CJON-DT (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CJON-DT** (channel 21), branded on-air as NTV (short for Newfoundland Television), is a television station in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, affiliated with the CTV network. Owned by Newfoundland Broadcasting Company Ltd., CJON-DT's studios are located on Logy Bay Road in St. John's, and its transmitter is located in the city's Shea Heights section.

## History

In 1955, Newfoundland Broadcasting Company Ltd., owner of CJON radio (now CJYQ), applied for and received a licence for the first television station in Newfoundland. Newfoundland Broadcasting was jointly owned by Geoff Stirling and Don Jamieson. The station went on the air later that year on September 6, as a CBC Television affiliate. It was Newfoundland and Labrador's first television station, and remains the province's only privately owned television station to this day. Stirling has contended that his was the only group willing to invest in such a station, although other sources have suggested that Stirling and Jamieson used their political connections to prevent the CBC from opening its own station in Newfoundland first. This scenario is somewhat unlikely because until 1958, the CBC was both the primary broadcast regulator in Canada and a broadcaster in its own right, the former role taken over in 1958 by the independent Board of Broadcast Governors (the forerunner of the CRTC). However, the CBC-owned CBYT in Corner Brook launched soon after, in 1959. When it began operations, CJON's first studios and offices were located at the Prince of Wales Building in Buckmaster's Circle and the transmitter on Kenmount Road.

In any event, the CBC launched CBNT-TV in 1964, and CJON became an affiliate of the new CTV network. During the mid-1970s, it was known as NBC, for the "Newfoundland Broadcasting Company", until 1978 when WLBZ, the Bangor affiliate of the U.S.-based National Broadcasting Company, became available on cable (to be replaced later by WDIV-TV from Detroit, then WHDH from Boston and eventually WBTS-LD/CD also from Boston). To avoid confusion, CJON was rebranded as NTV, although as late as August 1978, the Newfoundland Herald's TV listings continued to refer to NTV as NBC, including listing the local newscasts under the title NBC News.

In 1972, CJON became one of the first television stations in Canada, if not the first, to broadcast around the clock every night. In 1977, Stirling and Jamieson unwound their partnership, with Jamieson taking the AM radio stations, with CJON radio being renamed CJYQ. In later years, many of the AM stations were eventually sold, and in several cases shut down. Stirling kept NTV and the newly launched station CHOZ-FM. 1983 saw CJON and CHOZ's operations move to their present building on Logy Bay Road, with a new transmitter on the South Side Hills.

## Programming

Until the fall of 1992, CTV programming made up a clear majority of NTV's schedule, although acquired programming from CanWest Global and others was present. However, from 1992 on, when CTV reduced its programming to 40 hours per week, NTV suddenly became much more reliant on other broadcasters, primarily CanWest (which owns the Canadian rights to many dominant programs such as The Simpsons), but also BBS and Corus. Instead of relying on any one group, it airs what it considers the best programming from all the groups.

During this period, and indeed well before, NTV consistently airs 4½ hours of prime time programming each night, a great deal of them being American imports, from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. NT (11:00 p.m. ET), as opposed to the North American norm of three hours. In fact, in 1995–96, first-run prime time programming began at 7:30 p.m. and ran until 12:30 a.m. Although the net result was less than the mandated 50% Canadian content between 6:00 p.m. and midnight, this was not deemed to violate Cancon regulations as CTV National News did not feed an 11:00 p.m. AT edition until 1997, although the practice is maintained without CRTC complaint.

### News operation

CJON presently broadcasts 16 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 2½ hours each weekday and one hour on Sundays); the station does not broadcast any news programs on Saturdays.

It has frequently been promoted as "the award-winning NTV Evening Newshour", in reference to a RTNDA Canada "Best Newscast – Medium Market" award from 1998 (for a newscast aired in 1997), and several other awards for individual reports received since (overall, CBNT has won more RTNDA and AJA awards over the same period, and is the most recent area station to have won an RTNDA Best Newscast award, winning in 2009.

NTV's newscasts are also seen on at least one television station in the United States—WZRA-CD (channel 48), an ethnic station in Tampa, Florida, has regularly carried NTV's newscasts as well as select CTV programming. In fact, NTV's website promotes the fact that NTV advertisers can reach Tampa viewers through WZRA, although the station's signal is only received well in northwestern parts of Tampa (WZRA is licensed to Oldsmar, Florida, a northwestern suburb of Tampa).

#### Newscast schedule

Weekdays:

* 12:00pm-12:30pm NTV Newsday
* 5:30pm-6:00pm NTV News: First Edition
* 6:00pm-7:00pm NTV Evening Newshour
* 12:30am-1:00am NTV News Late Night

Sundays:

* 6:00pm-7:00pm NTV Sunday Evening Newshour

## Technical information

### Subchannels

In a rarity for a Canadian television station, CJON's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of CJON-DT
 21.2

### Analog-to-digital conversion

In May 2011, CJON announced plans to broadcast in digital and in high definition. The analog transmitter serving the St. John's viewing area was shut off on the morning of July 11, 2011, in order to facilitate installation of the new digital HD transmitter. CJON began transmitting its digital signal on August 3, 2011, broadcasting on UHF channel 21. CJON has opted to use channel 21, its actual digital channel, as its PSIP, instead of channel 6, its former analog channel.

### Retransmitters

NTV's other transmitters (not including community-owned rebroadcasters) are:

* CJCN-TV Norris Arm/Gander (channel 4)
* CJCV-TV Clarenville (channel 11)
* CJLN-TV Lawn (channel 10)
* CJLW-TV Deer Lake (channel 8)
* CJMA-TV Marystown (channel 11)
* CJOM-TV Argentia (channel 3)
* CJON-TV-4 Bay Bulls (channel 10)
* CJOX-TV-1 Grand Bank (channel 2)
* CJRR-TV Red Rocks (channel 11)
* CJSC-TV Swift Current (channel 10)
* CJSG-TV Glenwood (channel 7)
* CJST-TV St. Alban’s (channel 13)
* CJSV-TV Stephenville (channel 4)
* CJWB-TV Bonavista (channel 10)
* CJWN-TV Corner Brook (channel 10)