CICT-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CICT-DT** (channel 2) is an independent television station in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The station is owned and operated by Corus Entertainment, and has studios at the Calgary Television Centre on 23 Street Northeast and Barlow Trail in northeast Calgary, near the Mayland Heights neighbourhood; its transmitter is located near Old Banff Coach Road/Highway 563 and Artists View Drive, west of the Calgary city limits.

## History

CICT-TV first signed on the air on October 8, 1954 as CHCT-TV, and was the first television station in the province of Alberta (as a result, it is also the oldest television station in the country that is part of the Global Television Network). The station was originally an affiliate of CBC Television. Its studios, offices and transmitter facility were located on a hill seven miles (11 km) west of the city. The station was owned by Calgary Television Ltd., a consortium of Calgary radio stations CFCN, CFAC and CKXL. The "CT" in CHCT stood for "Calgary Television".

During the construction of the transmitter, the 70-foot (21 m), 5-ton antenna was being hoisted on the top of the 600-foot (180 m) tower when the cable snapped and the antenna fell all the way down the tower to imbed itself 15 feet (4.6 m) in the ground. No one was injured in the accident, and the antenna was able to be repaired, but the station's launch was delayed by 10 days. A year later, CHCT moved its studios and offices from the transmitter site on Old Banff Coach Road, to a renovated badminton club/sea cadet drill hall on 955 Rideau Road S.W. in Calgary.

Notable programs that were produced at the original studio include Klara's Korner, a cooking show that was in national syndication for many years; Yan Can Cook, a cooking show hosted by Martin Yan which later aired for many years on PBS in the United States; Stampede Wrestling, which was produced for over 20 years, finding loyal audiences worldwide; and It Figures, which originated at the station and was produced for nearly 20 years.

In 1957, CKXL Ltd. sold its share in Calgary Television Ltd. to Fredrick Shaw, who had recently sold his share in CKXL-AM to Tel-Ray Ltd. The Love family, owners of CFCN, sold off its stake in 1961 when it opened its own station, CFCN-TV. In 1968, Tel-Ray sold its stake to Selkirk Communications, part-owner of CFAC radio alongside Southam Inc. This gave Selkirk full ownership of the station, and accordingly the callsign changed to CFAC-TV.

On September 1, 1975, after the CBC launched its own station in Calgary, CBRT (channel 9; prior to its sign-on, Calgary was the largest TV market in Canada without a CBC owned-and-operated station of its own), CFAC-TV disaffiliated from CBC and became an independent station. In 1979, the station branded itself as "2&7", the latter channel number referring to both its cable location and to sister station CFAC-TV7 in Lethbridge (now CISA). For a number of years afterwards, it continued to use the old CFAC "star" logo (modelled after the logo used by then-sister station CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario) alongside the 2&7 logo.

In 1981, the station moved to its current home, the Calgary Television Centre, a move reflecting its growth since its disaffiliation from the CBC. After obtaining the television rights to the (then-newly relocated) Calgary Flames NHL franchise the year before, the station purchased a seven-camera mobile unit soon after. The station has been the Flames' television partner since 1980. In the fall of 1982, the station became the first station in Calgary to begin broadcasting a 24-hour schedule. Programs seen during the overnight hours consisted of movies and reruns of The Jackie Gleason Show, among other shows.

Although it continued to nominally be an independent station, in 1988, CFAC-TV began airing some programs from the Global Television Network. In 1989, Maclean-Hunter purchased Selkirk Communications, but due to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ownership regulations at the time (Maclean-Hunter already owned CFCN-TV), CFAC-TV was sold to Western International Communications (WIC). A year after WIC bought channel 2, it changed the call letters to CKKX-TV. In 1992, CKKX's news operations were expanded with the acquisitions of a satellite uplink truck and a fleet of electronic news gathering microwave trucks.

On September 7, 1993, CKKX changed its callsign to CICT-TV (for "Independent Calgary Television"), and also took on the brand of "Calgary 7", referring to the station's cable channel. WIC's properties were sold to Corus in 2000.

## Programming

CICT airs a mix of Global-sourced shows and those either produced or acquired by Corus itself, including the nationally oriented newscast Canada Tonight. All non-news programming and some Calgary-based newscasts are also aired on fellow sister station CISA-DT in Lethbridge.

### News operation

CICT presently broadcasts 46½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7½ hours each weekday and 4½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output out of any English-language television station in the Calgary market. In addition, CICT produces Sports at Eleven, a half-hour sports highlight show (airing nightly at 11:00 p.m.).

On April 11, 2007, CICT-DT became the first television station in Calgary to use a helicopter for newsgathering. Named "Calgary 1", it provides traffic reports on the Breakfast Show in combination with in-studio traffic segments, and is also intended to provide breaking news coverage. The helicopter is also shared with CHQR (770 AM) during the morning and afternoon rush hour periods. CICT became the first television station in Calgary, and the second television station in the province of Alberta, to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on November 22, 2010.

On September 11, 2011, CICT debuted a two-hour Sunday morning newscast, running from 8–10 a.m. Mountain Time. On August 27, 2012, the station expanded its weekday morning newscast to four hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 5 a.m., the 5–6 a.m. hour of the newscast being titled the Early Breakfast Show; in addition on September 2, 2012, the station expanded its Sunday morning newscast to three hours with an additional hour at 7 a.m.

### Newscast times

Weekdays

* 5am - 9am: The Breakfast Show with Dallas Flexhaug and Blake Lough
* 12pm - 1pm: Calgary 7 News at Noon with Dallas Flexhaug
* 5pm - 6pm: Calgary 7 News at 5 with Linda Olsen
* 6pm - 6:30pm: Calgary 7 News at 6 with Gord Gillies and Linda Olsen
* 10pm - 11pm: Calgary 7 News at 10 with Gord Gillies
* 11pm - 11:30pm: Sports at Eleven with Grant Pollock and Brendan Parker

Weekends

* 7am - 10am: The Breakfast Show with Tracy Nagai
* 6pm - 7pm: Calgary 7 News at 6 with Jayme Doll
* 10pm - 10:30pm: Calgary 7 News at 10 with Jayme Doll
* 11pm - 11:30pm: Sports at Eleven with Kevin Smith