CJNT-TV
Encyclopedia
CJNT-DT is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 multicultural television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. The station is owned and operated by Channel Zero
Channel Zero Inc.
Channel Zero is an independent Canadian broadcasting and media group, which holds assets in television broadcasting and film distribution.The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.-Ownership structure:...

 and uses the on-air brand Metro 14.

History

The station signed on in 1997, but had its roots in the 1980s as La Télévision Ethnique du Québec (TEQ), a public access
Public Access
Public Access is a 1993 American drama film directed by Bryan Singer in his feature film debut. Singer also wrote the screenplay with Christopher McQuarrie and Michael Feit Dougan. The film was shot in 18 days for US$250,000. It was screened at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, where it was...

 ethnic cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 channel. It had plans on moving over-the-air as early as the early 1990s, but was dogged by financial problems. Even after it signed on, its finances were in such a state that it never signed on earlier than noon. Part of the problem was that its effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...

 was only 11 kilowatts
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

, easily the weakest full-power station in Montreal and one of the weakest in North America--roughly on the same level as low-powered UHF stations in the United States. This effectively limited its over-the-air footprint to the Island of Montreal
Island of Montreal
The Island of Montreal , in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. It is separated from Île Jésus by the Rivière des Prairies....

 and Jésus Island
Île Jésus
Île Jésus is an island in southwestern Quebec, separated from the mainland to the north by the Rivière des Mille Îles, and from the Island of Montreal to the south by the Rivière des Prairies....

, and a few areas on the mainland. Most viewers could only get a clear picture on cable.

Many of the people whose shows had aired on TEQ for many years didn't make the cut for CJNT because they didn't meet the standards for commercial broadcasting. However, many of the shows that did make it were of somewhat marginal quality. Its commitment to ethnic groups was questioned, especially late at night when it would frequently show English-language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...

s for a psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...

 hotline.

WIC & Canwest

Western International Communications
Western International Communications
WIC Western International Communications Ltd.The apparent occurrence of "RAS syndrome" here was in fact part of the company's legal name. was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via...

 bought CJNT in 1999. WIC owned Montreal's CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

 affiliate, CFCF-TV
CFCF-TV
CFCF-DT is a CTV-owned and operated station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...

, but was facing serious competition from Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...

, which had expanded into Quebec the same year CJNT signed on. WIC figured CJNT would give it much-needed leverage in Montreal. It planned to relaunch CJNT on the model of Canada's first multicultural station, CFMT-TV
CFMT-TV
CFMT-DT, channel 47, is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with rebroadcasters in Ottawa and London. The station broadcasts multicultural programming targeting European and Latin American communities throughout Southern Ontario. Part of the Omni Television group of stations...

 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, with 60% ethnic content and 40% American content. However, WIC was only able to buy the shares of CJNT held by Marie Griffiths, as ownership of the rest of the shares was being contested in court. It was not allowed to make changes to CJNT's license without majority ownership, and its plans became moot when Canwest bought WIC's television assets in 2000. Canwest was not allowed to keep CFCF because Montreal's anglophone population was too small to permit a twinstick
Twinstick
A twinstick, in Canadian broadcasting, is a term for two television stations, broadcasting in the same market, which are owned by the same company...

 with Global station CKMI-TV
CKMI-TV
CKMI-DT-1 is the Global Television Network owned-and-operated station in Quebec.Originally a privately owned CBC Television affiliate in Quebec City, the station moved most of its operations to Montreal in 1997 after launching a rebroadcaster there and becoming a Global affiliate as Global Quebec...

 in Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

 (it was eventually sold to CTV). However, Canwest was allowed to keep WIC's interest in CJNT, and bought the remaining shares.
Canwest had CJNT file bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, and changed its conditions of licence to reduce the ethnic content to 60%. On September 8, 2001, Global relaunched the station with a mixture of ethnic, English- and French-language programming. The bulk of the English-language shows came from Canwest's secondary television system, CH. For all intents and purposes, CJNT thus became the third CH station, and the only one actually licensed to a major Canadian city. Since there was no "H" in "CJNT" (unlike CHCH-TV
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT, channel 11, is a television station originating in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with transmitters located throughout Ontario. CHCH currently operates as an independent station, having previously served as a CBC Television affiliate, and more recently as the flagship station of the...

 and CHEK-TV
CHEK-TV
CHEK-DT, channel 6.1, is a television station based in Victoria, British Columbia and broadcasting to all of southwestern BC...

), the CH in Montreal stood for "Canal Horizon" ("CH Horizon" in English), although it changed its on-air name to just "CH" in 2002. The station remained a CH branded station until September 7, 2007, when Canwest decided to brand the station as CJNT Montreal, while CH programming rebranded as E!.

As a CH and later E! station, CJNT had many English-language American imports due to E!'s emphasis on American shows that couldn't fit onto Global's schedule. Some of E!'s programming, including documentary-based shows such as E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...

, were aired in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, to help partially fulfill CJNT's ethnic programming requirements.

For much of 2003 and 2004, CJNT fought a "commercial war" with Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....

's Fox affiliate, WFFF
WFFF-TV
WFFF-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Vermont's Champlain Valley and Upstate New York's North Country. Licensed to Burlington, Vermont, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 43 from a transmitter on Vermont's highest peak, Mount Mansfield...

. Due to Canada's "simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...

" rules, WFFF frequently moved That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...

 around its schedule to keep its signal from being replaced with CJNT's on Montreal cable during the show's broadcast. However, whenever possible, CJNT, which was airing the same show, duplicated the move in order to maintain the signal substitutions. This resulted in a cat-and-mouse game in which the Champlain Valley editions of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

 were often out of date before they were published. WFFF depends on advertising in Montreal for its survival, since Montreal is 10 times larger than that station's entire American viewing area.

Threatened closure and sale to Channel Zero

On February 5, 2009, Canwest (CJNT's former parent company) announced it would explore "strategic options", including possible sale or closure, for CJNT and its other stations in the E! system, saying "a second conventional TV network is no longer key to the long-term success" of the company. While Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...

, owners of Canada's other over-the-air multicultural TV stations through the Omni Television
OMNI Television
Omni Television, corporately styled as OMNI Television, is a Canadian television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications. It consists of the company's conventional television stations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta which are licensed as multicultural stations...

 system, would seem to be a logical buyer for CJNT, that company reportedly had no interest in expanding its conventional TV holdings at the time.

On June 30, 2009, it was announced that Channel Zero
Channel Zero Inc.
Channel Zero is an independent Canadian broadcasting and media group, which holds assets in television broadcasting and film distribution.The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.-Ownership structure:...

 would purchase CJNT and CHCH
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT, channel 11, is a television station originating in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with transmitters located throughout Ontario. CHCH currently operates as an independent station, having previously served as a CBC Television affiliate, and more recently as the flagship station of the...

 in Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

 from Canwest in exchange for $12 in cash and the assumption of various station liabilities. The CRTC approved the sale on August 28

Channel Zero took control of the station's programming at midnight EDT
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

 on the morning of August 31. On that date, CJNT disaffiliated from E! (which would shut down later that day) and adopted a new schedule featuring a mix of music videos and already existing local ethnic programming during the day, and foreign movies at night, and reverted to branding itself as simply CJNT. There was no American simsub
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...

 programming for the first year. Despite initial plans calling for a majority of the music videos to be foreign, most would end up being English language videos with a moderate amount of French and foreign language videos included. In addition, CJNT would add, in sparse amounts, additional programming during the 2009-2010 season, including Let's Get It On, a mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...

 program; Ed the Sock
Ed the Sock
Ed the Sock is a puppet, created and voiced by Steven Kerzner, that became a Canadian television personality in the 1990s, best known for his appearances hosting programming on MuchMusic and his own talk show, Ed's Night Party, later renamed Ed & Red's Night Party...

's This Movie Sucks!
This Movie Sucks!
This Movie Sucks! is a Canadian comedy television series hosted by Ed the Sock, premièring on May 28, 2010, two years after Ed's Night Party went off the air. The show is similar to another former Ed the Sock series, Ed's Nite In...

, a movie show featuring the former MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...

 character alongside co-host Liana Kerzner and comedian Ron Sparks; and infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...

s.

On June 14, 2010, Channel Zero announced it would be rebranding CJNT as Metro 14 in the fall, to appeal to a wider urban audience; the "14" represents its cable slot on Vidéotron
Vidéotron
Vidéotron GP is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Currently, the company primarily serves Quebec, as well as the francophone...

 in the Greater Montreal area. In September 2010, CJNT began airing American network television series for the first time since Channel Zero took ownership, including Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...

, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...

. In addition to the American network series, CJNT began airing the CHCH produced talk show, Sportsline with Mark Hebscher.

On February 2, 2011 at 6:00 a.m. EST
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

, the station officially rebranded as Metro 14, behind the original announced date of fall 2010.

Station brandings

  • CJNT (1997–2001)
  • CH Horizon (2001–2002)
  • CH Montreal (2002–2007)
  • CJNT Montreal (2007–2011)
  • Metro 14 (2011–present)

Station slogans

  • Closer to You! (2001–2007)
  • CH has it all (2001–2007)
  • Everything Entertainment (2007–2009) (localized version of E! ad campaign)
  • One city, Many cultures (2007–2011)

Digital television and high definition

On August 27, 2011, the station shut down its analog transmitter and flash cut to digital on channel 49. With the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display CJNT-DT's virtual channel as 62.1, its former analog channel number. However, its digital signal operates at only 4 kilowatts--roughly equivalent to 20 kilowatts in analog. As a result, the station's coverage area is not much larger than it was in analogue.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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