Canada's satellite broadcasting infrastructure, placing the NTV application in jeopardy after
Power Corporation of Canada
Power Corporation of Canada () is a management and holding company that focuses on financial services in North America, Europe and Asia. Its core holdings are insurance, retirement, wealth management and investment management, including a portfol ...
, a key investor in the plan, backed out.
In 1970, one of Soble's former employees,
Al Bruner Al Bruner (1923 - 1987) was a Canadian television broadcaster, most noted as the co-founder of the Global Television Network."Al Bruner, 63, TV innovator Global network founder dies". ''Toronto Star'', August 29, 1987.
Before Global
Bruner was bo ...
, teamed up with Peter Hill to revive the application under new ownership. Bruner and Hill's group, Global Communications, scaled back the original NTV proposal to a network of seven UHF transmitters in
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 ...
, whose combined footprint would have provided at least secondary
broadcast coverage from
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 ...
to
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. Global Communications still aspired to eventually build out Soble's original 97-station network, and viewed the seven-transmitter Ontario chain as an interim step. However, since CHCH was no longer involved in the application, Global's iteration of the plan also required the launch of a new station to serve as its flagship.
The station first signed on the air on January 6, 1974 as CKGN-TV (before its use by the station, the CKGN callsign had previously been used by what is now
CTV owned-and-operated station
CKNY-TV
CKNY-DT (channel 10) is a television station in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains a transmitter adjacent to Ski Hill Road (southwest of Highway ...
in
North Bay from 1955 to 1962). It branded itself as the "Global Television Network," a name which reflected its then-unprecedented coverage of most of Southern Ontario from six transmitters (a seventh that would have reached Montreal was turned down) fed from a centralized studio. From its launch in 1974 until 2009, the station's main transmitter was licensed to
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 ...
, a small town near
Brantford
Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...
, but Toronto became the station's primary
city of licence
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broad ...
following an amendment to the channel 41 licence in 2009.
[CRTC Decision 2009-409]
/ref> Through its entire history, however, the station's main studio facility has been based in a converted factory (built 1954 for Barber Greene Canada Limited) in the Don Mills area of North York (since 1998, located in Toronto).
It had hoped to be distinct from CBC and CTV by airing a number of its own Canadian-made programs. Three months later, however, many of these programs had been cancelled due to deep financial problems. It had made a serious blunder by signing on in the middle of the 1973–74 television season, and prospective advertisers did not have the money to spare for commercial spots. It barely registered as a blip in the ratings; in Toronto, for instance, it only drew a 2.5 share, just a fraction of those drawn by CBC and CTV. Its line of credit was yanked, and it was unable to meet daily expenses.
Amid losses of over a million dollars a month, the network was bailed out by two conglomerates in March 1974 – a Toronto-based group headed by Paul Morton and a Winnipeg
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, ...
-based group headed by Izzy Asper
Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper (August 11, 1932– October 7, 2003) was a Canadian tax lawyer and media magnate. He was the founder and owner of the now-defunct TV and media company CanWest Global Communications Corp and father to its former CEO and ...
. By the fall, Global was forced to scrap its ambitious business model just to survive. Instead, it began airing as much non-Canadian content as allowed (at the time, Canadian content regulations required stations to broadcast domestically produced programs for 60% of its overall schedule, and 50% during prime time), becoming essentially a clone of CTV.
The Asper group bought controlling interest in 1985, making him the first western owner of a major Canadian broadcaster. In 1989, the two groups tried to buy out each other's shares, and the CRTC ended the contest by allowing Asper and his company, Canwest, to take full ownership.
The station's callsign was changed to CIII-TV in January 1984, in accordance with its 10th anniversary of broadcasting. The 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 ...
/ Cottam transmitter would be an exception to the rebroadcasters that were also assigned the CIII calls that month for a few years as it continued to be identified in CRTC documents as CKGN-TV-1, perhaps because of licensing issues with nearby broadcasters in the Detroit market (the CKGN calls are now used by an FM radio station in Kapuskasing, Ontario
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 ...
).
News operation
CIII-DT presently broadcasts 30 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 35 minutes each weekday and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main news department in Toronto, the station also operates a news bureau
A news bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate a geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; ' ...
at the National Press Centre in Ottawa. CIII does not employ its own entertainment or sports reporters. Entertainment news coverage is provided by ''Entertainment Tonight Canada
''ET Canada'' (previously referred to as ''Entertainment Tonight Canada'') is a Canadian entertainment news television series, using the same format as the American entertainment newsmagazine '' Entertainment Tonight''. ''ET Canada'' is a broadca ...
'' and sports news content was formerly provided by sports specialty channel Sportsnet 360.
Early on, its flagship news program ''Global News'' was developed under the guidance of Bill Cunningham Bill Cunningham may refer to:
People
*Bill Cunningham (rugby union) (1874–1927), New Zealand rugby union player
* Bill Cunningham (footballer), Irish international footballer active in the 1890s
*Bill Cunningham (infielder) (1886–1946), profe ...
, a veteran of CBC News
CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...
; in the beginning, the newscast was anchored by Peter Trueman
William Peter Main Trueman (December 25, 1934 – July 23, 2021) was a Canadian television and radio personality, best known for his work for the Global Television Network between 1974 and 1977, and from 1978 to July 1988. In the 1960s and ear ...
in Toronto and Peter Desbarats
Peter Hullett Desbarats, OC (July 2, 1933 – February 11, 2014) was a Canadian author, playwright and journalist. in Ottawa. During the news department's early years, its newscasts were one of the most successful and important programs that CKGN/CIII had. Trueman has noted in his memoir that the programme was groundbreaking: "Our newsroom-studio combination ... served as a model for the new CHAN-TV
CHAN-DT (channel 8), branded on-air as Global BC (formerly British Columbia Television or BCTV), is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Global Television Network. Owned and oper ...
facilities in Vancouver, and it is currently 979
Year 979 ( CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* March 24 – Second Battle of Pankaleia: An Ibero-Byzantine expeditionary ...
the inspiration for Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...
's new Cablenews operation in Atlanta". The CBC also looked to it for inspiration when it changed its national news format in the early 1980s. The programme also pioneered the use of "regional correspondents," usually print or radio journalists, who would regularly advise the station about stories in their part of Ontario. This allowed field producers and a Global crew to target key stories of the day. "This is the main reason that much of Global's ex-urban coverage has been so effective", Trueman wrote in 1979.
During the 1980s, Global greatly expanded its news operation, with a 90-minute block of news starting at 5:30 p.m., as well as newscasts at noon and 11:00 p.m. By the end of the 1980s, the noon newscast was simply titled ''News at Noon'', the 5:30 newscast was called ''First News'', the 6:00 newscast was called ''The Six O'Clock Report'', and the 11:00 newscast was titled ''The World Tonight''. Trueman left CIII in 1988. Other anchors on the station over the years have included Mike Anscombe
Mike Anscombe is a Canadian broadcaster who appeared on the Global Television Network between 1974 and 1997 as a news anchor; most notably as one of the "Three Nice Guys" when he co-anchored Global's noon newscast with John Dawe and Bob McAdorey. ...
, Beverly Thomson
Beverly D. Thomson (born April 15, 1966) is a Canadian journalist and correspondent with CTV News Channel. Along with Seamus O'Regan, Thomson was co-host of ''Canada AM'', CTV's former national morning show, from 2003 to 2016. In 2006, she re ...
, John Dawe, Jane Gilbert, Peter Kent
James Peter Kent (born July 27, 1943) is a former Canadian journalist and former politician who served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Thornhill from 2008 to 2021. He served as Minister of the Environment in the 28th ...
, Loretta Sullivan, Bob McAdorey
Robert Joseph McAdorey (July 24, 1935 – February 5, 2005) was a Canadian television and radio broadcaster.
McAdorey was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. During his high school years, Bob McAdorey was the President of Alpha Kappa Ch ...
, Thalia Assuras
__NOTOC__
Thalia Assuras is a Canadian television journalist and media consultant.
Early years
Assuras was born in London, Ontario to parents who immigrated from Tripoli, Greece, after World War II. She attended London Central Secondary School, ...
and 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 ...
.
From 1994 to 2001, CIII also produced '' First National'', which was anchored by Peter Kent and aired at 6:30 p.m. weeknights. In 2001, the program was replaced by ''Canada Tonight
''Canada Tonight'' is a Canadian television newscast which aired on stations owned by Western International Communications (WIC) from 1993 to 2001. It was produced out of the studio of CHAN-TV (BCTV) in Burnaby, British Columbia. There were two ...
'', which in turn was replaced that fall with ''Global National
''Global National'' is the English language flagship national newscast of Canada's Global Television Network. Editorial and production staff are based out of Global's national news centre at Global BC in Burnaby, British Columbia, with Dawna Frie ...
'', anchored by Kevin Newman; it originated from CHAN's facility in Vancouver before moving to a dedicated studio in Ottawa in February 2008. In January 2009, CIII canceled its weekday morning newscast ''Global News Morning
''Global News Morning'' (previously known as ''Morning News'' and the ''Saturday Morning News'' or the ''Sunday Morning News'' on Saturdays and Sundays respectively and the ''Early Morning News'' from 5-6 AM) is the name of local morning newscas ...
'', along with the ''Noon News Hour'', with the former being discontinued due to low ratings and both program being dropped due to cost-cutting measures at certain Global stations. From February to August 2009, CIII simulcast former Hamilton sister station CHCH-TV's ''Morning Live'' newscast each weekday from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. The CHCH simulcast was later dropped after Canwest sold that station to Channel Zero, with CIII airing second-run lifestyle programming in the morning timeslot, as well as rebroadcasts of the previous night's ''News Hour Final''.
On October 11, 2011, CIII-DT launched a three-hour weekday morning newscast titled '' The Morning Show'', running from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m., which broadcasts from a storefront studio at Shaw Media's Bloor Street
Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Park ...
building in Downtown Toronto. The station also moved its early evening newscast, ''News Hour'', a half-hour earlier to 5:30 p.m. to coincide with a shift of ''Global National'' to the 6:30 p.m. slot, joining Montreal's CKMI-DT and Halifax's CIHF-DT as the only Global stations to carry the network's national newscast in that timeslot.
On August 27, 2012, CIII restored a midday newscast to its schedule with the launch of a half-hour weekday noon newscast. Unlike the existing lunch hour newscasts carried on Global's sister stations, the newscast airs for 30 minutes instead of one hour. The expansions to CIII's news programming were part of a benefits package that was included as a condition of the sale of the Global Television Network to Shaw Communications.
In June 2016, Global News announced that ''The Morning Show'' co-host Liza Fromer
Liza Fromer (born March 18, 1970) is a former cohost of '' The Morning Show'' on the Global Television Network and ''Breakfast Television'' at Citytv in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
She graduated from Ryerson University with a degree in Radio and ...
would not have her contract renewed after five years with the station. Fromer was the only original host of ''The Morning Show'' remaining from when the show launched in 2011. No replacement will be hired to fill her position. Another layoff was with ''Global News at Noon'' anchor Rosey Edeh
Rosey Edeh (born August 16, 1966) is a Canadian television personality, who was a news anchor for ''Global News at Noon'' on Global Toronto and senior reporter for ''ET Canada''. She is currently C.E.O. of Micha Muse Media and has directed her de ...
. Neither anchor works with the station anymore.
Former local news programs
* The Morning Show – airing from 6–9:30 a.m. ET weekdays. The show is hosted by Carolyn Mackenzie, Jeff McArthur and Liem Vu at a studio at Corus Quay
Corus Quay, originally named First Waterfront Place, is an eight-storey commercial office tower located on a waterfront site in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building is the first major development planned for the East Bayfront district, and co ...
. Carolyn Mackenzie anchored local news, Jeff McArthur anchored national news, and Liem Vu reported on social media news and weather. Jeff McArthur's national news segment is also aired on Global News Morning shows on Global Halifax, 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 ...
, Winnipeg
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, ...
, Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...
, and Regina. The 9–9:30 portion of the show is also aired nationally after local ''Global News Morning'' programs, however the run-time has since been extended to one hour. The national one-hour show kept ''The Morning Show'' branding, while it was dropped locally.
Notable former on-air staff
* Anne Mroczkowski – co-anchor of ''News Hour'' (2010–13)
* Leslie Roberts
Leslie Roberts (born June 28, 1964) is a Canadian television and radio personality, currently the host of ''CTV Morning Live'' in Ottawa. He was previously the host of ''The Leslie Roberts Show'' on CJAD in Montreal, until announcing on Decemb ...
– ''The Morning Show'' – National Edition (weekday mornings anchor) and ''News Hour'' (weeknights anchor)
* Peter Trueman
William Peter Main Trueman (December 25, 1934 – July 23, 2021) was a Canadian television and radio personality, best known for his work for the Global Television Network between 1974 and 1977, and from 1978 to July 1988. In the 1960s and ear ...
– evening news anchor (1974–88)
* Peter Desbarats
Peter Hullett Desbarats, OC (July 2, 1933 – February 11, 2014) was a Canadian author, playwright and journalist. – anchor until 1980
* Peter Kent
James Peter Kent (born July 27, 1943) is a former Canadian journalist and former politician who served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Thornhill from 2008 to 2021. He served as Minister of the Environment in the 28th ...
– national anchor, (1992–2001); later news executive, business news host, and Canadian Member of Parliament
* Jan Tennant
Jan Tennant (born 1937) is a Canadian television journalist.
Early life
Tennant was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1937, growing up in the High Park North neighbourhood, attended Runnymede Public School and Humberside Collegiate Institute, and then ...
– local anchor (1982–87)
* Bob McAdorey
Robert Joseph McAdorey (July 24, 1935 – February 5, 2005) was a Canadian television and radio broadcaster.
McAdorey was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario. During his high school years, Bob McAdorey was the President of Alpha Kappa Ch ...
– entertainment anchor (1980–2000), co-anchor of ''News at Noon'' for 14 years
* Mike Anscombe
Mike Anscombe is a Canadian broadcaster who appeared on the Global Television Network between 1974 and 1997 as a news anchor; most notably as one of the "Three Nice Guys" when he co-anchored Global's noon newscast with John Dawe and Bob McAdorey. ...
– news and sports anchor (1974–97)
* Gord Martineau – co-anchor during his brief stint in 1980s away from Citytv
* Liza Fromer
Liza Fromer (born March 18, 1970) is a former cohost of '' The Morning Show'' on the Global Television Network and ''Breakfast Television'' at Citytv in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
She graduated from Ryerson University with a degree in Radio and ...
– co-host of ''The Morning Show'' (2011–2016)
* Rosey Edeh
Rosey Edeh (born August 16, 1966) is a Canadian television personality, who was a news anchor for ''Global News at Noon'' on Global Toronto and senior reporter for ''ET Canada''. She is currently C.E.O. of Micha Muse Media and has directed her de ...
– anchor of ''Global News at Noon'' (2012–2016), co-host of ''The Morning Show'' (2012–2015)
* Robert Fisher – reporter, host of ''Focus Ontario''
Technical information
Subchannel
Analogue-to-digital conversion
CIII-TV-41 in Toronto began broadcasting its digital signal in July 2009. The station's analogue signal, over UHF channel 41, was shut down on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. CIII's digital signal was relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 65, as its original digital channel was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 41.[Digital Television – Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA)](_blank)
Global also transitioned CIII-TV in Paris, CIII-TV-6 in Ottawa and CIII-TV-7 in Midland (serving Barrie) to digital on August 31, 2011. CIII-TV-22 in Stevenson (serving Windsor and Chatham) converted to digital on August 8, 2011. The transmitter operates at a reduced power and its coverage area has been reduced. CIII-TV-55 in Fort Erie vacated its channel frequency on August 31, 2011, as Global decided to shut down that transmitter. Coverage to the areas in Canada served by the Fort Erie transmitter are provided by CIII-DT-41. Global plans on transitioning its remaining transmitters to digital by 2016, though all of CIII-DT's transmitters except for its Bancroft transmitter are to be converted to digital by February 2013.
Shortly after the 2011 digital transition, an additional digital subchannel (41.2) was launched, carrying a standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
feed of CIII-DT, which fully duplicates the existing programming on 41.1. However (unlike other Toronto-area stations) this SD feed is not simply a letterboxed
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes (black bars) above and below ...
or cropped version of the HD feed, instead having different placement for promotional graphics and a separate on-screen bug (without an "HD" annotation). It is therefore possible that the SD feed needs to be broadcast over-the-air in order to continue carriage of this dedicated feed on cable and satellite providers (however, it also serves as a benefit to some over-the-air viewers with 4:3 television sets and digital converters, insofar as it allows those viewers to avoid older 4:3 programs appearing both letterboxed ''and'' pillarboxed). In late spring 2018, CIII-DT ceased broadcasting digital subchannel 41.2.
On April 10, 2012, Shaw Media applied for permission to change CIII-DT-6's allocation from VHF channel 6 to UHF channel 14, switching from circular to elliptical polarization, citing the VHF-Low band's impulse noise (compared to the VHF-High and UHF bands) causing reception issues, which would be mostly resolved with a higher frequency. The power would be increased substantially, from 3.3 kW, to 145 kW. The application states that it may be short-spaced to 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 ...
's WUTV
WUTV (channel 29) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WNYO-TV (channel 49). Both stations share studios on Hertel ...
, and Plattsburgh, New York's WPTZ
WPTZ (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Plattsburgh, New York, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Montpelier, Verm ...
, both of which may be subject to (and cause) some co-channel interference on the fringes of CIII-DT-6's service area. This application was approved by the CRTC on July 4, 2012. CIII-DT-6 officially moved to channel 14 in mid-August 2013.
Shaw Media had begun applying for permission to convert its transmitters 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 Pro ...
to digital, with CFGC-TV in Sudbury and CFGC-TV-2 in North Bay on June 14, and CIII-TV-12 in Sault Ste. Marie on June 22. The application for CIII-TV-12 included switching its digital allotment from VHF channel 7 to UHF channel 15, for improved signal quality and a slightly increased population coverage. The application for CFGC-DT-2 requested the use of UHF channel 15, instead of UHF channel 32, as CHCH-TV-6 currently uses that frequency. The digital channel for CFGC-TV has not yet been requested. All three transmitters are to be fed via satellite.
Following the shutdown of the Radio-Canada
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. ...
repeater in Kitchener ( CBLFT-TV-8) which had been assigned the UHF channel 17 allocation, Shaw had applied on October 10, 2012 to move its CIII-DT digital transmitter in Paris from VHF channel 6 to UHF channel 17, to vastly improve its coverage to the Kitchener area. Technical parameters included in the change would be a boost in power and slight decrease in height (4 kW at 311.3 meters on VHF channel 6, compared to 165 kW (average of 97 kW) at 272 meters on UHF channel 17). The UHF signal would have a slightly smaller range of broadcast coverage, but Shaw had admitted that areas on the fringes would still be able to receive Global programming via CIII-DT-29, CIII-DT-41 and CIII-TV-4. The application was approved by the CRTC on January 22, 2013. Prior to being shut down in 2022, CIII-DT-27 could on most days be seen from as far away as Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
, on channel 27.1.
In January 2020, the transmitter power of CIII-TV-2 (Bancroft) was temporarily reduced to prevent an overload caused by high VSWR at the site. On December 4, 2020, the CRTC approved a request from Corus Entertainment to shut down CIII-DT-27 and CIII-TV-2 (among other Global retransmitters) in favour of multiplexing CIII-DT-27 via CHEX-DT and CIII-TV-2 via CKWS-DT
CKWS-DT (channel 11) is a television station in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, the station maintains studios on Queen Street in downtown Kingston, and ...
Kingston. This decision saw the CRTC abandon a promise made in 2010 to have the owners of Global Television transition CIII-TV-2 to digital. CIII-TV-2 continued to operate as an NTSC analogue retransmitter until August 31, 2022. The CIII-TV-2 transmitter that operated out of Vennachar for close to 50 years was possibly the last over the air analogue transmitter to rebroadcast Global in Ontario. It is unclear what Industry Canada will now use VHF channel 11, the spectrum that had been allocated for CIII-TV-2 digital, for.
Transmitters
A series of rebroadcast transmitters relay the CIII signal to much of Ontario. Most of these use the CIII base callsign followed by a number to denote their status as rebroadcasters, except in Sudbury and North Bay where the CFGC callsign is assigned. The most likely explanation for using CFGC is that the close resemblance between the number 1 and the letter I would make CIII-TV-11 an undesirable call sign for Sudbury, while North Bay could not use CIII-TV-2 as that call sign is already in use in Bancroft.
These six transmitters formed the original 1974 service:
* CKGN-TV channel 6 from 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 ...
(serving 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 ...
, Brantford
Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...
and Kitchener–Waterloo)
* CKGN-TV-1 channel 22 from Cottam (near 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 ...
; also serving Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
)
* CKGN-TV-2 channel 2 from Bancroft (serving Belleville)
* CKGN-TV-6 channel 6 from Gatineau, Quebec
Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's ...
(Camp Fortune
Camp Fortune is a commercial alpine ski centre located in the municipality of Chelsea in the Gatineau Hills north of Gatineau, Quebec, approximately fifteen minutes from Downtown Ottawa, Ontario.
Camp Fortune is composed of three mountainsides ...
site, near Ottawa)
* CKGN-TV-22 channel 22 from Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...
(near Toronto)
* CKGN-TV-29 channel 29 from Oil Springs (near Sarnia
Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...
)
Original plans called for a seventh transmitter, CKGN-TV-36 from Maxville, near Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. It would have primarily served Hawkesbury Hawkesbury or Hawksbury may refer to:
People
*Baron Hawkesbury, or Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1727-1808), English statesman
Places
;Geography
*Hawkesbury Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada
* Hawkesbury Island, Queensland ...
, but would have also provided a fairly strong grade B signal to Montreal. However, Global was forced to drop the Maxville transmitter from its proposal due to a CRTC moratorium on new stations in Montreal.
The Cottam transmitter was beset by legal difficulties. Since it served Windsor, it was considered to be part of the Detroit market, in which Global did not hold the rights for all of its programming. While Global initially was able to supply alternate programming to the Cottam site, its initial financial difficulties prompted it to instead begin showing a slide during preempted shows, which often made up significant portions of the network's prime time lineup. The network quoted the cost of continuing to provide alternate programming to Windsor at $800,000 a year. At the same time, in an attempt to disclaim competition with American outlets, Global ceased sending listings to Detroit's newspapers.
On August 29, 1977, the Cottam transmitter suffered an electrical fire that caused $300,000 in damage and took it out of commission. After considering restoring service from Cottam and finding issues with securing an appropriate transmitter and its insurance claim, the network began to contemplate ways of improving its service to Windsor. Further delays were incurred when concerns arose about potential polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...
contamination of the site. In 1981, Global sought permission to build a higher-power successor to the Cottam station for the Windsor–Detroit market; the CRTC denied this application in December of that year.
In 1986, the CRTC approved the relocation of the Cottam transmitter to Stevenson. Some time after this, the CIII-TV-22 call letters from the now-defunct Uxbridge transmitter were reassigned to the Stevenson transmitter, which then was activated in November 1988. The transmitter is located southwest of Wheatley, between Wheatley and Leamington, but its signal is aimed northeast (towards Chatham–Kent
Chatham-Kent ( 2021 population: 104,316)[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 ...]
in Toronto. For all intents and purposes, given that the station has always been based in Toronto, this was CIII's main transmitter and Global's flagship even before the station officially moved its licence to Toronto in 2009. This was the case with the Uxbridge transmitter as well. Starting in 2008, CIII began sending its signal to the Toronto transmitter first, since the Paris transmitter did not yet have digital capability.
Other transmitters were gradually introduced, including (launch dates in parenthesis):
* CIII-TV-7 channel 7 from Midland (November 1987, serving 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 ...
)
* CIII-TV-4 channel 4 from Owen Sound
Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay.
The primary tourist attractio ...
(June 1988)
* CIII-TV-27 channel 27 from 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 ...
(October 1988)
* CFGC-TV channel 11 from Sudbury (December 1992)
* CFGC-TV-2 channel 2 from North Bay (December 1992)
* CIII-TV-13 channel 13 from 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 ...
(December 1992)
* CIII-TV-12 channel 12 from Sault Ste. Marie (December 1992)
* CIII-TV-55 channel 55 from Fort Erie
Fort Erie is a town on the Niagara River in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. It is directly across the river from Buffalo, New York, and is the site of Old Fort Erie which played a prominent role in the War of 1812.
Fort Erie is one of Ni ...
(early 1993, serving 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 ...
and the southern Niagara Region; signal also reaches 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 ...
)
On August 28, 1996, Global was given CRTC approval to add a new transmitter at Cornwall. Global had proposed to use VHF channel 11 at Cornwall but instead channel 11 was awarded to Hamilton's CHCH-TV in Ottawa that same day. Another option was to operate a Global transmitter on a UHF channel in Cornwall which was never launched.
CIII is not available in 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 ...
but the market is served by independently owned affiliate CHFD-DT
CHFD-DT (channel 4) is a television station in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, affiliated with the Global Television Network. It is owned by locally based Dougall Media alongside CTV affiliate CKPR-DT (channel 2). Both stations share studios on Hi ...
, owned by Dougall Media
Dougall Media is a Canadian media company, which has several television, radio and publishing holdings in Northwestern Ontario.
Television
Dougall Media owns CKPR, a CTV affiliate (formerly a CBC affiliate until August 31, 2014), and CHFD, a ...
. CHFD's owners, the Dougall family, were concerned about Global threatening their local television monopoly (Dougall Media controls all of the local network television output for the Thunder Bay region and had previously lobbied the CRTC to cease CHCH-TV's cable transmissions in the mid-1990s) and pressured the CRTC to deny Global's application to build a transmitter there. However, in 2009, Dougall Media switched the affiliation of CHFD from CTV to Global. As a result, Global-branded programming is available in Thunder Bay, just not via CIII's province-wide network of repeaters. Similarly, in Kenora, former CTV affiliate, CJBN-TV
CJBN-TV, VHF analogue channel 13, was a Global- affiliated television station licensed to Kenora, Ontario, Canada. The station was owned by Shaw Communications under its cable systems unit, and was not part of the Shaw Media unit which was ...
(which was owned by Shaw), switched to full-time Global programming in late 2011 (the station would cease operations in January 2017).
Initial attempts to cover Peterborough and Kingston from the Bancroft transmitter had yielded poor to marginal results; this signal has since been largely supplanted (for Peterborough only) by the more-powerful CIII-TV-27. Despite 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 ...
becoming Global's Peterborough station in 2018, CIII-DT-27 remains on the air.
CIII-TV-41, along with CHCH in Hamilton and CHAN-TV in Vancouver, began over-the-air high-definition broadcasts in 2008.Global Television Network – Frequently Asked Questions
Former transmitter
References
External links
Global Toronto*
*
* (Callsign used in Sudbury and North Bay)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciii-Dt
III-DT
Television channels and stations established in 1974
III-DT
Corus Entertainment
1974 establishments in Ontario
National Hockey League over-the-air television broadcasters
Toronto Toros