CFTO-DT (channel 9) 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 ea ...

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 In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...

of the

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned List of Canadian ...

. It is owned and operated by network parent

Bell Media 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 ...

alongside

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 politicall ...

-based

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 ...

outlet

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 ...

, channel 3 (although the two stations maintain separate operations). CFTO-DT's studios are located at

9 Channel Nine Court 9 Channel Nine Court (alternatively known as the CTV Toronto Studios, CFTO-TV Studios, Glen Warren Studios or Bell Media Agincourt and temporarily known as 9 Dave Devall Way)Agincourt, 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 ...

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 shares the Agincourt studio complex with CTV's headquarters, which includes studios for the network's news programming (''

CTV National News ''CTV National News'' is the flagship newscast of CTV News, the news division of the CTV Television Network, which airs at 11:00 pm local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and is produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in S ...

'' and the CTV News Channel), along with most of Bell Media's specialty channels.

History

The station first signed on the air at 10:00 p.m. on December 31, 1960; its first official day of programming was on

January 1 January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the ye ...

, 1961. The inaugural program broadcast on CFTO was a

telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

for the Ontario Association for Community Living, hosted by broadcaster Joel Aldred, complete with a

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

ceremony. The station was founded by Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between

Telegram Corporation Telegram Corporation was a Canadian media company created under a joint venture between John Bassett's ''Toronto Telegram'' newspaper and businessman John David Eaton (a member of the prominent Eaton family), as one of three co-owners of CFTO-T ...

(owned by the Bassett and Eaton families), Aldred-Rogers Broadcasting (owned by Joel Aldred and Ted Rogers), and

Foster Hewitt Broadcasting Foster Hewitt Broadcasting Ltd was the corporate entity of Toronto radio CKFH 1400. The station was created by Toronto Maple Leafs hockey broadcaster Foster Hewitt in 1951. The station was located near the legendary Maple Leaf Gardens and later mo ...

, which owned radio station CKFH (1430 AM, now

CJCL CJCL (590 AM, '' Sportsnet 590 The Fan'') is a Canadian sports radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media since 2002, CJCL's studios are located at the Rogers Building at Bloor and Jarvis in downtown To ...

on 590 AM). The 'Baton' portion of the name was pronounced (as in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the county seat, parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, E ...

), rather than the conducting tool's traditional pronunciation. The station's first children's show, shown on weekday afternoons, was ''The Professor's Hideaway'', starring Stan Francis."Here's looking at you, Kiddo"
. ''Showbiz'', Bill Brioux, Nov 26, 2004"Happy Homes for Adoptable Children"
''Broadcaster'', April 25, 1963, page 90 American television network ABC held a minority share in the partnership, which it sold to each of the partners shortly before CFTO-TV went on the air. Ted Rogers' uncle J. Elsworth Rogers was a minority (and originally primary) owner of Western Ontario Broadcasting, Ltd., owners of CKLW-TV (now CBET) in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

(which was mostly owned by RKO General). The station's original studio and transmitter facilities were located at 1550 McCowan Road, later renamed 9 Channel Nine Court. In March 1961, Aldred sold his interest in the station, and on October 1 of that year, CFTO became a charter affiliate of CTV, as well as the network's flagship station. In 1970, Ted Rogers sold his interest in CFTO and the Bassett-Eaton group sold their interest in

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable Inc. is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. R ...

in an exchange of assets. On May 31, 1976, CFTO began transmitting its signal from the

, while its studios remained in Agincourt. CFTO began broadcasting in

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

in 1985. In 1991, the station joined with several other Ontario stations to form Ontario Network Television, which evolved into the

Baton Broadcast System :''This is about the defunct television system owned by Baton Broadcasting. For the history of Baton Broadcasting itself, see Bell Media.'' The Baton Broadcast System ( ), also known as BBS, was a Canadian system of television stations located in ...

, a subsystem within the CTV network. In 1995, CFTO began operating rebroadcast stations at

Orillia Orillia is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is in Simcoe County between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Single-tier municipalities, single ...

(on UHF channel 21) and Bobcaygeon (near

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 unti ...

, on UHF channel 54). When CTV's stations proposed to buy the network and run it as a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

in 1966, 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. ...

initially balked at the proposal. CFTO was by far the largest, richest and most profitable station (it was more than double the size of the next-largest station,

CFCF-TV CFCF-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Noovo flagship CFJP-DT (channel 35). Both stations share studios at ...

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- ...

). This led to fears that CFTO would dominate a station-owned network. The BBG was only appeased when the station owners promised that each owner would have an equal vote, regardless of how large it was. As it turned out, though, Baton gradually grew powerful enough that it was able to buy controlling interest in CTV in 1997, changing its name to CTV Inc. in 1998. On January 27, 1998, the Eaton family sold its 41% interest in CTV. On that same day, the Baton Broadcast System merged into CTV. With rumours of an impending takeover,

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in ...

proposed to buy CTV Inc. for $2.3 billion; this was approved by the CTV board in March 2000. The deal still required approval from 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 broadcast ...

(CRTC), but with the promise of the largest benefits package ever presented to the regulators, the deal was approved on December 7 that year. By February

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

, the station stopped using its call letters in its on-air branding (opting to use the "CTV" name), a branding convention that became official on several CTV stations throughout the country in October 2005. BCE later sold most of its interest in CTV, with the parent company being renamed

CTVglobemedia 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 ...

. BCE Inc. later reacquired 100% control of CTVglobemedia's assets for $1.3 billion in 2011, with the parent company being renamed once again to

Programming

As CFTO serves as CTV's flagship station, its schedule is virtually identical to the CTV network schedule. A largely identical schedule is used on the other CTV stations 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 ...

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 sha ...

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 c ...

and CKCO in Kitchener, as CFTO acts as

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 swi ...

for these stations. Any discrepancies with other stations would generally be limited to local

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

s and religious programming on Sunday mornings.

Other station productions

Under CTV's original cooperative structure, CFTO, through Baton's in-house production company Glen-Warren Productions, was one of the network's main contributors of Canadian programming, such as ''

The Littlest Hobo ''The Littlest Hobo'' is a Canadian television series (French title: ''Le Vagabond'') based upon a 1958 well-known film of the same name directed by Charles R. Rondeau. The series first aired from 1963 to 1965 in syndication, and was revived fo ...

'', ''Circus'' and '' The Uncle Bobby Show''. Indeed, the amount of programming originating at CFTO was often a source of tension with the network's other major-market affiliates. However, as with most local stations in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

, such locally produced non-news programming has become increasingly rare. For much of its history, CFTO's Channel Nine Court studios have also served as the home for network-produced programs such as ''

'', ''

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 ...

'' and ''W5''. The studios are now also used by a number of CTV's

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted ...

s, for productions such as the cable news channel CTV News Channel, TSN's '' SportsCentre'', and

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

's ''

Daily Planet The ''Daily Planet'' is a fictional newspaper appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. The newspaper was first mentioned in ''Action Comics'' #23 (April 1940). The ''Daily Planet'' build ...

''. Over the years, the studio complex has also been rented out for third-party productions, such as the studio scenes in the 1976 film ''

Network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

''. The

Lotto 6/49 Lotto 6/49 is one of three national lottery games in Canada. Launched on June 12, 1982, Lotto 6/49 was the first nationwide Canadian lottery game to allow players to choose their own numbers. Previous national games, such as the Olympic Lottery, L ...

and

Lotto Super 7 Lotto Super 7 was a national lottery game in Canada, operated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation (ILC). It was launched on June 10, 1994, and its last draw was on September 18, 2009. Drawn every Friday night, the lottery had a guarantee ...

(now

Lotto Max Lotto Max is a Canadian lottery game coordinated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, as one of the country's three national lottery games. Introduced on September 19, 2009, with its first draw occurring on September 25, 2009, the game repl ...

) drawings were also held at the CFTO studios until 2008. Since 2010, CFTO and

CP24 CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT (CTV Toronto) and CKVR-DT ( ...

have been the television broadcasters for the

Toronto Santa Claus Parade The Toronto Santa Claus Parade, also branded as ''The Original Santa Claus Parade'', is a Santa Claus parade held annually on the third Sunday of November in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. First held in 1905, it is one of the largest parade productio ...

News operation

CFTO-DT presently broadcasts 15½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 2½ hours each weekday and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). With the exception of its CP24 simulcasts, the station brands its newscasts as ''CTV News Toronto'', in line with all of CTV's other owned-and-operated stations as well as the CTV 2 stations, using generic CTV News graphics. The station's flagship 6:00 p.m. newscast is the highest-rated local newscast in Canada. Known beginning in the 1970s as ''World Beat News'' (for its early evening newscast), ''Noon Beat News'' (for its lunch hour newscast) and ''Night Beat News'' (for its late evening newscast), the station's newscasts were rebranded as ''CFTO News'' in early 1998, and as ''CTV News'' in 2005. In December 2008, CP24, a 24-hour news channel which primarily focuses on Toronto, began airing a simulcast of ''CTV News at Six'', displacing its simulcast of the 6:00 p.m. edition of ''

CityNews ''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 lo ...

''. This change occurred because the long-standing association between CITY-TV (channel 57) and CP24 (which were previously both owned 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 ...

) abruptly came to an end after the CRTC announced the approval of their application by

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sports ...

, owners of

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 ...

, to launch its own 24-hour local news channel which would be focusing on the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater ...

, CityNews Channel; like CFTO, CP24 is operated by Bell Media, although the operations between the two remain otherwise separate. The station's late evening newscast, ''CTV News at 11:30'', was later added to the CP24 schedule in May 2009. On May 12, 2009, CFTO began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; with the change, the station introduced a renovated studio. Starting in July 2017, CFTO began simulcasting CP24's '' Live at 5'' and '' Live at 5:30'' as part of an expansion of local news programming across Bell Media stations. Unlike CP24, these newscasts are broadcast in full screen without any information sidebars.

Notable current on-air staff

* Michelle Dubé – weekday co-anchor, ''CTV News at Six''

Notable former on-air staff

* Christine Bentley – ''CTV News at Six'' anchor and reporter (retired) *

Dave Devall David Devall (born 1931) is a Canadian retired broadcaster and meteorologist. He served as the chief forecaster at CFTO-TV in Toronto for more than 48 years beginning in 1961, and was recognized as having had the "longest career as a weather for ...

– weather specialist reporter (retired) *

Tom Gibney Tom Gibney (1936 – April 5, 2021) was a television anchor from 1973 to 2007 in Toronto, Ontario. Gibney was evening news anchor at CFTO-TV in Toronto, and also the former host for the Lotto 6/49 draws (which were syndicated to several statio ...

– ''CTV News at Six'' anchor (deceased) *

Gord Martineau Gord Martineau (born September 23, 1947) is a Canadian television journalist. In April 2007, he received a lifetime achievement award from the RTNDA for 40 years in broadcasting. Martineau worked briefly in radio in Halifax, Nova Scotia and M ...

– reporter (brief stint) *

Bernie McNamee Bernie McNamee (born 1952/53?) is a Canadian retired radio journalist, best known as a longtime anchor of news programming, including ''The World at Six'', ''The World This Weekend'' and ''The World This Hour'', on CBC Radio One. He has also been a ...

– reporter (1985–1989), later with

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined belo ...

1989–2015 (retired) *

Ken Shaw Ken Shaw, is a Canadian journalist who works for Bell Media. He worked as a news anchor on the noon and 6:00 p.m. news segments for CTV Toronto. He announced his retirement on December 7, 2019 and anchored his last newscast on January 6, 20 ...

– weekday co-anchor, ''CTV News at Six'' and ''CTV News at Noon'' (2001–2020), special reporter (retired) *

Ali Velshi Ali Velshi (born October 29, 1968 or 1969) is a Canadian television journalist, a senior economic and business correspondent for NBC News since October 2016. He was also substitute anchor for '' Top Story with Tom Llamas'' on NBC News Now at we ...

– reporter, now with

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

Technical information

Subchannels

Analogue-to-digital conversion

The station began providing a digital signal on satellite on November 17, 2003, and on January 30, 2004, CFTO was granted an over-the-air

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 ...

signal, transmitting on UHF channel 40 at an

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 ...

of 17,400 watts. In mid-2005, CFTO upgraded its digital signal to transmit programming in high definition. CFTO shut down its analogue signal, over

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 9, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory

markets Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal was relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 40 to its analogue-era VHF channel 9 for post-transition operations.Digital Television – Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA)
On 29 April 2019, CTV will update broadcast channels for stations in Toronto, Victoria, and Windsor. CFTO will broadcast on channel 8, but retain virtual channel 9.1.

Transmitters

CFTO-TV-21 and a long list of CTV rebroadcasters nationwide were to shut down on or before August 31, 2009, as part of a political dispute with Canadian authorities on paid

fee-for-carriage Fee-for-carriage, value-for-signal, negotiation for value, or the "TV tax" all refer to a proposed Canadian television regulatory policy which would require cable and satellite television companies to compensate conventional, over-the-air telev ...

requirements for

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

operators. A subsequent change in ownership assigned full control of CTVglobemedia to Bell Media; as of 2011, these transmitters continue to be licensed and remain in operation. Just after midnight on June 23, 2019, the Orillia transmitter was converted to digital.

References

External links

CTV Toronto
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cfto-Dt FTO-DT Scarborough, Toronto Television channels and stations established in 1960 FTO-DT 1960 establishments in Ontario National Hockey League over-the-air television broadcasters