CBLT-DT

Toronto, Ontario Canada
Channels	Digital: 20 (UHF) Virtual: 5
Branding	CBC Toronto
Programming
Affiliations	CBC Television
Ownership
Owner	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Sister stations	CBLFT-DT,CBL-FM,CBLA-FM
History
First air date	September 8, 1952 (73 years ago) (1952-09-08)
Former call signs	CBLT (1952–2011)
Former channel numbers	Analog: 9 (VHF, 1952–1956), 6 (VHF, 1956–1972), 5 (VHF, 1972–2011)
Call sign meaning	CBCGreat Lakes Television
Technical information
Licensing authority	CRTC
ERP	106.9 kW
HAAT	491.0 m (1,611 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	43°38′33″N79°23′14″W / 43.64250°N 79.38722°W /43.64250; -79.38722 (CBLT)
Links
Website	CBC Toronto

CBLT-DT (channel 5, cable channel 6) is atelevision station inToronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as theflagship station of the English-language service ofCBC Television. It is part of atwinstick withIci Radio-Canada Télé outletCBLFT-DT (channel 25). The two stations share studios at theCanadian Broadcasting Centre onFront Street West indowntown Toronto, which is also shared with national cable news channelCBC News Network and houses the studios for most of the CBC's news and entertainment programs. CBLT-DT's transmitter is located atop theCN Tower.

The station conducted test broadcasts from August 15 to 22, 1952.^[1] CBLT began regular programming on September 8, 1952, originally broadcasting onVHF channel 9. It is the oldest television station in the province of Ontario, and the second oldest in Canada after Ici Radio-Canada Télé flagship stationCBFT inMontreal. The station's first broadcast was prefaced by the inadvertent incorrect display of the CBC's national network logo; conflicting accounts say it was either displayed upside-down or backwards, due to the incorrect insertion of the slide. No such error was made two days earlier when CBFT signed on.^[2][3]

CBLT originally broadcast from a series of smaller studios with the main one on Mutual Street nicknamed unofficially as "The Barn" next to thetransmitter tower (the old management building, nicknamed "The Kremlin", is now part of theNational Ballet School on Jarvis Street). On January 19, 1953, a microwave link betweenBuffalo, New York and Toronto was activated, allowing the live telecast of programs from the American television networks. A few months later, on May 14, 1953, CBC Television's stations in Montreal (CBFT) andOttawa (CBOT) became the first connections within theTrans-Canada Microwave system.

On August 27, 1956, CBLT moved to VHF channel 6 and increased itseffective radiated power from 25 to 100 kW. The change in frequency was made to accommodate the eventual licensing of a second privately owned local station for Toronto, which eventually becameCFTO (channel 9) when that station was licensed at the end of 1960. Then on September 11, 1972, CBLT relocated to channel 5 in order to allow two new stations – CKGN (nowCIII-DT) inParis and a repeater of Ottawa-basedCJOH inDeseronto – to use channel 6.^[4]

CBLT moved its transmitter facilities to theCN Tower when it opened in 1976; its signal was transmitted from the tower for the first time on May 31, 1976. It moved its operations to theCanadian Broadcasting Centre onFront Street in 1992.

CBLT has used a variety of on-air brands since its inception. From 1957 to 1972, it was known as "Channel 6". Following its move to channel 5 in 1972, it rebranded as "CBLT Five", later simplifying it to "CBLT/5". In the late 1970s, the station was branded as "Toronto/5", with the then-new CBC logo substituting for one of the O's in "Toronto". During the 1980s, it was known mainly as CBLT-TV, although it used a "CBC 5" logo. Starting on January 1, 1986, the station was identified in print ads as "CBC Television Toronto/5", but the CBLT name was used for its local programs including its supper hour newscastCBLT Newshour. By the 1990s, it was known simply as "CBC Toronto", although the CBLT calls were used from time to time in local programming, and on the CBC website. As with most Canadian television stations, the use of the analog channel placement was phased out of the station's logo and advertising, as most cable placements did not match up with its VHF frequency.

CBLT-DT currently broadcasts 10 hours, 40 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with two hours each weekday, a half-hour on Saturdays and ten minutes on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the lowest local newscast output out of any English-language television station in the immediate Toronto market and the second lowest among the stations in the expanded Toronto–Hamilton–Barrie market as a whole (behindCTV 2 owned-and-operated stationCKVR-DT, which airs seven hours of newscasts each week). CBLT's newscasts have consistently faced very stiff competition in the Toronto market, consistently rating behindCTV station CFTO since it surged to the number one spot in 1970, and behindCITY-TV (channel 57) since 1982.

On September 10, 1984, CBLT debuted one of the only locally produced morning television programs in Canada,CBLT Morning, which aired weekdays from 7 to 9 a.m. The program was co-hosted byDale Goldhawk and Leslie Jones, with news reported by Kevin Marsh.^[5] At the time of the program's cancellation on April 4, 1986,^[6] it was watched by 20,000 viewers, more than the Canadian viewership ofABC'sGood Morning America, but less than that of CTV'sCanada AM.^[7]

In the spring of 1995, according toBBM Canada, CBLT's evening newscastCBC Evening News had a total audience of 117,000 viewers in the Toronto-Hamilton market, putting it in fourth place behindGlobal News on CIII at 141,000, CITY'sCityPulse at 229,000, and CFTO'sWorld Beat News at 409,000. OnlyCHCH (channel 11), the only other station based in the Toronto–Hamilton market with a 6 p.m. newscast, had lower viewership at 77,000 viewers.

On October 15, 2011, CBLT debuted a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast on Saturdays; the station then launched a ten-minute news bulletin on Sundays at 11 p.m. the following day. A 30-minute newscast at 11 p.m. on weeknights was introduced on September 17, 2012. The additional local newscasts were part of a five-year strategic plan by the CBC called "2015: Everyone, Every Way", which featured local service improvements across the CBC's television, radio and internet platforms.^[8]

• Dwight Drummond – weeknight anchor

On January 30, 2004, theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted CBLT permission to broadcast a digital signal on UHF channel 20; CBLT's began broadcasting programming inhigh definition on March 5, 2005.

CBLT shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on August 31, 2011, the official date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatorymarketstransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20,^[10] usingvirtual channel 5.

The station's signal from its CN Tower transmitter adequately covers the immediateGreater Toronto Area, fromOshawa in the east, out toHalton Hills andGeorgetown in the west, and from Hamilton andNiagara Falls in the south, to roughlyBradford.

In addition, CBLT serves as the default CBC Television station for cable and satellite subscribers in markets previously served over-the-air by CBLT's rebroadcast transmitters (seebelow), as well as theThunder Bay andPeterborough television markets, afterCKPR-DT in Thunder Bay disaffiliated from the network September 1, 2014, andCHEX-DT in Peterborough and its sister stationCHEX-TV-2 in Oshawa both followed August 31, 2015, in both cases to become affiliates of the CTV Television Network.

The station is also carried on cable in several American communities, similar to sister stationsCBUT inVancouver,CBET inWindsor and CBMT in Montreal.

CBLT served much of Ontario through a network of over 35 rebroadcast transmitters, including all ofNortheastern Ontario and most ofSouthwestern Ontario, with the exception of Windsor since CBET-DT serves the Windsor area. The station only servedSouthern Ontario and a few ruralNorthern Ontario communities until 2002, when it took over the CBC affiliates of theMCTVtwinstick.^[11] CBLGT inGeraldton and the CBLAT transmitters had operated since the early 1970s, while others were added as other CBC affiliates disaffiliated from the network or were bought by the CBC.

On August 16, 2011, the CRTC granted the CBC permission to continue operating 22 analog repeaters within mandatory markets, including those inLondon andKitchener. These analog transmitters were given an extension until August 31, 2012, to continue in operation, by which time the transmitters had to be converted to digital or shut down. The CBC did not seek an extension for its Barrie transmitter, which it shut down on August 31, 2011; however, the remaining satellite rebroadcast stations remained in operation.

Reportedly due to federal funding reductions to the CBC in April 2012, the CBC made substantial cuts to their transmitting budget, including shutting down the CBC's and Radio-Canada's remaining analog transmitters on July 31, 2012.^[12] This included shutting down all the remaining CBC and Radio-Canada's rebroadcasters that had been "held over" using analog transmitters during 2011–12. All of them have been decommissioned by the CBC, leaving rural Canadians and U.S. border regions with no free over-the-air CBC coverage, and those viewers have been instructed to subscribe to a cable or satellite provider or have been directed to the website available through pay internet providers.^[13]

The following is a list of transmitters that originally rebroadcast London, Ontario-based CBC outlet CBLN-TV. CBLN-TV first signed on in 1988 as a CBC outlet for southwestern Ontario outside of Windsor, broadcasting on UHF channel 40, replacingCFPL-TV as an affiliate. CBLN-TV carried local advertising and very few programming variations, but otherwise produced no programming of its own and was ade facto rebroadcaster of CBLT.

• CBLFT-DT
• List of CBC television stations

• CBC Toronto official website
• CBLT-DT at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by theCanadian Communications Foundation
• CBLT in the REC Canadian station database

• 1952 establishments in Ontario
• 1952 in Canadian television
• CBC Television stations
• Television channels and stations established in 1952
• Television stations in Toronto

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