 | |
| Channels | |
|---|---|
| Branding |
|
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | Global |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| CFIQ,CFNY-FM,CILQ-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | January 6, 1974; 51 years ago (1974-01-06) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel numbers |
|
| Independent (1974–1997) | |
Call sign meaning | "III" =Roman numeral 3, a reference to Global being Canada's third (English) television network, as well as the station's channel position on many Ontario cable systems |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | CRTC |
| ERP | 59.8kW |
| HAAT | 506 m (1,660 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°38′33″N79°23′14″W / 43.64250°N 79.38722°W /43.64250; -79.38722 (CIII-TV-41) |
| Translator(s) | see§ Transmitters |
| Links | |
| Website | Global Toronto |
CIII-DT (channel 41, cable channel 3) is atelevision station inToronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as theflagship station of theGlobal Television Network, a division ofCorus Entertainment. The station maintains studios at 81 Barber Greene Road (near Leslie Street) in theDon Mills district of Toronto, and its transmitter is located atop theCN Tower indowntown Toronto.
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 thede facto Global outlet for the capital city ofOttawa through repeater CIII-DT-6). Since August 29, 2022, CIII-DT serves as themaster control hub for all 15 Global owned-and-operated stations across Canada.
Ken Soble, the founder ofCHCH-TV inHamilton, envisioned a national "superstation" of 96 satellite-fed transmitters with CHCH as its flagship. In 1966, he filed the first application with theBoard of Broadcast Governors 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. TheCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) eventually decided to go ahead with the publicly ownedAnik satellite system instead of relying on private communications companies to build Canada's satellite broadcasting infrastructure, placing the NTV application in jeopardy afterPower Corporation of Canada, a key investor in the plan, backed out.[2]
In 1970, one of Soble's former employees,Al Bruner, 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 inSouthern Ontario, whose combined footprint would have provided at least secondarybroadcast coverage fromMontreal toDetroit. 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 nowCTV owned-and-operated stationCKNY-TV inNorth 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 toParis, a small town nearBrantford, but Toronto became the station's primarycity of licence following an amendment to the channel 41 licence in 2009.[3] Through its entire history, however, the station's main studio facility has been based in a converted factory (built 1954 forBarber Greene Canada Limited)[4] in the Don Mills area ofNorth York (since 1998, located in Toronto).
It had hoped to be distinct fromCBC 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 byAllan Slaight and aWinnipeg-based group headed byIzzy Asper andPaul Morton.[5] 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.
Asper's group bought controlling interest in 1977, making them first western owners of a major Canadian broadcaster.[6] In 1989, Asper and Morton tried to buy out each other's shares, and theCourt of Queen's Bench of Manitoba ended the contest by ordering a sale of shares by auction, which allowed Asper and his company,Canwest, to take full ownership.[7][8]
The station's callsign was changed to CIII-TV in January 1984, in accordance with its 10th anniversary of broadcasting. TheWindsor/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 (theCKGN calls are now used by an FM radio station inKapuskasing, Ontario).
Shaw Media purchased the station from Canwest Global in 2010 and Corus, in turn, acquired CIII from Shaw Media in 2016.[9]
CIII-DT presently broadcasts 30 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 35 minutes each weekday and1+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main news department in Toronto, the station also operates anews bureau at the National Press Centre inOttawa. CIII does not employ its own sports reporters; sports news content was formerly provided by sports specialty channelSportsnet 360.
Early on, its flagship news programGlobal News was developed under the guidance ofBill Cunningham, a veteran ofCBC News; in the beginning, the newscast was anchored byPeter Trueman in Toronto andPeter Desbarats in Ottawa. During the news department's early years, its newscasts were one of the most successful and important programs that CKGN/CIII had.[10] Trueman has noted in his memoir that the programme was groundbreaking: "Our newsroom-studio combination ... served as a model for the newCHAN-TV facilities in Vancouver, and it is currently [1979] the inspiration forTed Turner's newCablenews operation in Atlanta". The CBC also looked to it for inspiration when it changed its national news format in the early 1980s.[11] 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.[12]
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 p.m. By the end of the 1980s, the noon newscast was simply titledNews at Noon, the 5:30 newscast was calledFirst News, the 6 p.m. newscast was calledThe Six O'Clock Report, and the 11 p.m. newscast was titledThe World Tonight. Trueman left CIII in 1988. Other anchors on the station over the years have includedMike Anscombe,Beverly Thomson, John Dawe, Jane Gilbert,Peter Kent,Loretta Sullivan,Bob McAdorey,Thalia Assuras andAnne-Marie Mediwake.
From 1994 to 2001, CIII also producedFirst National, which was anchored by Peter Kent and aired at 6:30 p.m. weeknights. In 2001, the program was replaced byCanada Tonight, which in turn was replaced that fall withGlobal National, anchored byKevin 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 newscastGlobal News Morning, along with theNoon News Hour, with the former being discontinued due to low ratings and both programs being dropped due to cost-cutting measures at certain Global stations. From February to August 2009, CIII simulcast former Hamilton sister station CHCH-TV'sMorning Live newscast each weekday from 7 to 9 a.m. The CHCH simulcast was later dropped after Canwest sold that station toChannel Zero, with CIII airing second-run lifestyle programming in the morning timeslot, as well as rebroadcasts of the previous night'sNews Hour Final.
On October 11, 2011, CIII-DT launched a three-hour weekday morning newscast titledThe Morning Show, running from 6 to 9 a.m., which broadcasts from a storefront studio at Shaw Media'sBloor Street building in Downtown Toronto.[13] The station also moved its early evening newscast,News Hour, a half-hour earlier to 5:30 p.m. to coincide with a shift ofGlobal 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.[14]
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.[15]
In June 2016, Global News announced thatThe Morning Show co-hostLiza Fromer would not have her contract renewed after five years with the station. Fromer was the only original host ofThe Morning Show remaining from when the show launched in 2011. No replacement was hired to fill her position. Another layoff was withGlobal News at Noon anchorRosey Edeh. Neither anchor works with the station anymore.[16]
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CIII-HD | Global |
CIII-TV-41 in Toronto began broadcasting its digital signal in July 2009. The station's analog signal, overUHF channel 41, was shut down on August 31, 2011, the official date on which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatorymarketstransitioned from analog 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.[18]
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.[citation needed] 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,[19] 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 astandard definition feed of CIII-DT, which fully duplicated the existing programming on 41.1. However (unlike other Toronto-area stations), this SD feed was not simply aletterboxed 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 needed to be broadcast over-the-air in order to continue carriage of this dedicated feed on cable and satellite providers (however, it also served as a benefit to some over-the-air viewers with 4:3 television sets and digital converters, insofar as it allowed those viewers to avoid older 4:3 programs appearing both letterboxedandpillarboxed). 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.[20] The power would be increased substantially, from 3.3 kW, to 145 kW. The application states that it may be short-spaced toBuffalo, New York'sWUTV, andPlattsburgh, New York'sWPTZ, both of which may be subject to (and cause) someco-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 inNorthern Ontario to digital, with CFGC-TV in Sudbury and CFGC-TV-2 in North Bay on June 14,[21] 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.[22] 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 theRadio-Canada repeater inKitchener (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.[23] 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. CIII-DT-27 Peterborough/Cobourg could on most days be seen from as far away asRochester, New York, 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 viaCKWS-DT Kingston.[24] This decision saw the CRTC abandon a promise made in 2010 to have the owners of Global Television transition CIII-TV-2 to digital.[25] CIII-TV-2 continued to operate as an NTSC analog 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 analog 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. Despite gaining approval to close CIII-DT-27, it remains on air.
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 inSudbury 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 inBancroft.
These six transmitters formed the original 1974 service:
Original plans called for a seventh transmitter, CKGN-TV-36 fromMaxville, nearCornwall. It would have primarily servedHawkesbury, 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.[26] The network quoted the cost of continuing to provide alternate programming to Windsor at $800,000 a year.[27] At the same time, in an attempt to disclaim competition with American outlets, Global ceased sending listings to Detroit's newspapers.[26]
On August 29, 1977, the Cottam transmitter suffered an electrical fire that caused $300,000 in damage and took it out of commission.[28] 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.[29] Further delays were incurred when concerns arose about potentialpolychlorinated biphenyl contamination of the site.[30] In 1981, Global sought permission to build a higher-power successor to the Cottam station for the Windsor–Detroit market;[31] the CRTC denied this application in December of that year.[32]
In 1986, the CRTC approved the relocation of the Cottam transmitter toStevenson.[33] Some time after this, the callsign CIII-TV-22 from the now-defunct Uxbridge transmitter were reassigned to the Stevenson transmitter, which then was activated in November 1988. The transmitter is located southwest ofWheatley, between Wheatley and Leamington, but its signal is aimed northeast (towardsChatham–Kent), and barely reaches Windsor and Detroit – presumably to protect the Detroit stations. In the early 1990s, additional transmitters were added to expand Global's footprint in Ontario.[34]
The Uxbridge transmitter was Canada's most powerful UHF transmitter, operating at the maximum allowable power of 5 megawatts.[35][36] It shut down in 1988, replaced by CIII-TV-41, broadcasting from theCN Tower in Toronto.[37] 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 parentheses):
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[38] but instead channel 11 was awarded to Hamilton's CHCH-TV in Ottawa that same day.[39] Another option was to operate a Global transmitter on a UHF channel in Cornwall which was never launched.
CIII is not available inThunder Bay but the market is served by independently owned affiliateCHFD-DT, owned byDougall Media. 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[40] and had previously lobbied the CRTC to cease CHCH-TV's cable transmissions in the mid-1990s[41]) 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, inKenora, former CTV affiliate,CJBN-TV (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 andKingston 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. DespiteCHEX-DT 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.[42]
| Station | City of licence | Channel (RF /VC) | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIII-TV-2 | Bancroft | 2 (VHF) | 100 kW | 390 m (1,280 ft) | 45°3′34″N77°11′59″W / 45.05944°N 77.19972°W /45.05944; -77.19972 (CIII-TV-2) |