CKND-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CKND-DT** (channel 9) is a television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, part of the Canwest Global System. The station is owned and operated by network parent Canwest (a subsidiary of Caribbean-based financial solutions firm Sygnus Corporation), with studios on the 30th floor of 201 Portage in downtown Winnipeg, and transmitter atop the building.

## History

### Acquisition and licensing

CKND's predecessor, KCND-TV, began broadcasting from Pembina, North Dakota, in November 1960. Although a U.S. station, it depended almost entirely on advertising from the media market of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In February 1973, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it had received two applications for new television stations in Winnipeg. One had been submitted by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd., the parent company of CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba. The other application had been received from Continental Communications Ltd. of Vancouver, British Columbia, represented by Ray Peters, the president of Vancouver CTV affiliate CHAN-TV.

The CRTC solicited competing applications for the new Winnipeg television licence, and Peter Liba, who was then the executive assistant to Manitoba Liberal Party leader Izzy Asper, suggested that they make a bid. Wanting to save money on buying the needed equipment, Asper negotiated with Gordon McLendon to acquire the assets of KCND, convincing him that a new Winnipeg station would cut into KCND's revenues and that Winnipeg advertisers would likely lose tax deductions for American advertising costs.

McLendon sold the station's facilities and equipment to Canwest Broadcasting, established by Asper and partners Paul Morton and Seymour Epstein, for $780,000, contingent on Canwest securing a broadcasting licence. At the CRTC's public hearings in Winnipeg in May 1974, Canwest noted that the acquisition of KCND would give their new Winnipeg station a $2 million advertising base and would save $1.5 million in capital and start-up costs compared to the alternative of launching a completely new station.

At the same hearing, competing applications were presented by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd. and by Communications Winnipeg Co-Op, which proposed a member-supported non-commercial station. (Continental Communications had withdrawn its application prior to the hearings.) John Boler, the owner of Valley City–Fargo, North Dakota CBS affiliate KXJB-TV and future owner of KVRR/KNRR, also used the occasion to announce his intention to launch a new Pembina-based station on channel 12.

In September 1974, the CRTC awarded the Winnipeg channel 9 licence to Canwest, which formally took possession and assumed day-to-day management of KCND-TV on March 31, 1975 (due to foreign ownership restrictions, the McLendon Corporation remained the official licensee of KCND until it surrendered the station's broadcasting licence to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission [FCC] later that year). The same month, Canwest confirmed that the new station would operate from a former supermarket at 603 St. Mary's Road in Winnipeg and use an antenna mounted on the CBWT tower in Starbuck, Manitoba, to avoid having to dismantle KCND's tower during the transition. KCND-TV general manager G. O. Johnson was appointed executive vice-president and general manager of CanWest Broadcasting. In May 1975, Canwest announced that KCND's 17 Winnipeg-based employees had all accepted offers of employment at the new station, but that there was little interest among the station's 22 Pembina-based employees.

### Broadcasting

During Labour Day weekend, on August 31, 1975, CKND signed on channel 9 (broadcast) and channel 12 (cable), both shown prominently in the station's logo. Both CKND and KCND simulcast the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon until 5:30 p.m. on September 1, 1975, after which KCND permanently left the air.

The former KCND tower was later moved to Asper's birthplace of Minnedosa, Manitoba, a small town 46 kilometres (29 mi) north of Brandon, to serve western Manitoba. Together, the two transmitters reach 91% of Manitoba's population. Its first regularly scheduled program following the MDA telethon was The Hollywood Squares.

In 1981, KCND became the call letters for KCND-FM, the first Prairie Public Radio station in Bismarck, North Dakota. The same year, the U.S. FCC issued a construction permit for a new station to serve Pembina, North Dakota on channel 12. The station's launch, however, would remain delayed until 1986.

During a June 1981 hearing to extend CKND-TV's signal into the Westman area and to hear the application by Western Manitoba Broadcasters Ltd. (Craig) for a new television station at Portage la Prairie, Canwest said that the Westman transmitter on a VHF channel would reach up to 175,000 more viewers than with the CKND-TV Winnipeg signal. The signal would stretch from the US border to Dauphin, and from Central Manitoba to Saskatchewan.

At an April 1982 CRTC hearing regarding licensing a new television station for southern Manitoba, Canwest stated that while they were given VHF channel 2 to operate the CKND-TV2 rebroadcaster, they could have used VHF channel 13 instead. Canwest also stated that it would require a population of over 100,000 to serve the Interlake area with two or three UHF transmitters, rather than the 30,000 that existed at the time.

On-air signal testing on channel 2 with colour bars, test slides and test programming began in early August. CKND-TV-2 began broadcasting at 6 p.m. on September 1, 1982. Cable TV viewers in Dauphin were unable to watch the launch of CKND-TV-2 channel 2 because the cable company, Westman Media Co-op, did not have an antenna ready to receive the new signal.

On January 1, 1986, channel 12 returned in Pembina, North Dakota, as KNRR, a satellite of independent station KVRR (channel 15) in Fargo. Canadian cable providers were prohibited from distributing the signal, however, by an October 1986 CRTC decision in response to broadcaster concerns about the "potentially damaging effect of this station by providing Canadian advertisers with access to large amounts of commercial airtime at rates substantially lower than those they would be obliged to pay Canadian television licensees in order to reach the same potential audience." As the satellite station was never profitable due to its location, as well as its difficulties in being able to reach the Winnipeg audience, KNRR went off the air from June to October 2009 as the station did not upgrade to a digital signal.

Along with the other Canwest-owned stations, CKND was rebranded as Global in August 1997. CKND's studios also produces Fox Soccer Report, which airs on Fox Sports World Canada and in the United States on Fox Soccer Channel. On September 1, 2008, CKND moved its operations to downtown Winnipeg at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage).

## News operation

CKND-DT presently broadcasts 24½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours on weekdays, and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays).

On September 7, 2011, it was announced that Global would be launching two new provincial half-hour political programs. Similar in format to Global's Focus Ontario, these new political programs launched in Saskatchewan on CFRE-DT and CFSK-DT, as well as CKND, on October 15, 2011. In late 2011, CKND became the first television station in Manitoba to broadcast its local news in high definition.

On February 6, 2012, CKND launched a three-hour weekday morning newscast, airing 6–9 a.m. Around the same time, CKND became the first Winnipeg station to acquire a news helicopter, CKND Skyview. On August 20, 2012, CKND expanded its half-hour 10 p.m. newscast to one hour, moving the sports highlight show Sportsline to 11 p.m.

### Newscast schedule

Monday-Friday:

* 6am-9am: Global News Morning with Gabrielle Marchand
* 6pm-6:30pm: Global News at 6:00 with Lisa Dutton
* 10pm-11pm: Global News at 10:00 with Lisa Dutton
* 11pm-11:30pm: Sportsline with Daren Millard

Saturday-Sunday:

* 6pm-6:30pm: Global News at 6:00 with Nicole Dube
* 10pm-10:30pm: Global News at 10:00 with Nicole Dube