CJOH-DT
CJOH-DT, virtual channel 13 (UHF digital channel 16), is a CTV owned-and-operated television station licensed to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and also serving Anglo-Quebecers in the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec. The station is owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., as part of a twinstick with Pembroke-licensed CTV 2 outlet CHRO-TV (channel 5). The two stations share studios—alongside Bell's Ottawa radio properties—at the Market Media Mall building on George Street in downtown Ottawa's ByWard Market; CJOH-DT's transmitter is located on the Ryan Tower at Camp Fortune in Chelsea, Quebec, north of Gatineau.
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Ottawa, Ontario–Gatineau, Quebec Canada | |
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Channels | Digital: 16 (UHF) Virtual: 13.1 (PSIP) |
Branding | CTV Ottawa or CTV (general) CTV News Ottawa (newscasts) |
Slogan | Live Local Breaking |
Programming | |
Affiliations | CTV (1961–present; O&O since 1998) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Bell Media Inc. |
CHRO-TV, CFGO, CFRA, CJMJ-FM, CKKL-FM | |
History | |
First air date | March 12, 1961 |
Former call signs | CJOH-TV (1961–2011) |
Former channel number(s) | Analog: 13 (VHF, 1961–2011) Digital: 13 (VHF, 2011–2020) |
Independent (March–September 1961) | |
Call sign meaning | CJ Ottawa & Hull, Quebec |
Technical information | |
Licensing authority | CRTC |
ERP | 54 kW |
HAAT | 423.4 m (1,389 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 45°30′11″N 75°51′1″W |
Links | |
Website | CTV Ottawa |
On cable, the station is available on Rogers Cable channel 7 in the Ottawa area.[1] It is also carried on Bell Satellite TV channel 1041,[2] Bell Fibe channel 1201,[3] and on Shaw Direct channel 145.[4]
History
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Founded by Ernie Bushnell, CJOH signed on for the first time on March 12, 1961. Initially, studio facilities were located at 29 Bayswater Avenue (45.4067°N 75.7204°W) until that September when operations were shifted over several weeks to a $2 million (CA$) complex at 1500 Merivale.[5]
It acquired former Cornwall, Ontario CBC affiliate CJSS-TV as a rebroadcaster in 1963, making CJSS the first television station in Canada to cease operations. The channel 6 transmitter in Deseronto became operational in 1972 to serve the Kingston and Belleville markets. Standard Broadcasting owned the station from 1975 to 1987; that year, after a CRTC decision authorized Baton Broadcasting to launch a new independent station in Ottawa,[6] Standard responded to the potential new competition by selling CJOH to Baton, who then surrendered the new independent license.[7] Baton was renamed CTV Inc. in 1998 after gaining control of the CTV network the preceding year. CTV in turn would be purchased by Bell Canada and folded into Bell Globemedia, now Bell Media, in 2001.
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On August 1, 1995, the station's longtime sports anchor Brian Smith was shot in the station's parking lot by Jeffrey Arenburg, a released mental patient with a history of threatening media personalities, who claimed the station was broadcasting messages inside his head. Smith died in hospital the following day.[8] The incident led to renewed calls across Canada for strengthening of the Canadian government's gun control legislation and provided the impetus for Brian's Law (Ontario Bill 68) – an amendment of the Mental Health Act and Health Care Consent Act which introduced community treatment orders and new criteria for involuntary commitment to psychiatric facilities.[9] Arenburg was released from a mental hospital in Penetanguishene in 2006, then imprisoned for two years for assaulting a U.S. border guard in 2008.[10]
On August 28, 1996, BBS Ontario Incorporated received CRTC approval to add a new analog transmitter on UHF channel 47 at Pembroke, Ontario to rebroadcast programming of CJOH-TV. CHRO-TV was also approved to disafiliate from the CTV Television Network that same day.[11]
The newsroom was destroyed by a four-alarm fire during the early morning hours of February 7, 2010, destroying equipment and the news archives. The building itself remained intact until it was demolished by the end of December 2011. An adjacent office building housing former sister station CKQB-FM was not affected by the fire.[12][13]
CJOH's news operations were permanently relocated to CTV's ByWard Market building. This would be the first time the ByWard Market studios would have an evening newscast since the cancellation of sister station CHRO-TV's A News in March 2009.
Programming
Regular local programming
With the exception of networked shows Your Morning (along with its predecessor Canada AM) and Question Period, none of these programs are available in high definition.
- Regional Contact, with Joel Haslam since 1988 and Kathie Donovan from 1998 to 2012, was the second last local program on CJOH besides standard newscasts. The show was a weekly program that previously aired at 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays, but has been moved to Sunday at the same time beginning in September 2011. Episodes produced during or after 2007 are available as streaming media on CJOH's website. The last episode featuring Donovan aired on May 13, 2012. CJOH has since discontinued Regional Contact as a weekly show, but it remains on the station as a weekly segment during the 6 p.m. newscasts.[14]
- Question Period is a national program about Canadian politics produced in Ottawa since 1967. It is the last non-newscast local program on CJOH since the discontinuation of Regional Contact.[15]
Former local programming
- Bang Bang You're Alive
- Compass
- Vue (where Peter Jennings made his debut)
- Platform
- Dear Charlotte
- Something Else
- Wok with Yan
- Wayne Rostad Show
- Country Way
- Joys of Collecting
- Uncle Chichimus (originally for CBC Television in 1950s; moved to CJOH in 1960s)
- Saturday Date (1961–1969) was a music and dance show targeted at teenagers, with local performances as well as the top songs on Canadian music charts. Peter Jennings was the host of this show until some time in 1962, when he was replaced by John Pozer. Dick Maloney would replace Pozer in 1964. Although the show ended in 1969, Pozer and Maloney would later return on March 13, 1991 for a Saturday Date reunion along with original participants forming the audience.
- Miss Helen (1960s) was a bilingual show designed for pre-sechoolers. It used the Oogly Woogly worm as one of the actors. This format would later be used by its successor Marie-Soleil.
- Strange Paradise (1969–1970; produced for CBC Television)
- Uncle Willy & Floyd (1966–1988)[16]
- The Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr (1969–1971; produced for CBC Television)
- The Amazing Kreskin (1970s)
- Mr. Wizard (1971–1972; produced for CBC Television)
- Family Brown Country (1972–1985)
- Morning Magazine (1972–1987; replaced by the national Canada AM)
- You Can't Do That on Television (1979–1990; produced for Nickelodeon from 1982 to 1990; a short-lived spinoff, Whatever Turns You On, aired nationally in prime time on CTV in the fall of 1979)
- Marie-Soleil (1980s), although the show's host Suzanne Pinel reappears yearly for the CHEO telethon.
- Homegrown Cafe (1980s–1998) was a talent show hosted by J. J. Clarke, who was CJOH's weatherman for the 6 p.m. weekday news until his retirement in 2020.
- Tech Now (2001–2011) was a local technology journalism news program hosted by Paul Brent. It aired from 6:30 p.m. to about 6:55 p.m. on Sundays, and the last episode aired on July 3, 2011.[17] The program's production has been cancelled after Brent retired, with no new episodes or host, although re-runs of older episodes briefly played after the show was discontinued. Eventually, Tech Now ceased to play on CJOH, and was replaced by Regional Contact which previously played on Saturdays during the same time slot.
News operation
CJOH-DT presently broadcasts 20½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 3½ hours each weekday and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in lieu of a local morning newscast (which instead airs on sister station CHRO), CJOH displays local news headlines on a news ticker during its broadcast of CTV's semi-national morning program Your Morning (previously Canada AM).
Local newscasts (under the name CTV News) are aired weekdays at noon, 6 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.[18] The newscasts were previously called Midday Newsline/Newsline/Nightline (depending on the time of day) from the 1970s until 1998, and CJOH News from 1998 to 2005. (In 1982, the 6 p.m. newscast Newsline became, for a brief time, Canada's first 90-minute local supper hour newscast.) From December 10, 2011 to autumn 2012, the noon and 6 p.m. broadcasts broadcast for one hour, though the Sunday evening 6 p.m. broadcast remained a half-hour program.[19] Since April 2012, the audio feed of CJOH's 6 p.m. newscast is simulcast on sister radio station CFRA. The Sunday 6 p.m. newscast expanded to one hour in the fall of 2012. On July 7, 2014, the station unveiled a new studio to accompany the transition to high definition news production. On August 28, 2017, CJOH launched a new hour of local news content titled CTV News at 5, part of expanded local newscasts announced in June of that year.[20]
Notable current on-air staff
- Graham Richardson – weeknight anchor
Notable former on-air staff
- Arisa Cox – reporter (now host of Big Brother Canada)
- Harry Elton – anchor (1960s) (deceased)
- Peter Jennings – anchor (later at ABC News; deceased)
- Max Keeping – 6 p.m. anchor (deceased)
- Carol Anne Meehan – weeknight anchor (laid off November 2015)
- Michael O'Byrne – anchor of Midday Newsline, CJOH/CTV News at Noon, reporter (retired December 18, 2019)
- Brian Smith – sports anchor (deceased)
- Carolyn Waldo – sports anchor; weekends (laid off November 2015)
Former rebroadcasters
A long list of CTV rebroadcasters nationwide were to shut down on or before August 31, 2009, as part of a political dispute with Canadian authorities on paid fee-for-carriage requirements for cable television operators.[21][22]
On June 27, 2016, it was announced that Bell Media filed a proposal with the CRTC to shut down 40 of its television transmitters (all rebroadcasters of other stations), due to maintenance costs, high cable and satellite viewership, and no generation of revenue.
On July 30, 2019, Bell Media was granted permission to close down CJOH-TV-6 (Deseronto) and CJOH-TV-47 (Pembroke) as part of Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-268. CJOH-TV-47 was shut down as of May 2, 2020, and CJOH-TV-6 was shut down on October 9 of the same year.[23]
Digital television and high definition
Digital channel
Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP short name | Programming[24] |
---|---|---|---|---|
13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CJOH | Main CJOH-DT programming / CTV |
Analogue-to-digital conversion
On August 31, 2011, when Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts,[25] the station flash cut its digital signal into operation on VHF channel 13. The station's news operations completed upgrades to high definition capabilities, and the first HD news broadcast took place on July 7, 2014 starting with the noon hour newscast.
Spectrum re-allocation
As part of the CRTC/FCC spectrum reallocation, CJOH-DT was assigned channel 7 as its new frequency, but instead requested channel 16 for its new frequency, which was given CRTC approval in March 2020.[26] BellMedia is scheduled to carry out the move to channel 16 around July 3, 2020.[27]
References
- http://channelguides.ca/rogers.php?Location=Ottawa&Package=AllChannels&Type=HD
- "List of Bell Satellite TV Channels". TV Channel Lists. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
- "Bell Fibe". TV Channel Lists. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
- "National Channel Lineup (Numerical)" (PDF). Shawdirect.ca. Shaw Satellite G.P. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
- Inglis, Fred (1961-10-21). "CJOH Opens Amid 'Hollywood Air'". Ottawa Citizen. p. 3. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
- "CRTC ruling sparks network war". The Globe and Mail, March 3, 1987.
- "Baton buys CJOH TV in Ottawa from Standard for $85 million". The Globe and Mail, July 15, 1987.
- Widow shocked by unconditional release of husband's killer, CBC News, November 22, 2006
- New rules for Ontario mental health care, CBC News, December 5, 2000
- Ottawa sportscaster's killer jailed 2 years in U.S. for assault, CBC News, September 25, 2008
- "Decision CRTC 96-542: Disaffiliation of CHRO-TV Pembroke from the CTV Television Network; Addition of a transmitter of CHRO-TV at Ottawa and addition of a transmitter of CJOH-TV Ottawa at Pembroke". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. August 28, 1996.
- "CTV Ottawa newsroom destroyed by fire", CTV Ottawa, 2010-02-07
- "Fire destroys CTV newsroom", CBC.ca, 2010-02-07
- Katie Donovan says farewell to Regional Contact.
- CTV's Question Period. "Twitter @ctvqp". Twitter. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
- "A lifetime of Willy and Floyd". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
- Brent, Paul. "Twitter / @m2wPaul". Twitter. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
- CTV Ottawa News Open
- CTV Ottawa Expands Local Weekend News Archived 2012-01-11 at the Wayback Machine, Broadcaster Magazine, 29, 2011.
- "CTV Ottawa expanding local coverage with CTV NEWS AT 5". CTV News Ottawa. 2017-06-07. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
- CTV list of transmitters to be shut down Archived 2011-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2009-407
- "CRTC Decision 2019-268". July 30, 2019.
- RabbitEars TV Query for CJOH
- Digital Television – Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) Archived 2013-08-17 at the Wayback Machine
- File #: 2020-46-2 https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/demradbroadappl/Default-Defaut.aspx
- Filter Items CJOH http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf11282.html
External links
- CTV Ottawa
- CJOH-DT history – Canadian Communications Foundation
- CJOH in the REC Canadian station database
- Query TV Fool's coverage map for CJOH