Craig Wireless Systems, Ltd. (initially Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd., then Craig Broadcast Systems, Inc., & next Craig Media, Inc. before its current branding) is a Canadian company which offers Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service in

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

. In 2004, the company's media assets (its TV stations & A-Channel TV network) were acquired by

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in 1954. CHU ...

History

The company has its roots in Western Manitoba Broadcasters, a company John Craig founded alongside Dr. H.O. McDiarmid, Alexander Boyd, Edmund, Fotheringham, Harold Smith, James Rust and M.W. Kerr in 1948. In the mid-1940s, Craig had bought radio station

CKX-FM CKX-FM (96.1 MHz, ''Bounce 96.1'') is a radio station in Brandon, Manitoba. Owned by Bell Media, it broadcasts an adult hits format. History The station started operation on December 16, 1963 as a sister station to CKX-AM. The station, with a ...

from the Manitoba Government Telephone System upon its relinquishment of its two licenses for

CKX-TV CKX-TV, VHF analogue channel 5, was a television station licensed to Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, which served as a private affiliate of CBC Television. Owned by CTVglobemedia, it was the first privately owned television station in Manitoba. It ...

& CKY-FM. By 1955, John's son, Stuart Craig, had succeeded his father as President and General Manager of CKX-TV (which brought television to

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

) &

(which followed in 1963). Craig took it upon himself to expand the operations of both CKX stations; those expansion operations resulted in the launch of the broadcast company. The company was based in

, then later in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

with Drew Craig, John's grandson & Stuart's son, as its

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. In 1991, Western Manitoba Broadcasters changed its name to Craig Broadcast Systems. Craig Broadcast Systems was the owner of the original

A-Channel A-Channel (proposed as The Alberta Channel) was a Canadian television system initially owned by Craig Media from September 1997 to 2004, then by CHUM Limited from 2004 to 2005 through A-Channel, Inc. It consisted of Craig's television stations in ...

system; CKX, a CBC affiliate, in Brandon, Manitoba; Toronto 1, local television station in located in

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 anch ...

; and three

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 adva ...

specialty channels: MTV Canada (now

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to shift its programm ...

), MTV2 (now Juicebox) and TV Land Canada (later replaced by

Comedy Gold Comedy Gold may refer to: * ''Comedy Gold'' (TV series), a 2008 Australian television series *Comedy Gold (TV channel) Comedy Gold, formerly known as TV Land Canada was a Canadian English language specialty channel that was owned by Bell Media f ...

, now decommissioned). For a time in the 1980s and 1990s, the company also produced a local newscast in Dauphin,

; however, the company did not operate a full television station in that city, but had a contract 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- ...

to run the newscast as a local insertion on the city's CBWT retransmitter. Eventually, the company was also operating in the telecommunications industry, offering wireless cable television and high-speed Internet services. In 2003, after securing financing in the area of $145 million ($110 million from

Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented private equity investme ...

& a $35 million line of credit from RBC Capital Markets and BMO Nesbitt Burns), the company reorganized its conventional and specialty television operations, with the conventional TV operations (A-Channel & its stations) under the Craig Media branding, while the specialty television channels were placed within Craig Media under Craig Specialty. In 2004, the company was acquired by

for CA$265 million ($197.8 million) in cash. CHUM did not acquire the company's telecommunications operations, which remain in operation under the Craig Wireless name, which the company took on after CHUM's acquisition of its television broadcasting assets. Upon the name change, another of John's grandsons, Boyd, took over the company.

Former assets

Local stations

(now

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television ...

) ** CKAL -

** CKEM -

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

** CHMI -

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 ...

* CKX - Brandon,

(ceased operations on October 2, 2009) * CKXT -

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 ...

(ceased operations as of November 2011)

Digital television stations under Craig Specialty

* MTV Canada, now MTV2 Canada - originally conceived as "Connect" (youth lifestyle programming) * MTV2 Canada, now Juicebox - originally conceived as "Music 5" (a service consisting of 5 separate music video channels: Pop, Dance, Urban, R&B, and "Hot Hits") * TV Land Canada, replaced by

in 2010 (ceased operations as of September 2019) - originally conceived as "Retro" (classic television programming)

Proposed, but never launched

* A-Channel News Now (24 hr. news) * Action Channel (action-oriented programming) * Jazz & Blues TV * PATV (Pets & Animals) * The MET (music and entertainment television dedicated to the presentation and promotion of emerging Canadian artists in the rock genre) * Stampede (western-themed programming) * Click TV (programs about the Internet, computers and e-business) * Style TV (devoted to programming about fashion, design and architecture)

References

External links

Broadcaster Magazine: ''CHUM buying Craig, will spin-off Toronto 1''

Craig, Stuart , History of Canadian Broadcasting

Craig gets financing » Playback
{{CATV Canada Companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange Internet service providers of Canada Cable and DBS companies of Canada Defunct broadcasting companies of Canada Mass media companies established in 1948 Telecommunications companies established in 1948 Companies based in Brandon, Manitoba 1948 establishments in Manitoba Companies based in Winnipeg