CTV Northern Ontario
Encyclopedia
CTV Northern Ontario, formerly known as MCTV
, is a system
of four television station
s in Northern Ontario
, Canada
, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network
, a division of Bell Media.
These stations are:
All four stations refer to themselves on air as CTV, not by their call letters, and have common local programming, however they remain legally licensed as separate stations as of 2010. Station information and history is discussed on each station's own page.
Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1980 when Cambrian Broadcasting, which owned the CTV affiliates in Sudbury, North Bay and Timmins, merged with J. Conrad Lavigne
's CBC affiliates in the same cities to create Mid-Canada Communications
. This twinstick
structure was permitted by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission because both companies were on the brink of bankruptcy
due to their aggressive competition for limited advertising dollars in small markets. In its decision, however, the CRTC explicitly communicated the expectation that this would exist only as a temporary arrangement, to end as soon as the CBC could afford to directly acquire MCTV's CBC affiliates.
The CBC
twinstick
s in the original MCTV system were:
All of the stations were also referred to on air as MCTV — the stations were distinguished from each other by use of their network affiliation (i.e., "MCTV-CTV" and "MCTV-CBC"). Sault Ste. Marie's CHBX and CJIC
were owned by Huron Broadcasting
, and remained under different ownership and branding until 1990.
As well, MCTV owned CHRO
in Pembroke
, a market with no other television stations. CHRO used the same logo and programming schedule as MCTV's other stations, and changed its affiliation from CBC to CTV during its time in the MCTV group, but it always used its own callsign, rather than MCTV, as its on-air identification.
Baton Broadcasting acquired both Mid-Canada and Huron in 1990, and converted the Huron stations to the MCTV branding. As well, Baton reaffiliated CHRO with CTV. Baton eventually became the sole corporate proprietor of CTV, and sold CHRO to CHUM Limited
in 1998; at the time CHUM acquired CHRO, it disaffiliated from CTV and became an independent station for a short time before joining the NewNet system (now CTV Two).
Baton retained the CBC twinsticks until 2002, when it sold them to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
. Once the deal was finalized in early 2003, the CBC converted them to retransmitters of CBLT, Toronto
's CBC owned-and-operated station. All four stations surrendered their old call letters. In 2003, MCTV's master control
operations were transferred to the CTV facilities in Toronto.
In October 2005, MCTV News was renamed as CTV News, in line with most of the other CTV owned-and-operated stations. CTV News uses WSI's TrueView Weather Technology to broadcast weather reports during all its newscasts.
Weather team
Sports team
Reporters
Mid-Canada Communications
Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario.-MCTV:...
, is a system
Television system
A television system is a Canadian term for a group of television stations which share common ownership, branding, and programming, but are not considered a full television network....
of four 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...
s in Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...
, Canada
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...
, owned and operated by the CTV Television Network
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...
, a division of Bell Media.
These stations are:
- CICICICI-TVCICI-TV is a Canadian television station, broadcasting in Sudbury, Ontario. It is an owned-and-operated station of the CTV Television Network, and is the flagship station of that network's system in northern Ontario, CTV Northern Ontario....
- Greater Sudbury (flagship station) - CKNYCKNY-TVCKNY is a Canadian television station, broadcasting in North Bay, Ontario. It is an owned-and-operated station of CTV.-History:...
- North BayNorth Bay, OntarioNorth Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing.-History:... - CHBXCHBX-TVCHBX is a Canadian television station, broadcasting in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It is an O&O of CTV. The station's signal also reaches the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the station can be seen over the air as far south as Gaylord, Michigan.CHBX is essentially a...
- Sault Ste. MarieSault Ste. Marie, OntarioSault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in... - CITOCITO-TVCITO is a Canadian television station, broadcasting in Timmins, Ontario. It is an O&O of CTV. CITO also broadcasts on channel 10 in Kapuskasing, channel 11 in Kirkland Lake, channel 4 in Hearst and channel 9 in Chapleau.-History:CITO was established in 1971 as CKSO-TV-2, originally rebroadcasting...
- TimminsTimminsTimmins is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada on the Mattagami River. At the time of the Canada 2006 Census, Timmins' population was 42,997...
All four stations refer to themselves on air as CTV, not by their call letters, and have common local programming, however they remain legally licensed as separate stations as of 2010. Station information and history is discussed on each station's own page.
History
J. Conrad Lavigne
J. Conrad Lavigne, CM, O.Ont was a pioneering Canadian media proprietor.Born in Chénéville, Quebec, Lavigne was raised in Cochrane, Ontario. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1942 and fought in World War II...
's CBC affiliates in the same cities to create Mid-Canada Communications
Mid-Canada Communications
Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario.-MCTV:...
. This 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...
structure was permitted by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission because both companies were on the brink of 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....
due to their aggressive competition for limited advertising dollars in small markets. In its decision, however, the CRTC explicitly communicated the expectation that this would exist only as a temporary arrangement, to end as soon as the CBC could afford to directly acquire MCTV's CBC affiliates.
The CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
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...
s in the original MCTV system were:
- CKNCCKNC-TVCKNC-TV was a television station in Sudbury, Ontario. In operation from 1971 to 2002 as a private affiliate of CBC Television, it is now a repeater of the network's station in Toronto, CBLT.-History:...
- Sudbury - CHNBCHNB-TVCHNB-TV was a television station in North Bay, Ontario. In operation from 1971 to 2002 as a private affiliate of CBC Television, it is now a repeater of the network's station in Toronto, CBLT.-History:...
- North Bay - CFCLCFCL-TVCFCL-TV was a television station in Timmins, Ontario. In operation from 1956 to 2002 as a private affiliate of CBC Television, it now operates only as a rebroadcaster of Toronto's CBLT with the call sign CBLT-7.-History:...
- Timmins
All of the stations were also referred to on air as MCTV — the stations were distinguished from each other by use of their network affiliation (i.e., "MCTV-CTV" and "MCTV-CBC"). Sault Ste. Marie's CHBX and CJIC
CJIC-TV
CJIC-TV was a television station in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. In operation from 1955 to 2002 as a private affiliate of CBC Television, it now operates only a repeater of the network's flagship station in Toronto, CBLT.-History:...
were owned by Huron Broadcasting
Huron Broadcasting
Huron Broadcasting was a Canadian radio and television broadcasting company, active in Sault Ste. Marie from 1976 to 1990.The company first entered the broadcasting business in 1976, when it acquired the assets of the city's prior Highland Broadcasting and Algonquin Broadcasting companies,...
, and remained under different ownership and branding until 1990.
As well, MCTV owned CHRO
CHRO-TV
CHRO-TV is a television station serving the National Capital and Ottawa Valley regions of Ontario, Canada. Owned by Bell Media, it is part of the CTV Two television system....
in Pembroke
Pembroke, Ontario
Pembroke is a city in the province of Ontario, Canada, at the confluence of the Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley...
, a market with no other television stations. CHRO used the same logo and programming schedule as MCTV's other stations, and changed its affiliation from CBC to CTV during its time in the MCTV group, but it always used its own callsign, rather than MCTV, as its on-air identification.
Baton Broadcasting acquired both Mid-Canada and Huron in 1990, and converted the Huron stations to the MCTV branding. As well, Baton reaffiliated CHRO with CTV. Baton eventually became the sole corporate proprietor of CTV, and sold CHRO to CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
in 1998; at the time CHUM acquired CHRO, it disaffiliated from CTV and became an independent station for a short time before joining the NewNet system (now CTV Two).
Baton retained the CBC twinsticks until 2002, when it sold them to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
. Once the deal was finalized in early 2003, the CBC converted them to retransmitters of CBLT, 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...
's CBC owned-and-operated station. All four stations surrendered their old call letters. In 2003, MCTV's master control
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 in television studios where the activities such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated...
operations were transferred to the CTV facilities in Toronto.
News operations
In 2002, CTV merged the news production facilities of the MCTV stations into a single regional newscast, with only short inserts for each city's local coverage. The regional newscast is produced at CICI. This created extensive controversy, with many public interest groups across Canada raising concerns about the disappearance of local news coverage in small markets. Organizations in Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins began to call for a boycott of MCTV news, and local companies began offering web-based sources of local news, weather and sports information.In October 2005, MCTV News was renamed as CTV News, in line with most of the other CTV owned-and-operated stations. CTV News uses WSI's TrueView Weather Technology to broadcast weather reports during all its newscasts.
News team
Anchors- Jeff Harrington - weekends at 6 and 11:30 p.m.; also Sudbury bureau reporter
- Gord Nicholls - weeknights at 11:30 p.m.
- Sacha Novack - weekdays at noon; also Sudbury bureau reporter
- Tony Ryma - weeknights at 6 p.m.
- Michelle Tonner - weeknights at 6 p.m.
Weather team
- Natalie Duddridge - lead weather specialist; weeknights at 6 and 11:30 p.m., also Sudbury bureau reporter
- Jill Colton - weather specialist; weekends at 6 and 11:30 p.m., also Sudbury bureau reporter
Sports team
- Andy Barbato - lead sports anchor; weeknights at 6 and 11:30 p.m.
- Isaac Cohen - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11:30 p.m., also Sudbury bureau sports reporter
- Lincoln Louttit - Sault Ste. Marie bureau sports reporter
Reporters
- Alana Everson - Sudbury bureau reporter
- Makda Ghebreslassie - Sault Ste. Marie bureau reporter
- Linda Holmes - North Bay bureau reporter
- Tamara Ischenko - Sudbury bureau reporter
- Nikki Jhutti - Timmins bureau reporter
- Cindy Males - North Bay bureau reporter
- Ben Mercer - Sudbury bureau reporter
- Marina Moore - Timmins bureau reporter
- Paul Soucy - Timmins bureau reporter
- Tracy Tong - Sault Ste. Marie bureau reporter
- Carrie Trownsen - North Bay bureau reporter