CHEK-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CHEK-DT** (channel 6) is an television station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the affiliate of the CTV Television Network for Vancouver Island. The station is owned by Shaw Media, and maintains studios located on Kings Road in Victoria, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Warburton Pike on Saturna Island.

## History

### CBC and CTV affiliation

The station first signed on the air on December 1, 1956. Originally operating as a CBC affiliate, it was founded by David Armstrong, owner of local radio station CKDA (1220 AM, now CJZN-FM on 91.3); Armstrong originally applied to assign the CKTV call letters for the station, which was changed to CHEK-TV prior to the station's sign-on. Its original studio facilities were located on Epsom Drive in Saanich. Initially, the radio and television stations shared staff such as Andy Steven (who was CHEK's first news director) and Keith MacKenzie (who served as its sports director). CHEK was the only local television station that operated on Vancouver Island for many years, until CHUM Limited signed on CIVI-TV (channel 53) in October 2001. The station was the first (and is currently the oldest) privately owned television station in British Columbia. Only CBC owned-and-operated station CBUT-DT (channel 2) in Vancouver has been on the air longer, having signed on in December 1953.

In 1963, the station was purchased by businessman Frank Griffiths, who also owned Vancouver CTV affiliate CHAN-TV (channel 8, now a Global owned-and-operated station). By September of that year, CHEK's schedule consisted of some CTV programming and simulcasts of CHAN-originated shows mixed in with the CBC network schedule, along with CHEK-based local productions and syndicated programs not aired on CHAN; this setup continued into the late 1960s and early 1970s, when CHAN started to timeshift network programs. CHEK would also air CBC programs during the afternoon and primetime while running CTV shows such as University of the Air and Canada AM in the morning (simulcast with CHAN).

In 1972, CHEK, which had simulcast CHAN's News Hour since the Griffiths purchase (and would continue to do so until 2001), began producing its own news program, News Hour Vancouver Island. It aired at 5:30 p.m. before the CHAN News Hour simulcast (in some cases, CHAN's News Hour would only be broadcast on CHEK due to other programming commitments, primarily Vancouver Canucks hockey), and at 11:15 p.m. following CBC's The National. From 1975 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1986, CHEK used the same Pacific dogwood logo as CHAN; in both cases, they later reverted to using their own logo.

Beginning around the 1978–79 television season, CHEK gradually added more CTV programs during the prime time hours (which were timeshifted from their airings on CHAN). On January 5, 1981, when CBUT launched repeater stations in Sooke and Mount Macdonald, CHEK disaffiliated from CBC and became a full-time CTV station.

In 1982, Western International Communications (WIC) acquired a 59% interest in CHEK and CHAN. WIC bought the remaining 41% interest from Selkirk Communications in 1989, when that company sold most of its broadcasting assets. In 1984, CHEK moved its operations from its original studios in Saanich to its present location at 780 Kings Road; the studio facility had originally been built to house a planned CBC Television station for Victoria, but budget cuts caused the plans to be shelved and then canceled.

CHEK came under the ownership of Shaw Media in 2000 after that company acquired Western International Communications.

CHEK celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006; as part of the celebration, it aired vignettes of past station promos from the pre-CH era during commercial breaks. Another short vignette was also introduced consisting of CHEK's logos and station IDs through the years, from its original logo in 1956 to its then-current logo as "CH Vancouver Island".

On January 25, 2013, CHEK began sharing space with the local CBC Radio One station CBCV-FM, which migrated its operations into the television station's Kings Road studios.

## Programming

CHEK broadcasts many of the same programs as CHAN on a timeshifted basis; as with CHAN, this consists of a mixture of CTV network programming and Corus-owned programming (usually drawn from the schedule of CHCH in Hamilton), although the Corus programming usually differs from that aired on CHAN. The launch of Baton Broadcasting-owned CIVT (channel 32) in 1997 further complicated the distribution of CTV network programming in southwestern British Columbia, with CIVT becoming the area's third station (after CHAN and CHEK) to carry CTV programming. However, after CHAN strengthened its own morning newscast around 2000, CHEK became the only station in the province that airs Canada AM, as CIVT airs its own local morning news program.

### News operation

CHEK-DT presently broadcasts 14½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 2½ hours each weekday and an hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station also produces lifestyle/entertainment magazine show CHEK Here broadcast at 1:00 p.m. each weekday. Unlike most news-producing television stations in major Canadian markets, the station does not broadcast a late evening newscast on weekends (its only weekend newscast is a hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast). In addition, the station produces the half-hour public affairs program Nanaimo Report. CHEK-TV uses shoots on DVC-Pro tapes for all its programming and pre-recorded segments during its newscasts.

### Newscast times

Weekdays:

* 12pm - 1pm: CHEK News at Noon with Andy Neal
* 5pm - 6pm: CHEK News at 5 with Jim Beatty and Stacy Ross
* 6pm - 6:30pm: CHEK News at 6 with Jim Beatty
* 11:30pm - 12:05am: CHEK News Final with Jim Beatty

Saturdays:

* 5pm - 6pm: CHEK Weekend News with Hannah Lepine

Sundays:

* 5pm - 6pm: CHEK Weekend News with Hannah Lepine

## Technical information

### Spectrum re-packing

In April 2017, Industry Canada posted new channel assignments for stations as a result of spectrum repacking due to the US 600 MHz spectrum auction. CHEK-DT moved to channel 16 on July 3, 2020.

### Analogue-to-digital conversion

CHEK flash cut its digital signal into operation, over UHF channel 49, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display CHEK-DT's virtual channel as its analog-era VHF channel 6. Due to technical issues with the digital transmitter, the analogue transmitter did not shut down until October 26, 2011; it was the last television station in the Vancouver-Victoria market to continue operating its main analogue transmitter, making Calgary the largest market in Western Canada to have an analogue station operate over-the-air and also unseating Edmonton as Canada's second-largest market to have all of its stations convert to digital-only broadcasts. While all Vancouver and Victoria area television stations continued operating analogue signals until August 31, CHEK-TV was the only such station in the Vancouver/Victoria market, as all of the other transmitters in these markets shut down as required by 12:00 a.m. on September 1, 2011. KVOS-TV (channel 12) in nearby Bellingham, Washington was the first television station that served Vancouver to shut down its analogue signal on February 17, 2009, as part of the digital television transition in the United States.

CHEK-TV was not the last analogue transmitter to shut down as part of Canada's August 31, 2011 digital conversion deadline in mandatory markets. A handful of other transmitters in Canada were also late to shut down, though unlike CHEK-DT, the other stations did not have their digital transmitters on-air by August 31, 2011.