Craig Wireless Systems, Ltd. (initiallyWestern Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd., thenCraig Broadcast Systems, Inc., & nextCraig Media, Inc. before its current branding) is a Canadian company which offersMultichannel Multipoint Distribution Service inManitoba andBritish Columbia.
In 2004, the company's media assets (its TV stations & A-Channel TV network) were acquired byCHUM Limited.[1]
The company has its roots inWestern 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 stationCKX-FM from theManitoba Government Telephone System upon its relinquishment of its two licenses forCKX-TV &CKY-FM.
By 1955, John's son, Stuart Craig, had succeeded his father as President and General Manager of CKX-TV (which brought television toBrandon, Manitoba) &CKX-FM (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 inBrandon, Manitoba, then later inCalgary,Alberta with Drew Craig, John's grandson & Stuart's son, as itsCEO.
In 1991, Western Manitoba Broadcasters changed its name toCraig Broadcast Systems.
Craig Broadcast Systems was the owner of the originalA-Channel system; CKX, aCBC affiliate, in Brandon, Manitoba; and threedigital television specialty channels: MTV Canada (nowMTV2), MTV2 (nowStingray Juicebox), and TV Land Canada (later replaced byComedy Gold, now decommissioned).
For a time in the 1980s and 1990s, the company also produced a local newscast inDauphin,Manitoba; however, the company did not operate a full television station in that city, but had a contract withCBC Television to run the newscast as alocal insertion on the city'sCBWT retransmitter.[2]
Eventually, the company was also operating in the telecommunications industry, offering wireless cable television and high-speed Internet services. The company also operated an American subsidiary inHonolulu, which in early 2003 slashed its staff ahead of merger talks with Oceanic Cable.[3]
In 2003, after securing financing in the area of $145 million ($110 million fromProvidence Equity Partners & a $35 million line of credit fromRBC Capital Markets andBMO Nesbitt Burns), the company reorganized its conventional and specialty television operations, with the conventional TV operations (A-Channel & its stations) under theCraig Media branding, while the specialty television channels were placed within Craig Media underCraig Specialty.
Craig Media was the owner ofToronto 1, a local television station in located inToronto.
In 2004, the company's TV broadcasting operations (A-Channel & its stations) were acquired byCHUM Limited[1] forCA$265 million ($197.8 million) in cash.[4] CHUM did not acquire the company's telecommunications operations, which remain in operation under theCraig 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.